Gary Vaynorchuk of Vaynor media heralded a rallying cry to “liberate” creatives from the tyranny of a process he feels is characterized by suppression. He links it to employee unhappiness and staff turnover. Vaynorchuk longs for agencies and brands to break free of the “matching luggage” approach to social media and do more meaningful work in a space where most of our audiences reside. His quest is to shine a light on the power of social media resulted largely in an anti-TV screed. The dichotomy is that we cite social media as having the power to overturn democracies yet treat it as a brand afterthought in the world of advertising. Vaynorchuk is a passionate advocate, who might benefit by offering brands a meaningful path forward might to further his cause.
Scott Galloway questions how we say our business is all about taking risk, yet we don’t walk the talk
Scott Galloway, the irreverent Professor of Marketing at NYU (who I revere, full reveal) opened the session asking the question we’ve all been asking ourselves; how is it that the person at Bud Light who sent a transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a personalized Bud Light lost their job in the ensuing “anti-woke” blowback? We say our business is all about taking risk, great creative involves being brave, yet we don’t walk the talk. It’s a head-scratcher that takes us back to a thread running through the festival; these are perilous times – particularly in the US – and brands need to tread carefully.
FAVE SESSION OF THE DAY: Will.i.am and Jonathon Mildenhall
Will.i.am of Black Peas fame founded FYI.AI to unleash the creative potential of AI. Rather than cower in its wake, he embraced it in the spirit of all those who are “hypercreatives”. FYI is a AI-based project collaboration platform, that is end-to-end encrypted. Will.i.am did an incredible real-time demonstration creating song lyrics and a screenplay in real time in the Palais.
