AWARD’s This Way Up – Festival of Creativity, a curated program designed to inspire creatives about the limitless possibilities of their craft, returns in 2024, showcasing the best and brightest of Australian creatives.
This year’s festival was opened by Aunty Joan Bell, board member of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.
She thanked the country and welcomed those present. In her opening remarks, she called on those present to treat each other and the country with love and respect.
The warm welcome was followed by Damon Stapleton, founder and CCO of The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, who attempted to answer the question: “What the hell is creativity?”
He immediately captured the audience’s attention with stories of suffering and triumph, a few inaccurate statistics, accompanied by beautiful drawings by his wife and many possible answers to the question posed at the beginning.
Damon presented work he was proud of, as well as work he had not created himself, to show that creativity has a million different possibilities. It can bring about change, fuel an idea and demonstrate the need to open minds and hearts.
He talked about the subjectivity of creativity and how it can’t be defined with a few simple words. This observation contributed to the ongoing industry discussion about how to evaluate creativity. Damon originally answered his question with a quote from Albert Einstein: “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
While that’s a good definition, it wasn’t enough for Damon. He continued to emphasize that actions speak louder than words. He spoke about the recent Cannes Lion Awards and the moment an older creative won the most prestigious award. He took the stage and asked the audience, “What happens when the snow melts?” To which many people shouted “water” in response. He paused and said, “No, spring is happening.”
It was this definition of creativity that felt right to Damon as he concluded his talk with this statement, asking the audience to talk less and create more.
The second panel was moderated by Lea Walker, Founder of Mrs Walker, and included Dave Bowman, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Groupe AU & NZ, Tara McKenty, Head of Innovation and Co-ECD at BMF, Matty Burton, Group Chief Creative Officer at DDB Group Aotearoa, and Steve Coll, Chief Creative Officer at M&C Saatchi.
The panel focused on those returning to the advertising industry after time at giant tech companies like Google and Meta. Lea asked the probing question the audience all wanted to know: “Why did you return?” Each panelist spoke about their individual experience working in a different industry while maintaining their creativity.
Dave, Tara, Matty and Steve talked about what they have learned along the way and what it means for their future careers in the creative industries.
The day continued with Toby Hemming from LBB moderating the panel ‘The Work Behind the Work’ with Barb Humphries, ECD of The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, Michael Ritchie, MD at Revolver, Russel Fox, CD at M&C Saatchi and Daniel Borghesi, Senior Copywriter at M&C Saatchi.
Russel and Daniel spoke about their recent work, The Plastic Forecast, which they created for the Minderoo Foundation, while Barb and Michael spoke about Play It Safe, marking the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House.
Russel and Daniel addressed the need to reach the right audiences to improve the forecast. They wanted to get the forecast on weather channels across France. They achieved this through their determination and creative problem solving.
Barb and Michael talked about the chaotic journey that came with a deadline and a million different touch points. With a budget that was lower than planned, a schedule that was terribly tight and Tim Minchin disappearing for six weeks to write the now iconic song “Play It Safe”, the spectacular film almost never saw the light of day.
Each team spoke about the challenges they faced during the creative process and how they overcame them, from not being able to broadcast the weather forecast into the sky because air traffic control refused to allow it, to shortening an eight-day shoot to four days.
The final session of the day was led by Chaka Sobhani, President and Global Chief Creative Officer at DDB. In the talk titled “Bring on the Feels: How Brands Can Capture Emotion, Feeling and Heart in the Connection Crisis,” Chaka explored her first love, television, and talked about the techniques brands use to evoke feelings in audiences and how important that is to creativity.
This Way Up is back tomorrow with more informative sessions and presentations of some brilliant work.
