Here're some insights and observations of the Spikes Asia Creativity Festival 2013. I attended the Spikes Asia Young Marketer Academy this year, it was a truly fruitful and inspiring experience which triggered me to organise my thoughts and gather all the amazing stories together in one deck. And crazy enough, I also started a blog - creativecurations.wordpress.com, which is still at the infant stage and looking insanely ugly at the moment, but the whole purpose was to bring these inspirations forward, to explore further, dig deeper and think bigger, writing seems to be the most effective way to do it. So this deck and my blog are completely dedicated to my own learning, but if occasionally someone finds them an interesting read, I'll be over the moon.

1. Spikes Asia 2013 Highlights
Twitter / @wooelva

2. As the Spikes Young Marketer Academy was a great source of information and
inspirations, I decided to start capturing these amazing stories, and hoped to use
my notes to inspire further learning. These are some highlights, hope you find it an
interesting read.

3. The Young Marketer Academy

4. Opening Note by Joe Talcott, Mentor of the Young Marketer Academy
“if youth only knew,
if age only could!”
“Si juenesse savait,
si vieillesse pouvait”

5. Joe Talcott on Creative Thinking
An idea is a new combination of some old elements.
The missing ingredient to unlock our creative brain is space
– give yourselves the space and time to think and create.

6. Keith Reinhard, Chairman of DDB
on Creativity Matters
As great advertising is more often the result of
great clients than great agencies.
So what make us great clients?

7. “Great advertising
is more often the
result of great
clients than of
great agencies.”
- Bill Bernbach
Great Clients go with their gut
Great clients are suspicious of rules
Great clients expect the unexpected
Great clients are willing to take risks
Great clients create great relationships
Great clients bring us a business problem
Great clients know the difference between telling
and selling
Great clients know that all sales are made at least
partly in the heart

8. According to Gunn Report…
“Creatively-awarded campaigns are 11
times more efficient than non-awarded
ones in terms of the level of market share
growth they drive per point of ESOV.”
Source: http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.1372

9. “Creativity comes from chaos. Only when
you encounter roadblocks and difficulties
you will then start finding alternatives.”
The most amazing conversation ever
had, most inspiring presentation ever
seen, all my respect to Jose Miguel
Sokoloff.
Jury President Jose Miguel Sokoloff
Jose came to our class and talked about
the wisdom behind Operations Christmas
and the history of guerilla in Columbia.

10. The three ads that inspire Jose Miguel Sokoloff
#WalksOfShame - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwxTf7NGVXg
Forever Young, Pepsi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loXgFlp8Z1s
The Call of Duty: There’s a soldier in all of us.” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pblj3JHF-Jo

11. Fascinating „Jobs to be Done‟ Theory by Clayton Christensen.
Hyper Island talked about how to convert brands to a
problem solving tool.

12. The session made me think, brands and products are no longer just competing within the
same category, but also across categories because both a cup of coffee and going to
the gym could get the same job done, say to give you energy to launch your day. So the
product does a better job wins. A very interesting perspective.

13. Rupen Desai, President, Lowe Asia Pacific
- Do well by Doing Good

14. Be genuine and honest about your brand value and associate it with the right cause.
The social value genuinely embedded in your brand directly triggers action of purchase, which
brings commercial value to your business, as the value of business increases, the greater the
investment they can make to the cause.

15. “ Disillusionment is pervasive
in our industry.”
- Alex Bogusky
Alex Bogusky, and his agency Common also inspired me to investigate further
on how collaboration can help make this world a better place.

16. An interesting note by Joe Talcott to close off our Young Marketer Academy...
“No * is allowed in our ads [at McDonald’s].
Tell the truth, and find an interesting way to say it.”

17. The Seminars

18. The art of harmony and balance – an impossibly ridiculous balancing act with 14 palm branches
and a feather, Sanddornbalance performed by Miyoko Shida
What amazed me was that, when the artist took away the lightest feather, the entire structure
lost its balance and collapsed. It made me think of how an organization, even this world
functions - every one of us plays a significant role contributing to the heath of a company and
the society.
Watch Miyoko Shida‟s performance on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MiyokoShida

19. Emma Montgomery
Global Product Director
SMG Human Experience
Centre, Starcom MediaVest
Why Storydoing is the Next
Chapter of Storytelling
This is my favourite seminar for
Day 1 Spikes Asia ‟13.
Remarkably insightful
presentation.

20. Millennial expression today is about showing instead of telling.
Images and visual platforms have become central to an experience exchange between young
people.
Every visual story is crafted to solicit a desired response, so design your campaign for reactions.
Brands should create opportunities and context for people to tell a story.
Milley Cyrus was an example how story can be re-told by thousands as the event happened.
An event is the start of story telling. Create opportunity for people to collaborate with you to
remake the story.
Some Key Points from Emma‟s Preso
Thanks to the courtesy of the presenter - Emma, the original slides will be discussed further in my blog. A really insightful research.

21. Lowe + Partners on social
responsibilities
Brands should create social missions
that have a long lasting value by
resolving real life problems - the Life
Buoy Hand Wash Help a Child Reach
5 campaign is a genuine
demonstration of this value
proposition.
Check out the ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-g4sDF_5M

22. Leo Burnett on Leading Change
and Creating Trends
Whilst we marketers keep talking
about rejuvenating our brand
and being creative, 95% of our
time is spent in the office – we
are LITERALLY disconnected
from the world.
We shall all go out and do some
„Trend Walks‟ like Leos and be
inspired.

23. Bates Chi & Partners - How to Produce
Remarkable Global Creative Work
Find that ONE big human truth or single
minded product truth‟ that applies across
markets and aggregate your global budget
to create something spectacular for your
brand.

24. Rei Inamoto on The End of
Advertising
Pretty provocative topic, but the
idea is remarkable – brands could
no longer rely on telling a story to
solve their business problem, but
rather, they shall be constantly
evolving, riding the
waves, leading the
trends, creating disruptive business
ideas and business models to
maintain their competitive
advantage.

25. Rei Inamoto also touched on failure.
Surprisingly people are more interested
in knowing about failure than
success, as suggested by the smartest
engine in the world – Google.
Optimism was the key to deal with
failures and ultimately obtain success.
“I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000
ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A.
Edison

26. Hakuhodo on the New Potential for Advertising Agencies

27. An inspiring business model adopted by Hakuhodo – agencies should go beyond the border
line of advertising, go try new things, help transform your client products and make them
remarkable social objects that people would naturally talk about. Their business model requires
vast talents, that‟s why Hakuhodo has industrial designers, architects etc in-house to support
their „advertising‟.

28. Highlight – Jose Miguel Sokoloff on the follow-up campaigns after Operations Christmas.

29. “ Not only did this campaign bring the guerrillas home,
it also made my soldiers proud. ”
The commander supported Operations Christmas passed away recently on a mission.
Respect to him, here‟s the full video of Operations Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODTTz3ayCk

30. The other three follow-up campaigns are equally inspiring as Operations Christmas
Operations Bethlehem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwxTf7NGVXg
Operations River of Lights - http://www.loweandpartners.com/our-work/rivers-of-light/
And also The Chance Campaign…

31. What‟s the challenge after demobilisation? Reinsertion. The Chance Campaign forges
collaboration between Columbian fashion designers and demobilised guerillas, who are given an
opportunity to become self-sufficient by running their own fashion brand.

32. “I hope one day we don’t have to run these campaigns any
more, because it’ll mean my country can finally live in peace.”
– Jose Miguel Sokoloff

33. Some Brilliant Quotes

34. Design [your campaign and content] for reactions.
Talk to the consumers, advertise to humans.
No *. Tell the truth, and find a way to say it in an interesting way.
Creativity comes from chaos, only when you encounter roadblocks, you‟ll go find alternatives.
Ask yourself – what‟s good in your brand?
Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.
Keep learning as if you‟ll live forever. Live as if you‟ll die tomorrow.
Don‟t be obsessed with the (advertising) tools, but focus on the idea.
Advertising does not help resolve the business problem. We need to innovate our business models.
There‟s no more prime time, it‟s all „my time‟ now. Understand your customers‟ behaviour and bring
your brand in front of them at the right time.
They Might not be 100% accurate, some modifications might have applied. Authors please feel free to PM me via twitter so I can correct them. Or, I‟d be
thrilled if you‟d like to send me your original slides, so this deck will look a lot better.

35. Some Pretty Crazy Thoughts

36. So taking away all these inspirations, I started a blog – Creative Curations, a blog
dedicated to stimulating and enhancing my learning by exploring further and
digging deeper into these inspiring stories.
Here it is: www.creativecurations.wordpress.com
(WARNING: it still looks insanely ugly now…)

37. Besides that, here‟s some extra fun I captured from the spikes…

38. Some Brilliant Print Ads

39. Innocence can be dangerous.Instant translation.

40. Audio Book

41. Speak like a native.

42. Liking is not helping.

43. Dogs cure depression. Adopt one.

44. Separate them.

45. No more blind spot. 360 degree city.

46. Supa Glue

47. Some Brilliant Campaigns/Case Studies

54. Some Awesome Freebies

55. Undie that makes your
ideas sexier.

56. The flipbook of a 7
second video.

57. The Spikes was a truly inspiring experience for
me as a young marketer. It helped ignite my
commitment to a long term learning journey.
If you‟ve got a minute to spare, check out
my blog:
www.creativecurations.wordpress.com
Tweet me @wooelva if you‟ve got any
feedback!