#Loeries2018: "Don't get stuck in your advertising filter bubble" - Ian Mackenzie
Loeries Creative Week is once again taking place in Durban, with the four international jury presidents set to guide over 160 judges in selecting the best of brand communication from across Africa and the Middle East.
This year’s international jury presidents for the Loeries will head up key jury panels and are also part of the speaker lineup for this year’s DStv Seminar of Creativity, an annual highlight of Loeries Creative Week.
Mackenzie’s session is one to watch for as his work has earned more than 100 international awards for creativity and effectiveness, including the One Show, D&AD, Clios, Webby Awards 17 Cannes Lions.
Speaking of the Cannes Lions, Mackenzie has been at the helm of such eye-catching creative work as the Destination Pride project for PFLAG Canada, the most awarded Canadian campaign at the 2018 Cannes Lions and second-most awarded campaign in Canadian history.
If that’s not enough to pique your interest, Mackenzie is also co-creator and writer of the “Our Food. Your Questions” radical transparency platform for McDonald’s – it started in Canada, then rolled out globally.
Who better as Loeries2018’s integrated campaign, print and out of home (OOH) and print and out of home crafts jury president, then?
Loeries CEO Andrew Human says that the Loeries’ jury presidents are selected from the world’s top creative, as the Loeries is globally recognised:
We have jury presidents who represent the creative diversity of three continents and four countries. Each is a leader in their fields and cover the range of film, radio, digital, out of home, print and design sub-sectors of the advertising and brand communication industry.Here, Mackenzie lets us in on his judging expectations, his unforgettable experiences in this part of Africa before, and what he’s expecting from this year’s integrated, print, OOH and print and OOH craft entries…
Congratulations on being appointed as jury president for the Loeries! What does this mean to you personally?
Thank you. It’s huge. Anyone working in advertising today would be honoured to be a jury president at the Loeries.
For me, it’s a great opportunity to collect my thoughts on creative advertising and put it in service of an international jury. It’s a big responsibility.
If we get it right, we’ll be part of capturing and signalling industry trends – while making career-defining decisions for the winners. Ultimately, it’s a big chance to learn.
Have you been to South Africa before? If not, share what you’ve heard about our country and continent.
This is my first time! I hear good things. I hear Africa is huge and defies generalisation. I hear South Africa is stunning and full of great people. I hear the region is struggling with some ongoing social and environmental issues. I hear ‘South Africa in January’ makes an uncanny production stand-in for ‘Canada in July’.
And I hear it’s far. 13,805 km from Toronto to Durban, as the crow flies. I want to see that crow!
So do we! What are you most looking forward to from the 2018 Loeries judging experience and Creative Week?
The people. One of the unfortunate things that can happen to you in advertising is getting stuck in your filter bubbles. Where you consume the same art and culture and ads as the people at the other shops. But imagine you could fly 13,000 km around the world to talk about ideas and craft with people who do the same job but in an entirely different market.
Which parts of the business are universal? Which parts are regional? What does the best of the best look like over here? I’m excited to see.
You’ll also speak at the DStv Seminar of Creativity during Creative Week, share the essence of what attendees can expect.
My presentation is called, “How ideas work.” Here’s the premise:
If you want to have good ideas if you want to have them often, and you want them to scale, it probably makes sense to look at the systems that underpin them. This presentation is my attempt to put together a few years of thinking on the topic.Including: What is an idea? What’s common to the good ones? Is there a recipe? Is digital fundamentally more tactical than mass? I also want to challenge some conventional thinking about capital “C” advertising creative, including “Big Ideas” and trucker hats.
I’m looking forward to it already. Lastly, what’s the biggest trend in advertising that you expect to see from this year’s entries, across the various genres?
OOH trend: Purist versus Innovators.
OOH is always a purist playground. A few words of copy. The perfect image. We saw beautiful purist OOH win big at Cannes this year.
McDonald’s “Follow the Arches” comes to mind. We also saw Budweiser hack all three of OOH, digital and global licensing agreements with its genius “Tag Words.”
Curious to see if the polarisation continues.
Print trend: Client bravery and craft.
KFC’s “FCK” is a new high-water mark in client bravery. What other clients have risen to that challenge in print?
And of course, there’s always tons of great craft in this category. Can’t wait to see it.
Integrated trend: Work that makes the most of every channel, versus just running down a checklist of media placements. Pedigree’s “Selfie stix” comes to mind.
Everything they added to the core idea made it better, and more effective.
Lots to look forward to. Keep an eye on our Loeries special section for the latest updates and live coverage of the 40th annual Loerie Awards in Loeries Creative Week Durban, taking place from 16 to 19 August 2018. You can also follow Mackenzie on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter or visit his website.
About Leigh Andrews
Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
