Last year, we signed a contract to sponsor the Festival of Media Academies globally. Well-respected and well-attended, the Festival of Media’s events span each corner of the globe. What better way to drive our global educational mission than to have presence at these reputable events.
The first event took place in Singapore in March, just before the Easter break. It was a perfect time as it coincided with our official NMI launch in the region. We were able to make a real impact on the launch via the audience at the Academy. The Academy was hosted at the impressive Twitter offices in Singapore. The delegates hailed from Mindshare, Starcom and Aspire as well as a handful from Nanyang Technological University.
During these academies, a brief is set by a ‘client’ and the delegates are asked to build a proposal using various digital strategies. Companies present to the delegates about how they specialise in their areas to help companies fulfil their briefs.
The first morning kicked off with an impressive amount of content led by Twitter talking about Connection to Culture.
This was a particularly interesting session. With more than 4 billion consumers, many enjoying rising incomes, Asia Pacific is so important for international advertisers and media owners. But, it is not easy to generalise about the diverse markets in Sydney and Shanghai, Mumbai and Manila. Language, culture, infrastructure and technology are all factors separating consumers.
After that session, Mondelez and Carat talked us through ‘How to Handle a Brief,’ giving fascinating insights. One of the key takeaways from this was the idea of being able to put your brief on a t-shirt and use the format ‘Get to By.’ What they meant by that was to always look to get your audience to do something with a call to action!
Then it was Tiffany & Co.’s turn to share the brief with the delegates—it was for a Christmas campaign. The really cool part of it was that they specifically called out that they wanted to see programmatic featured in the proposal!
The rest of the afternoon was spent with talks from S4M on mobile and Twitter on how to promote video.
The Academy was then split into teams. They worked into the evening formulating their plans on how to impress Tiffany & Co. with their response to the brief and win the prize for their team.
The second morning kicked off with an NMI presentation on Programmatic 101: Planning for the future. This was a specifically adapted piece of content for this event. Our experts, Trevor Miranda and Marrah Africa, engaged the audience by making it relevant for everyone in the room. Some of the audience had experience in buying programmatically but, for many, it was all new. The way that they broke down the evolution of programmatic was impressive. The pinnacle of this session was the ‘live auction’ whereby, everyone in the room was given a piece of paper saying if they were a brand or an impression. Marrah then facilitated the auction. In this way, Trevor and Marrah were able to illustrate what is usually a complex concept. The energy in the room was fantastic after this session. I think it had a direct impact on how the teams used programmatic in their responses to the brief.
After the NMI sessions, we had the BBC talking about broadcast media, followed by BlisMedia on using location as a planning tool.
Finally, the teams spent time on their responses, and then it was time to present!
Marrah was representing on the judging panel, which had a tough job. The delegates had a strict and imposed 9 minutes to present, so sadly some of them got cut off before they were able to complete.
The winning team really deserved the title. They had put together a comprehensive and visually appealing strategy for Tiffany & Co.’s Christmas campaign. They had thought about how to engage with the client’s audience in a thoughtful and creative way—which is how we think all advertising should be!