Five Reasons For Young PR Lions To Roar At Cannes

David Gallagher

“Every agency I know claim its talent is what best differentiates it from the others.  Can they all be right?”
David Gallagher, ICCO President; CEO, Ketchum Europe, Middle East and Africa
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After a smash debut of the Young PR Lions competition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last year, ICCO is proud to again serve as the global sponsor as part of our mission to showcase the creative power and competitive advantage of PR consultancy to marketers worldwide.

Not for the faint of heart, the contests pits 30 or so teams of two PR young (under age 28) professionals to devise and present a PR strategy – in 24 hours – against a specific communications challenge. Their solutions are judged by a panel of global agency experts on creativity, strategy and general smartness, and the winners take home a coveted gold, silver or bronze Cannes Lion.

Getting to the Cannes competition itself is a major feat. Competing teams must first beat out the best of their national markets in competitions organised by Cannes Lions festival representatives and the national PR associations that are members of ICCO.

As a judge in the 2014 UK competition and as jury president for the wider PR competition at Cannes in 2013, I can assure you: this ain’t easy.

But it’s well worth the effort. Here’s why:

  1. Do it for your country. The inaugural competition in 2014 saw teams from Japan, the UK and Austria (yay, they were from the agency I work for, Ketchum) take home Lions, proving that wining ideas don’t have to come from giant countries, and that creativity knows no bounds.
  2. Do it for your agency. Every agency I know claim its talent is what best differentiates it from the others. Can they all be right? Those who compete in Cannes certainly stand out, and those that win, shine very brightly.
  3. Do it for PR. Let’s be honest – we are in a fight to attract the best and brightest to the wonderful field of PR. What better way to show off than to showcase our unique and strategic approach to communications problem-solving?
  4. Do it for a good cause. Most of the national competitions and the global finale in Cannes are organised around a client, usually from the non-profit community, looking for creative help to solve a specific challenge. Many activate the winning idea – and what a great feeling to see your brainchild serve a worthy organisation.
  5. Do it for your career. I can’t guarantee a promotion or job offers, but I can say with confidence that few things pop on a CV like a Cannes Lions. And the fact that this competition, unlike the wider PR campaign contest, is about you and your wits, rather than a project, is unlike any other in calling out your rock-star qualities.

Interested? Enter the UK National competition here http://www.prca.org.uk/YoungLionsPRCompetition

Follow @ICCOpr on Twitter #WeLovePR or this blog fo more updates.

Hope to see you in Cannes!

David Gallagher

President, ICCO

CEO, Ketchum Europe, Middle East and Africa

When in Delhi, explain progress and set out your plans!

Blog post by Francis Ingham, ICCO Chief Executive

Last week, ICCO hosted its annual Global Summit in New Delhi. ICCO is the voice of PR agencies around the world, with 30 Associations representing nearly 2,000 agencies. And since January of last year, the PRCA has had the pleasure of running ICCO’s secretariat, with Ketchum’s Senior Partner, David Gallagher FPRCA, now ICCO’s President.

Opening the Summit, I was able to give attendees an update on ICCO’s progress; and an insight into our plans for the year, grouped around six ICCO responsibilities.

1. Representing the global PR community. Progress:another Association welcomed into membership (NASO Kazakhstan), taking our total to 30. Plans: a major expansion programme, built around a new regional structure, agreed at the previous day’s Board meeting.

2. Showcasing the best of international PR. Progress: representing PR at Cannes for the first time earlier this year, and running the Young PR Lions competition. Plans: we’re going to launch the ICCO Global PR Awards, drawing on the very best from every established PR market around the world.

3. Improving standards. Progress: our ground-breaking evaluation guide with AMEC, setting common standards of evaluation in 30 ICCO countries. Plans: we’re going to do the same with social media guidance.

4. Spreading knowledge. Progress: our World Report and Quarterly Barometers set the gold standard of market intelligence. Plans:we’re expanding both to include more detail from further sectors of the market, and with a growing international reach.

5. Professionalising practice. Progress: our ICCO/UK PRCA training is being taken up in more and more countries. Plans: we’re about to launch an online version of CMS, making it easier than ever to test agencies against rigorous, independent standards.

6. Facilitating international networking. Progress: well, it spoke for itself. 200 senior PR practitioners, meeting in Delhi, having come from over 30 countries. Plans: regional events, based around a new structure.

And as for the Summit itself? A stunning success organised by my inimitable colleague Anastasia Tole (nee Demidova). Photos and presentations here. Roll on Milano next year!

 

A New Kind of Change Management

Guest blog post by Sharif D. Rangnekar, President, PRCAI

Public relations as an industry in India, is sitting in a place it has never been – a place of significant recognition and power. While the power of PR has not always been captured by measurement tools given the intangible nature of reputation and crisis management, it is apparent that our discipline has an important place to play in this ever-changing country.

The mammoth elections this year is a clear indication of what PR, in its most defined form of stakeholder identification, messaging, story-telling and analytics, can do. We all know by now that the BJP captured the imagination of Indians through these means. They used listening tools (both conventional and modern), focused on messages and told stories that resonated with the aspirations and moods of the people. The fact that the Prime Ministerial candidate and now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, picked different narratives for each audience keeping ‘hope’ as the core message, was testimony to how great PR can be.

The basics of PR suggest that one needs to have a ‘product’ to ‘sell’ even if it is an idea or a dream. And this ‘product’ must be seen to fill in for what is missing or should create a ‘need’ that people did not recognize until then. The BJP grasped this well whereas the Congress failed to realize that and attempted to sell something that had lost its shelf life and was ‘not needed’. The transition and switch in mood took shape primarily as the BJP campaign reached a high pitch and later when the results came out, creating what is now being seen as  a ‘newness’. There is optimism and a movement of change in the nation and these changes, even if not overt, are worth taking note of.

The current government – particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office (PMO) – have taken steps that are seen as modern, youthful and progressive. The PM and his immediate team often communicate through twitter. This is unique in itself for an India that has usually seen political leaders engaging through traditional media, rallies and visits to constituencies closer to elections. Additionally, the PMO has also laid down guidelines for its ministers on communicating with the media. This would sound familiar to people in PR who know the importance of communication guidelines that are aimed at creating one voice and clarity over desonance and confusion. These steps are being complimented with a new department called ‘digital diplomacy’, adding to the idea of progression, connecting with a sense of hope!

At the same time, much in contrast with the above and the belief that English is the language of progression and success, public discourse has seen the rise of nationalism and a slowly depreciating value of the language and its influence over domestic or external affairs. The Home Minister, Rajnath Singh’s address at a United Nation’s event in Hindi did not face the kind of ire that the English media would normally have shown. Even the digital world was silent on it. The PM’s address at the BRIC conference, seemingly a struggle for him as he spoke in English, found support in the English digital world with several commentators suggesting he should have spoken in Hindi, a language that gives him comfort. Many felt that the message would have been clearer had he spoken in Hindi. It would also have re-affirmed India, some pointed out.

Adding to this trend, prime time TV spent hours discussing the relevance of the dhoti (a traditional Indian outfit) as against formal Western outfits. Most panelists, including the elite class supported the dhoti claiming the suit and its association with exclusive clubs was a British hangover. Additionally, history books are reportedly being re-written aimed to bring elements that were never there with only a small number questioning the relevance of doing so. “It is the new India and a new definition,” a sociologist pointed out.

To the world outside this country, the high pitched elections followed by the swearing in, got many to re-look if not reconsider the prospects that India has had. What was to be a simple swearing in turned into a global one with the decision to invite SAARC leaders for the swearing in. With even the foreign press acknowledging the ‘turn of events’ creating yet another layers for this new found nationalism.

All that made news some months ago, no longer seemed relevant for debate. Hardly any section of the press discusses reforms and the level of foreign direct investment or even price rise even though the cost of food has gone up, in the manner they did prior to the elections. One would wonder why these ‘issues’ don’t matter at this point. It is believed that nationalism and re-affirmation of what India is and who Indians are has become critical to the people of the country. And when it finds an alliance in ‘hope’, issues that may have been significant, are no longer addressed the same way. This is probably why public debates are not what they were. Consider some of the questions being asked leading to discussions. What is our history? What is the most supreme language? Is English significant enough? What is appropriate attire? How should State governments function? Who is the opposition political party and is there one? Who are our friends and foes in terms of foreign nations? Is foreign capital more significant than Indian capitalists? The questions are aplenty and once the answers emerge, we are bound to see a new direction that most likely would not be the path the country took earlier unless a derailment occurs (very few believe there would be of any importance).

A closer look would tell you that some things have already changed. The obvious is the new set of cabinet ministers who have already started doing away with the Congress-style of functioning. The PMO has a greater stature than the previous regime. This government also wishes to redefine its engagement with State governments suggesting that it would support ‘reforms’ in each State if they chose to employ such an approach to governance. This, in effect, underlines the leadership of the centre over the states and the nation which fills up a vacuum that most Indians believed we lived with for several years.

At another level, the bureaucracy is not what it was. Social media and the digital world is important to this government and that they monitor the space, is a recognition of this fact. It also means, they listen and assess what is being said – a new way to connect with its people. We have a traditional media that seems distant from the PM but follows him ever so closely. Importantly, the media seems far more patient than it ever was with any government in recent times, yet again probably relying on ‘hope’. If we tie all of these factors in, one may clearly see a future where the paradigm of engagement, conversations and information flow going through a different set of controls.

We may ask ourselves why are these factors important to us as PR consultants. In a capsule, we worked in a manner that was probably relevant with a period in time. Today, the debates have and may continue to change. The dominance of languages and the emphasis also appear to be going through a churn of sorts. What is Indian culture could be redefined. The dynamics of markets could see a shift. The power equations as well are changing. Equations for networking have already changed. Media has. External affairs have.

The question here though, I would think, is whether we are in the loop? And more importantly, are we prepared to deal with this change which can alter the geographies we work in or the languages that we speak or even the debates that we would have to be involved in. Hopefully yes!”

 

With an experience that goes beyond 20 years in the extensive fields of journalism, public relations and publishing, Sharif has amassed expertise in a variety of disciplines of the communication industry. Adjudged as the ‘PR Professional of the Year’ at the India PR & Corporate Communications Awards 2013, he currently serves as the President of PRCAI and is a board member of ICCO. He has previously spent two terms on the international board of PROI looking after the Asia Pacific region. In his varied yet related career, Sharif has worked with Penguin Books India, The Economic Times and The Pioneer. His interest in knowledge and content has kept his interest in writing alive.

Sharif has often commented on the industry, trends, best practices, the power of PR and the economy in general. His articles have been printed in publications and platforms such as  The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Business Standard, Mint Wall Street Journal, The Hindu Business Line, www.indiabiznews.com, www.exchange4media.com, Brunch, Pitch and earlier the think-tank journal –  Far Eastern Economic Review. He is also the editor of the widely appreciated and bestselling book ‘Realising Brand India’.

A strong believer that PR is central to marketing, image and reputation building, Sharif, has piloted a series of successful multi-constituency campaigns for clients putting his belief into practice. This approach has led Integral PR emerging as one of the best agencies in the country, ranked number two (independent) in India by the Holmes Report in 2012.

A Fresh Start For PR Agencies On Wikipedia

Guest blog post by David Gallagher, ICCO President & CEO EMEA, Ketchum

Last week the US member of ICCO, the Council of PR Firms (CPRF), called on its member agencies to join a growing movement of communications advisors to do right by Wikipedia and their clients with a commitment to transparency, accuracy and disclosure in this blog post.

 

That this is the right thing to do should be self-evident, and a number of agency networks (including my employer) and other professional associations have also signed on to the pledge – fittingly set forth as an article on Wikipedia, rather than as a press release.

 

It also has the advantage of being a smart thing to do, and I hope all ICCO member associations will make a similar commitment. Here’s why:

 

  1. PR consultants need to be part of the discussion on Wikipedia.  Agreeing to respect its principles and rules give us access to an immensely important communications platform.
  2. Cynicism is the enemy of good PR.   As the authors of the CPRF blogs say so well, helping to bridge the gap between communications advisors and the Wikipedia community serves a higher purpose: establishing trust.  This is the heart of what we do.
  3. Leaders lead.  ICCO associations work to advance the ethical practice of PR consultancy worldwide, offering the market a clear choice between agencies that choose to comply with their standards of conduct and professionalism, and those who do not.  This is an opportunity for our associations to demonstrate real leadership.

 

Thanks CPRF for the early adoption – let’s hope others follow your lead.

 

As a Senior Partner and CEO of Ketchum’s European operations and chairman of the UK agency, David Gallagher brings more than 20 years of public relations experience, both as a client and as a senior agency adviser, to some of the world’s leading brands and companies.

David Gallagher oversees Ketchum’s nine European agencies and their specialist services, which include consumer public relations, healthcare communications, corporate affairs and social responsibility, public affairs, change management, and clinical trial recruitment.

He is president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), the global umbrella network of 30 national PR agency trade associations, and a fellow and past chairman of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association.  He chairs the World Economic Forum’s global agenda council on the future of media, and was the 2014 PR jury president for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

 

Cannes Lions 2014: A moment in the sun for PR, with ICCO leading the way …

Guest blog post by David Gallagher, ICCO President & CEO EMEA, Ketchum

One of the best lines I heard this week in Cannes, where the 2014 International Festival of Creativity still rages on, was a comparison between winning campaigns and haute couture fashion shows: what takes gold is like a new season’s line-up . . . sometimes impractical, often flamboyant but inevitably influential on mainstream tastes and trends.

How apt.

What happens at Cannes, matters. More so, I’d argue, than any other event on the global PR calendar (partly because there really isn’t a global PR calendar), and more each year, as clients and agencies of all kinds flock to the South of France in ever greater numbers.

And it’s not just the awards competition that counts. Trends are established, deals are done, ideas are shared and careers are launched/advanced in ways that no other event or awards competition can yet offer the industry.

That’s why ICCO, the global body of forward-leading PR consultancies from around the world, put so much energy into ensuring a meaningful role in this year’s festival. We simply cannot afford to be left out of the conversation at Cannes, cacophonous as it may be, if we want to be relevant in the wider world of marketing and creativity.

ICCO wasn’t first among the PR community to land at Cannes. Agencies like my own (Ketchum) and other global leaders like Weber Shandwick have enjoyed success for years in the main PR competition, and now Edelman has taken an elusive Grand Prix home for the PR industry in partnership with CAA (following Fleishman Hillard’s success in 2010).

But ICCO was first to recognise the opportunity for the wider PR community at Cannes, and to make possible a presence and contribution beyond the reach of individual agencies or winning campaigns. This came in several forms this year, but perhaps most powerfully in organising a new Young PR Lions competition, inspiring teams of young agency professionals from around the world to demonstrate in real time the power of PR to do big thing.

(Congrats, by the way, to winning team from Japan, and to the silver and bronze winners from the UK and Austria.  Thanks to leading agencies Ketchum, Ogilvy, Golin and H+K Strategies for walking the talk with their sponsorship support, too.  And thanks to the PRCA for overcoming a tight deadline to organize the UK competition, a move greatly appreciated by British agencies and a nice connection to a whole new generation of creative talent).

Our debut was a success. The crowd roared for our Young Lions, festival participants learned about ICCO and PR through our team on a dedicated stand in the main hall, and there were literally dozens of PR-related workshops, seminars and panels that ICCO helped promote and, importantly, we now have a voice and credibility we plan on putting to good use in the future.

We’re now in a position to work with the festival organizers to refine their awards criteria, share ideas on promoting PR and continue our efforts to make a career in our industry attractive to creative young stars.

And shining at Cannes was only the beginning.  From here we can take a little of the glamour and inspiration from the festival to help promote PR in our member’s countries, and help differentiate their agencies from those who are not as forward-looking or part of their national associations.

As always, we welcome your ideas and feedback – and hope to see you on the catwalk next year at Cannes.

As a Senior Partner and CEO of Ketchum’s European operations and chairman of the UK agency, David Gallagher brings more than 20 years of public relations experience, both as a client and as a senior agency adviser, to some of the world’s leading brands and companies.

David Gallagher oversees Ketchum’s nine European agencies and their specialist services, which include consumer public relations, healthcare communications, corporate affairs and social responsibility, public affairs, change management, and clinical trial recruitment.

He is president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), the global umbrella network of 30 national PR agency trade associations, and a fellow and past chairman of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association.  He chairs the World Economic Forum’s global agenda council on the future of media, and was the 2014 PR jury president for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

H+K Strategies Interview with Buzzfeed’s Jonathan Perelman

The H+K Strategies content team is busy in Cannes, doing interviews with various creative industry leaders and opinion-makers, and we will be sharing their content daily!

They chatted with Jonathan Perelman, GM Video & VP of BuzzFeed. From cat-food to Tony Blair and the New York subway, they covered a lot of ground…

H+K Strategies Interview with Buzzfeed's Jonathan Perelman

H+K Strategies content team is busy in Cannes, doing interviews with various creative industry leaders and opinion-makers, and we will be sharing their content daily! They chatted with Jonathan Perelman, GM Video & VP of BuzzFeed. From cat-food to Tony Blair and the New York subway, they covered a lot of ground… кредитка онлайн по почте

Just like the Future, PR doesn’t fit in the containers of the past: ask Millennials!

Guest blog post by Pascal Beucler, SVP & Chief Strategy Officer of MSLGroup

So the question is back again, as the Cannes Lions Festival has started: why is it that the PR industry is not “more creative” – if creative at all?

With 60% of PR professionals and 69% of clients believing that “the PR industry lacks big ideas” (according to the Holmes Report’s 2013 Creativity in PR study), it looks like the answer is not very encouraging….

In my humble opinion, there could be some sort of misleading-ness here and a quite unfortunate semantic misunderstanding.

When you hear people telling you that PR professionals are not good at putting forward and driving “big ideas”, what these people actually refer to, and “come from”, is the traditional mindset of advertising: for them, a “big idea” is still what organizes a 30 second commercial, and is eventually carried through collateral material.

No need to say that this vision is a bit outdated.

Let’s look at figures: three years ago, TV commercials still represented 55% of cases. In 2013, digital channels, and particularly social media, jumped to 85% of the cases, “making it by far the most-used channel in the competition” (See “Why Creativity Sells” in Sunday, June-15-2014 Lions Daily News 2014).

I would argue that, in 2014, the only valid criteria when it comes to judging creativity is today’s Engagement environment.

A creative campaign is above all a campaign, which creates a high level of engagement with people and communities.

(The rest is literature, or food for endless debates in ADs’ clubs)

Having been one of the three judges, together with Marnie Kontovraki, Global Heineken Consumer PR Officer, and Michael Frohlich, Managing Director UK and EAME Consumer Marketing Practice for Ogilvy PR, for the inaugural Young PR Lions competition at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, I lived a vibrant and very insightful experience with 14 teams from 14 countries, with each team comprising two young agency PR professionals, all Millennials born after 1985 – an experience which brutally challenges the current doxa on what creativity is about.

It’s so inspirational to see the hunger and passion with which these young professionals are taking up Citizenship challenges – but then that shouldn’t surprise us: as a global survey MSLGROUP ran last month in 16 countries underlined, Millennials today consider themselves empowered to help businesses and organizations change the world. As our survey reveals it, Millennials really are « Game Changers », with a « fresh » vision on business and Citizenship. (http://blog.mslgroup.com/why-and-how-businesses-need-to-partner-with-millennials-to-better-manage-resilience-relevance-resonance-in-troubled-times/)

My colleagues and I at the jury saw a lot of genuine enthusiasm and strategic clarity in the vision the 14 teams developed, a true maturity from a creative standpoint and a lot of agility in the execution : these Asian, African, European, Latin American Millennials are global, boundless minds and really bold folks – their future is bright, and so is the future of our industry. They definitely don’t see big ideas the good old way, but as powerful 360° weapons which actually transform and reinvent PR the way we used to do it. And no need to say that it’s all digital and social, therefore effective and costless.

Many insights provided by the teams were about Millennials’ commitment to make the world a better place. « Rouse the Millennial Army ! »,  « We can change the world ! », like one of the awarded teams said ! Yes, they love to be part of the change they want to see, and that’s terrific.

Self-expression, storytelling, sharing, crowdfunding – all the key ingredients of what creates success today in the world of PR (People Relations) are here, and it’s an amazingly refreshing and rewarding lesson. The Millennials are passionate about many things, global issues and causes, and they expect businesses, organisations and PR agencies to tap into their passion.

We should agree that the age of conversation is very different from the age of advertising, with its vertical “big ideas”. It’s now all about big data and smart ideas, which is pretty different, in many ways:

  • the ideation and very often the content are largely “people generated”: tools like Spike, Trendsboard or Topsypro help gather “People’s insights” to deliver successful “People’s inside” campaigns
  • the tempo of guerilla marketing is real-time, with daily messages if needed, whether a viral video, a social game, an event etc.
  • the interaction between brands, agencies, people and communities is permanent, and fruitful

 

Over the past few years, we thus moved from mass propaganda, with its heavy bombardment of “big” and simplistic top-down messages, to multifaceted engagement strategies. Advertisers are good at bombardment, we – experts in PR, for People Relations – are far better at the latter.

Our PR “agency of the future” model should indeed derive business intelligence and data analytics to build creative content, nurture shareable conversations, and engage people and communities.

MSLGROUP’s Chief Strategy Officer, Pascal Beucler holds BAs in History and Language Sciences, a master’s degree in Linguistics and a postgraduate degree in Semio-Linguistics. In 1987 he joined Intelligences, a subsidiary of Publicis, and in 1992 he became Managing Director. In 1994 he was promoted to Partner at Publicis Consultants, and then to General Manager of Carré Noir in 2001. Pascal is an Associate Professor at CELSA (Paris IV Sorbonne) and a visiting professor at HEC – one of France’s top business colleges. He has conducted research and published articles on various topics and in particular on the relationship between text and image. In 2005 Pascal was named Vice-President of Publicis Consultants | Worldwide, in charge of Brand Strategy and development of its international network.

Dreams and Fears by Ann Maes

Guest blog post by Ann Maes, Managing Director of Ogilvy Group Belgium

The first mail that hits my eye this morning is: ‘How do you define creativity?’ Claire Bridges sends it to me, one of my fellow jurors on the Cannes PR Lions jury. Put 21 clever creative PR/communications people from all over the globe in one jury room and not a single one will come up with the same definition. I like to think that everybody can be creative, so I send my partner a quick mail with that one question. He is a wine entrepreneur and has a knack of thinking out of the box. It only takes him two minutes to mail me back: When I was seventeen I stumbled upon this quote of jazz musician Charles Mingus. ‘Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.’

 

Not bad.

 

Like every other fussy creative strategist I feel like telling him that something is missing. Something along the lines of: ‘Turning the ordinary into the remarkable – all whilst being truthful’. I will only send him that thought later on, as I reckon that he must be off sharing remarkable stories about wine and the men and women that are producing it.

 

That thought leads me to ‘storytelling’. Read: the delicate art of crafting the right kind of creative content. When storytelling is at its best, it is light years away from the bland content that so often lands on our plates. When stellar, storytelling is about magnetic little gems.

 

Do I see you frowning there? Don’t worry – it must be me: I often get asked what I mean by that. Here’s how I recently explained it to my 69-year-old dad. ‘Magnetic stories have many different faces: it can be articles, pictures, one-liners, art, cartoons or videos that touch you in such a way that it creates a strong emotion of recognition. Or even better: that is creates the urge to share it with others. Not necessarily via social media channels, but even so when having a good old chat.

 

I mostly get people to nod when I put it like that. Some inquisitive souls -including my beloved dad and juniors looking for a job- confront me with questions that grant them access to the next level: how can you tell upfront whether content is good enough to tear the house down – or not?

 

I tell them about context then: about the importance of understanding whom you talk to, about the importance of sharing a story when the time is right. If you know what the dreams and fears are of the people that you are trying to sweep off their feet, you are well on your way to just do that.

 

So how ‘magnetic’ is the content I’ve seen so far in Cannes?

 

Really good.

 

Pretty bad.

 

I find it remarkable to notice how many wonderful creative campaigns don’t make me tick – for the one and simple reason that the content is just not up to par.

 

I had a chat with a young creative girl from Romania on this topic when eating an ice cream on the Croisette. In five minutes she quizzed me about content, context and pitched a story that made me smile and shiver. I forgot to ask her contact details, but in case she ever reads this – here’s my message to you: ‘Call me: talent like yours is rare.’

 

PS: My partner sent me another mail later on – pointing out that creativity is also about authenticity, honesty and empathy. His message made me smile. Creativity is not something people in creative industries own: it is the oxygen that keeps every passionate professional going. 

Ann Maes is Managing Director of Ogilvy Public Relations for its Brussels-based operation.

Ann returned to Ogilvy PR after an absence of twelve years. In the intervening time she has demonstrated excellent client counselling and business-building skills through leadership roles at Leads United and most recently as the founder of PrideTBWA.

Ann has worked across a range of sectors and companies in her career – with a focus on integrated campaigns, change communication and reputation management. Ann’s work has won many awards, in Belgium and abroad. Her clients over the years have included: McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Ahold Group, Pfizer, Sabic, Microsoft, Amgen, MasterCard, KBC, Proximus, KPN and Stanley.

H+K Strategies Interview with celebrated photographer Aaron Huey

The H+K Strategies content team is busy in Cannes, doing interviews with various creative industry leaders and opinion-makers, and we will be sharing their content daily!

Listen to their conversation with Aaron Huey, celebrated photographer for National Geographic and others, wearer of gold shoes and the only man we know who got married on a tank…