Jean-Marie Dru, Chairman of TBWA\Worldwide, is the Jury President for the first ever Creative Effectiveness Lion at Cannes this month. Here he talks about his role.

You’ve attended Cannes a few times now. How much has it changed?

I’ve only missed one Festival since first attending back in 1973. At that time, it was not as prestigious and impactful as it is today. The Americans participated with only a few entries and the Festival was primarily European. Only creatives used to attend. “Creativity” was not really a popular subject among clients, who saw it as a means for agencies to talk among themselves, in their own self-indulgent language. Today it’s very different. Last year at Cannes, there were more people attending from some of the big multinational clients than there were delegates from our network, TBWA. In forty years, Cannes has become everyone’s business.

Now you’re Jury President for the first ever Creative Effectiveness Lion. Is this proof that the debate about creativity and effectiveness has been settled at last?

Creativity sells. But from now on, with the Effectiveness Lions, advertising will be judged on tangible evidence. Our panel will evaluate campaign results in a factual way. ROI will enter into the language of Cannes.

Surely there’s more to effectiveness than numbers?

Don’t forget we’re talking here about “creative effectiveness”. A message that sells, but that is not based on a fresh or breakthrough idea is unlikely to attract our interest. Because Cannes aims first and foremost to reward efficiency achieved through creativity. It should make for some lively debates with my fellow jury members.

How has the digital era changed notions of effectiveness?

Younger generations show interest only in messages that engage them. Otherwise, they just ignore them, or zap. Creativity is no longer optional, it has become recognised as being essential.

If anybody out there is hesitating about coming to Cannes, what would you say to convince them?

It took years for the idea of creativity to become accepted as a source of effectiveness. Cannes has participated in raising that awareness. This is the place where we can see the things that will pave the way forward for our industry; it’s where we can keep ourselves on top of the emerging creative trends, and it’s where we feel the pulse of our industry.

Co-founder and founding editor of Fast Company magazine, Bill Taylor is the author of a new book about disruptive businesses. He took time out from a tour of TBWA offices to talk to us.

How did the book come about?

To a certain extent it was provoked by nostalgia. Fifteen years ago, when we founded Fast Company, we organized a meeting based around the premise “How do you overthrow successful companies?” The participants weren’t young dotcoms, but companies that were already large and successful, and wanted to consider ways of engaging with the exciting new landscape that was emerging around them. It struck me that you could organize the same meeting today and ask exactly the same question. The book is an attempt to answer it.

What for you then is the key to success? Is it enough to be disruptive?

It’s no longer enough to be pretty good at a lot of things. You goal should be excellence in a chosen field. The most local, the most global, the most exclusive…the point is to stand for something. Too many leaders want to stay in the middle of the road, which is the road to nowhere.

Thanks to the digital revolution, we live in an age of transparency. Do you find that the most disruptive companies are also the most authentic?

It’s certainly true that you can’t behave one way in the marketplace and another way internally. Your brand must be a reflection of your culture. In that context, your hiring policy and the way you treat your employees becomes vitally important. I’d even say that the “power couple” in this new environment are the marketers and human resources department, because your talent strategy and your brand strategy must be in synch.

Can you give a concrete example of this?

One of my favourite brands in the US is Zappos.com. In just ten years it has become an iconic brand, by doing something is banal as selling shoes on line. The way it uses customer service, performance and theatricality to make technology more human is outstanding. A lot of this is based on its hiring strategy. When you join the company, you embark on a five week training period. Then they offer you 5000 dollars to quit. It’s a way of acknowledging that the company isn’t for everyone, while ensuring that only those who are truly committed to the brand stay on. That’s just one of the reasons why it’s become a passion brand of the highest order. The staff believes in it as well as the customers.

Is being “practically radical” – or “disruptive” as TBWA would call it – essentially about taking risks?

During my research, I unearthed an academic study that identified two different forms of risk-taking. The first might be termed “sinking the boat”: taking a risk that didn’t work. But the second is “missing the boat”: failing to take a risk that might have worked. Too many leaders fail to innovate because they’re afraid of sinking the boat.

In advertising, there’s sometimes a feeling that originality requires big budgets. How do you feel about that?

If you look at any truly creative organization, it’s not about how deep their pockets are, but how original their ideas are. Once again, that stems from their people. And by the way, these people don’t have to work FOR you. It’s enough that they work WITH you. You need to find people who excel in their field and get them involved. It’s the team that counts – I’m a firm believer that you’re never as smart alone as you are together.

Having said that, there is an element of self-help to your book. Can individuals apply your ideas to themselves?

Absolutely. In the last third of the book I talk about how to become a high-impact individual in your field. Just like brands, we should all consider what we stand for and what legacy we want to leave.

TBWA is famous for its work with brands such as Apple and Pedigree. How do they fit in with the theme of your book?

For me, the key to Apple is that it decided that it was not going to be a company that introduced new electronic devices, but one that reshaped what was possible. It doesn’t allow what is currently known about technology to limit its imagination. Instead, it imagines the impossible and then endeavours to make it happen. It’s the ultimate example of starting with a blank sheet of paper.

Pedigree is a completely different example in that it’s a company with a long history. The temptation in this case is to disavow your past in order to carve out a new future. Instead, Pedigree rediscovered and reinterpreted its heritage. The company was started by people who genuinely loved dogs, but somehow over the years that message had gotten watered down.  All large but somewhat stodgy companies were based on an original innovative idea. Sometimes you need to go back to that idea in order to reinvigorate your business. Never be afraid to seek inspiration in your past.

Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry and Challenge Yourself, is published by William Morrow & Company.

For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.

Our final round-up of sites that make the web an easier place to be, adapted from the Small But Perfectly Formed selection published in Contagious 26.

5. Paper.li

Swamped by social media? Terrorized by Twitter? Fed up with Facebook? Paper.li can solve the problem. It allows users to create personalized newspapers based on the links shared on social media.

To make your paper, chose from a list of predetermined sections such as technology, arts and entertainment or business news. Paper.li filters your social media streams by subject rather than chronological order, plopping stories neatly into their relevant sections. Then you simply browse your paper on your desktop, all the non-relevant links swept away. You can also create an amusing title for your newspaper and share it with others (if they’re not already overloaded, of course).

Paper.li is the latest and one of the most efficient among new services that are turning us all into instant publishers.

Read part one and part two.

Conclusion: The sites prove that there is a marked trend toward cutting through the clutter and delivering a web attuned to personal tastes and desires. This was inevitable, as the cacophony of social and traditional media was becoming too much for any normal human to handle. Brands should bear this in mind: if they just add to the clutter, rather than helping consumers manage it, they may find themselves on the wrong side of the filtering process.

Mad Blog continues its round-up of sites that make the web an easier place to be, adapted from the Small But Perfectly Formed selection by Contagious.

3. Gripe

In the pre-digital era, when shops or companies treated customers badly, only the victim’s immediate family and friends heard about it. Now, a complaint can spread across social media like wildfire. Remember “United breaks guitars”, a YouTube song by a disgruntled musician who blamed the airline for wrecking his guitar? It attracted 150,000 views in one day.

Gripe makes that kind of firepower available to everyone. Just download the Gripe app, search for the company you wish to criticise, then add your complaint – or praise, as the app includes both “gripe” and “cheer” buttons. Companies can log in to track their progress and address the gripes, with the aim of converting them into cheers.
www.gri.pe

4. Equipio.com

People who enjoy social media aren’t just geeks glued to their screens. They’re sports fanatics too – and Equipio is aimed at them. Its slogan “What’s in your sports bag?” pretty much sums up what it does.

By clicking on a list of sports professionals, users can find out what equipment the pros use and then buy it online, from the latest England rugby shirt to Roger Federer’s racket. They can also get in touch with fellow users and exchange information about their favourite gear. Equipio constantly rounds up the most popular items and curates reviews from all over the web, including Twitter. When buyers are ready to spend, it links them to the appropriate online shopping site. Sports brands naturally love the site and are keen sponsors.
www.equipio.com

Read part 1

One of Mad Blog’s favourite reads, Contagious, has identified an interesting trend in the latest edition of its Small But Perfectly Formed survey. Faced with a wealth of information, it says, consumers are relying on “trusted filters” to provide them with the stuff they really need to know – whether it’s the greatest gigs, the best bargains or the essential news from social media.

SBPF is a regular round-up of start-ups or companies that “punch above their weight”. This time, Contagious identifies five filters that we should all be aware of. We’ve re-filtered them for your reading pleasure and divided them into three espresso-sized posts.

1. Songkick

Ever felt the urge to see some live music, but had no idea who’s playing? This UK and US service was founded by three friends who were fed up with trawling the web to find a gig worth seeing. They discovered that 40% of concert tickets went unsold, purely because music fans didn’t even know they were available.

Users of the service provide a list of their favourite artists. Songkick gathers data from more than 100 ticketing sites and alerts users when a gig matches their favourites. The alert comes with a link to the ticket vendor. Songkick takes a commission from the resulting sale. Obviously, it rocks.
www.songkick.com

2. Nuji

There are many ways of finding a bargain on the web, but few of them are as simple as Nuji.

When you’re out and about in the world, you see an object you might like to buy. Using an app on your phone, you take a picture of the product and add it to the wish list on your Nuji profile. Then wait to be alerted about special offers concerning your desired object. You can also browse other members’ selections and share your wish list on Facebook Connect. It’s an online shopping site with a mobile heart and a social soul.
www.nuji.com

We all know that sustainability is a good idea, but shouldn’t it became a movement? Have no fear – “sustainism” is here. The word was coined by Michael Schwartz and Joost Elffers (respectively a cultural theorist and a designer) for their new book Sustainism is the New Modernism, which we highly recommend, if only to look cool on the metro.

Subtitled A Cultural Manifesto for the Sustainist Era, the book is mainly about design, even proposing a logo for the movement, but it could just as easily be adapted to commercial messages.

So what exactly is sustainism? A recent article in the International Herald Tribune gave us this handy précis. Sustainism needs to be: “ethically and environmentally responsible; socially and geographically inclusive; collaborative; networked; sensitive to nature; and savvy enough to make the most of: a) leaps in technology, and b) both globalism and localism.”

Sounds like a plan.

Mark Tungate

Check New York Times

2010 was the year mobile connected the world. With stunning statistics, facts, and visual cues, this video takes a tour of key consumer and technology mobile trends across an eventful year. Some highlights of the video include:

Massive increase in apps downloaded:

- FIVE BILLION apps downloaded – up from 300 million in 2009

Whopping expansion of location-based services

- FIVE MILLION Foursquare users — up from 200,000 users in 2009

Surge in mobile social media platforms

- 347 PERCENT growth in Twitter mobile usage

- 200 MILLION mobile Facebook Users

- 100 MILLION YouTube videos played on mobile devices everyday

(Source: Mobile Future)

Every minute millions of actions take place on Facebook. Here are some notable numbers collected by Time.