We are back from Cannes Lions and continuing to sit down with this year’s Young Lions Competition winners to get their thoughts on Creativity, Then and Now. Next up, we spoke with Sirisha Pulapaka and Helen Luong from Australia, Silver medalists in the Young Marketers category. See what they had to say below.

Have you always been compelled to create? Was the instinct there from a young age or did this happen later in life?

We believe creativity is in our genes and we continue to develop and nurture it through our experience and learning’s. Creativity needs to be harnessed by developing talent and skill, which are two very different things as creativity is a potential in all human beings. Sirisha said that in her childhood, analysing and rating ads during commercial breaks was a treasured pastime. She says “It’s all about keeping the inner child alive. We ‘ve continued to train our talent by gaining industry exposure and improving our skills by learning from those that have gotten it right through sheer hard work.”

What are your thoughts about how the creative process has changed in the past 50 years? What do you think are the differences between Then (such as the 1960’s, “Mad Men” style) and Now?

The digital revolution has drastically shaped the marketing and advertising space over the last few decades. In an amazing talk at Cannes; VP, Johnson and Johnson, Kimberley Kadlec introduced 4 new P’s to the marketing mix to include digital; purpose, presence, proximity and partnership. The 1960’s approach was more about connecting emotionally with the customer and influencing their thought process. Advertising today has taken a dramatic shift, focusing more on consumers as individuals with purchasing power. Marketing mediums have changed with the shifts in consumer behaviour and the technological evolution, defining marketing strategies today.

What are your thoughts on how creativity and marketing data have to work together? Page views, clicks, and other metrics are a big part of the creative world – not just “why” but “how” ads are created today. Do “Mad Men” need to become more like “Math Men?”

Creativity is the dark knight of marketing data; it’s that hidden saviour that finds a way for raw numbers and insights to become something that deserves the 1000 likes or tweet mentions. It’s no longer about the top ranking search results. To become successful marketers, you need to engage the community. People of today want to be a part of the conversation, be it around a brand, not for profit or a subject of interest. They want to see how they are benefitted, can be interactive or know how their contribution has helped achieve results. It’s the marketing strategy that ties creative and data together, finding solutions to a math problem using a new creative canvas. 

Although we’ve been back from the Cannes Lions Advertising festival for a few weeks now, the conversation
continues. I reached out to the talented winners of the Young Lions competition to learn about their creative inspiration and how they think creativity has changed today.

We’ll be sharing thoughts from this year’s winners throughout the next few weeks. First up – Laura Robinson and Rosie Duncan from the United Kingdom!

1. Have you always been compelled to create? Was the instinct there from a young age or did this happen later in life?

Laura – I’ve always had an artistic flair from a young age. Creativity and art is a passion for me and I always find myself having brain waves, normally when I least expect them. I could be on the treadmill at the gym or listening to someone presenting and then all of a sudden an idea will come into my head and I’ll become fixated on it. I get bored really easily so when I was young I would always fill my time making things from designing clothes to decorating cakes – I guess I always like to be busy and even though now I have a career in media I will always be thinking of business opportunities and ideas for starting my own business.

Rosie – Creation for me is about the satisfaction of the end result. It’s about seeing your idea turn into a tangible object that you can share, be proud of or (often) laugh at. The ideas that come to fruition over the course of your life reflect your growing up and life stages – whether it be from a fashion you were wearing to a song that you wrote which is reminiscent of a particular moment. Creativity is a release, whether it be writing, singing, painting or capturing the moment, and has been an essential reason to the sanity of my life so far.

2. What are your thoughts about how the creative process has changed in the past 50 years? What do you think are the differences between Then (such as the 1960’s, “Mad Men” style) and Now?

Laura & Rosie- Now it feels like there is a lot more background research and proving why we are proposing certain ideas to reach our target audience. There is a lot of data and in-depth reasoning behind an idea. Now we live in a world fuelled by instant gratification and technology which changes faster than we can keep up with. It’s a challenging time to work in advertising but also an extremely vibrant and inspirational time. We have so much choice from what devices we use to what media channels we can reach our audience on. Cross-media and multi-platform brand solutions are a standard now and every agency claims to be a fully integrated communications agency. Yes there are specialist departments but it is far more integral now to work much closely together.

3. What are your thoughts on how creativity and marketing data have to work together? Page views, clicks, and other metrics are a big part of the creative world – not just “why” but “how” ads are created today. Do “Mad Men” need to become more like “Math Men”?

Laura & Rosie – There’s no reason why data can’t be creative. In Cannes we saw an inspirational talk from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo who showed us a visual map of the global tweets which were sent during the England vs France Euro match and it was an extremely visual representation of some standard numerical stats. Data can be used to create ads and ads can be used to collect data but what may be interesting is visualizing that data in an ad format. People like to see that they are a part of something, have their voice heard and their contribution accounted for. It makes them feel part of what’s going on.

Me, Jordan, and my colleague Scott

During my trip to Cannes Lions last month, I was fortunate to meet with many Adobe fans and customers who stopped by our tent to take a picture with the Adobe  Ampersand. Perhaps my favorite encounter of the week was with 12-year old Jordan Casey. Jordan is the youngest application developer in Europe. He was a speaker at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. And, if you’ve had the chance to play Alien Ball vs Humans or its sequel, Alien Ball vs Humans 2: Holiday, you’ve experienced a Casey-developed app. I was awed by Jordan – his talent, drive, and humility at such a young age is truly inspiring. I wanted to share Jordan’s story with all of you, so we interviewed him on our Digital Media blog. Check it out – you will be inspired!

You can check out Alien Ball vs. Humans in action below, and get in touch with Casey Games on Twitter @Casey Games.

It’s hard to believe that our trip to Cannes Lions 2012 is coming to a close. This week has certainly been a memorable one, and we owe it to all of the attendees we got a chance to connect with throughout the week.

Adobe team at Cannes Lions

All week, we had a tent on the Parvais, where attendees stopped by and took fun photos with the Adobe Ampersand and a backdrop of Cannes, Then and Now. You can flip through some of them in our album here. Attendees got a chance to see real-time social conversations and data on our digital billboards, while sharing their thoughts on creativity Then and Now in our daily polls.

We kicked off the week with our panel, “Is data killing creativity?” Moderated by our SVP of Global Marketing, Ann Lewnes, she and fellow panelists Jon Vein, Jim Stengel, and Linus Karlsson, debated the subject of data’s impact on creativity today. Watch highlights of the conversation here.

We were excited to sponsor the Young Lions, MOFILM, and Creative Effectiveness awards again this year. The contestants never cease to amaze us with the work they create. We got a chance to catch some of them on camera throughout the week and get their thoughts on which era of creativity they prefer, Then or Now.

Throughout the week, we displayed results from our State of Create global benchmark study that we released back in April, including a few new points on Millennials’ views. Watch the animated infographic to find out some interesting statistics about the state of creativity today. What inspires you to create? Tell us with hashtag #CreateNow.

Our Siberia artists captured digital illustrations from the sights and conversations of the festival. Below is their last illustration. You can see all of them on Facebook.

Catch highlights from our favorite moments this year in the video below and in our Facebook album.

With that, we’re signing off from Cannes Lions 2012. Until next year…au revoir!

On day 3 at Cannes Lions, we got a chance to speak with with talented creative professionals from across the world, including the youngest application developer in Europe!

During the day, we got a chance to catch up with the Young Lions winners from last year’s Cyber category, Alex Newman and Patrice Pollack. Alex and Patrice shared how their lives changed dramatically after their win; within two weeks, they had new job offers in New York City and were planning their move from their hometown in Canada.

The Adobe team with Jordan at our tent.

We were also lucky to meet Jordan Casey, who is 12 years old and the youngest application developer in Europe. Jordan taught himself how to code at 9 years old and has his own company called Casey Games. He truly amazed us – watch his interview in the video below.

Next, we made our way over to the MOFILM awards reception. We’re always inspired by the amazing submissions we receive each time we sponsor MOFILM, and this year was no different. Congratulations to the winners, Jon Doss and Austin Albany. Check out their winning piece here.

We also got to congratulate the winners of the Creative Effectiveness Lionscompetition, another category we are sponsoring this year. The Creative Effectiveness category honors creativity that shows a measurable and proven impact. Congratulations to the winner, Duval Guillaume Modem, Antwerp.

Our Then and Now polls are still going strong, and we’re loving your responses. When we asked you guys what your competitive edge was, data or creativity, 51% of you said creativity while 49% of you said data. That was a close one. However, with yesterday’s question on preference between dress shoes and Converse, 67% of you preferred Converse while only 33% of you preferred dress shoes. Converse is a clear winner!

Our scriberia artists are continuing to illustrate the sights of the festival. The illustration below is their latest, a depiction of the Croisette.

Be sure to cast your vote in today’s question, “How do you prefer to capture ideas, on a notebook or a tablet?” Tweet us with #ThenAndNow, and festival attendees, come by our tent to get a prize and make yourself eligible to win one of four Creative Cloud annual memberships that are up for grabs.

Video highlights from yesterday below – enjoy!

Yesterday at the Cannes Lions festival, we had a jam-packed day of events and conversations.

The highlight of the day was our panel, “Is data killing creativity?” Moderated by our SVP of Global Marketing, Ann Lewnes, she and fellow panelists Jon Vein, Jim Stengel, and Linus Karlsson, debated the subject of data’s impact on creativity today.

We also got a chance to attend the MOFILM cocktail and speak with talented and budding filmmakers on their creative inspiration and thoughts on our theme this year of creativity, Then and Now. We also were fortunate enough to catch a quick conversation with Andy Baker, Co-Founder and President of MOFILM, gave us a rundown of Adobe and MOFILM’S sponsorship. We’re announcing the winner of the MOFILM competition tonight, so stay tuned as we’ll share a conversation with the lucky winner for you tomorrow.

Our talented scriberia artists are still capturing the sights of the festival – check out their latest creation below on our theme of Then and Now (click to enlarge it)

Our favorite moments from yesterday are highlighted below. That’s all for now – until tomorrow!

Ann and Steve discussing the CORE solution

While here at Cannes Lions, Ann Lewnes, our SVP of Global Marketing met up with Steve Plimsoll, CTO of Mindshare, to talk through their launch of CORE. CORE is a data-driven marketing intelligence platform that empowers both analysts and non-technical users to make informed marketing spend, audience targeting and creative optimisation decisions across all touch points in real-time.  It brings together data sets such as CRM, sales and supply chain data, with media channel spend, social, audience profiles and real-time trading information and reveals consumer actions and insight at a granular level, taking away the guesswork, latency and siloed nature of marketing-spend decision making.

The digital marketing team, here at Adobe, has been working closely with Steve on CORE, with Adobe Insight, part of the Digital Marketing Suite, powering the user interface for data visualisation, modeling, data mining and reporting.

In an age where the amount of data available to marketers has never been greater, the value of all this data lies in the ability to deliver actionable insight in real-time.  It was great to see CORE in action!

We just wrapped up day 2 at Cannes and so far, so great! Yesterday, the festival kicked off with a cocktail sponsored by Adobe, and we got a chance to interview attendees about their thoughts on creativity, Then and Now, and whether or not today’s increasing focus on data is killing or cultivating creativity. Watch highlights from our favorite moments below.

This morning, we hosted a panel to a full house, titled “Is Data ‘Killing or Cultivating Creativity?” The panel was moderated by our SVP of Global Marketing, Ann Lewnes. She was joined by fellow panelists Jon Vein, Linus Karlsson, and Jim Stengel who shared their thoughts on how we need to strike a healthy balance between focus on data and our own gut and intuition.  During the panel, scriberia artists illustrated the conversation. Check out the cool scribe illustration below and stay tuned for panel highlights and a full recap, which we’ll post tomorrow.

Scribe illustration of panel created by scriberia artists

And don’t forget, each day we’re asking you a different question about creativity, Then and Now. Today’s question is, “What’s your competitive edge? Data or Creativity?” Tweet your answer using #ThenAndNow and we’ll feature it on our digital billboards here at the festival. You can also vote in our daily polls on Facebook. Believe it or not, the response to yesterday’s question, “How do you prefer to communicate, through the phone (Then) or Twitter (Now), was tied! 50% of people chose to communicate via phone while 50% chose Twitter.

If you’re at the festival, be sure to stop by the Adobe booth and get your picture taken with the Adobe ampersand as a souvenir of your visit.

Example of a photo souvenir at the Adobe booth

Signing off for now – more tomorrow! In the meantime, enjoy the highlights below.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since Cannes Lions 2011, but we’re so excited to be back this year with a presence that’s our biggest ever at the Cannes Lions festival.

This year, we’re talking about creativity, Then and Now. How has creativity and the creative process changed over the past few decades? Were we more creative in the Mad Men era, or today’s era of Modern Media? How has the increasing focus on data impacted our creative process? Watch our SVP of Global Marketing, Ann Lewnes, along with panelists Jim Stengel, Jon Vein, and Linus Karlsson debate this very subject tomorrow at our seminar, “Is data killing creativity?” at 9:30 a.m. in Theatre Debussy.

This week at Cannes, some of the most talented creative professionals from across the world have come together to celebrate creativity; what better audience to pose our questions to about creativity, Then and Now? We’ll be having this conversation throughout the festival with attendees and our video crew. We’ve also got a booth on the Parvais, where you can get your picture taken as a souvenir of your Cannes visit so be sure to stop by and say hello!

We know not all of you could make it out to the festival this year, and we want to hear your thoughts too. Each day, we’ll be posting a different question about Then and Now on the Adobe Twitter channel. Voice your opinion by tweeting your answer to @Adobe with #ThenAndNow or voting in our Facebook application. We’ll capture the results and showcase them on our digital displays here at the festival!

Stay tuned here for updates from our events each day, including footage from awards ceremonies and interviews with winners of MOFILM, the Young Lions Competition, and the Creative Effectiveness Lions, three award categories that we are sponsoring again this year.

With that, signing off for now. We look forward to continuing the conversation with you throughout the week!

It’s that time of the year again when creative minds gather to debate, learn and be inspired. This year’s Cannes Lions Festival is just around the corner, and we’re very excited to once again be sponsoring the Young Lions Competition.  With this year’s battle for creative supremacy still up in the air, we wanted to take a minute and reflect on last year’s competition winners.

As you may recall, it was the Canadian creative duo, Alex Newman and Patrice Pollack, who faced an intense 24-hour challenge in the ‘Cyber’ competition category and brought home the Gold. We caught up with the reigning champions to capture their very own “Why I Create” story and asked them for their thoughts on how the creative process has evolved and the role data plays – a hot topic that will be discussed at this year’s festival, including our panel, “Adobe: Is Data Killing Creativity?” Check out the full Q&A below and be sure to follow our social channels – Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube – closely for live updates from Cannes beginning June 17.

Adobe: Have you always been compelled to create? Was the instinct there from a young age of did this happen later in life?

Alex Newman: I’ve always been a person driven by imagination and creation. As a child, I’d spend the majority of my days in my bedroom with a floor covered in Lego pieces – I’d lose myself in my imagination for hours. As an undergraduate with a passion for drawing, I took up animation at Seneca College in Toronto. As I got older, my desire to create didn’t wane. Being admitted to the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2007, I studied advertising and supplemented my critical thinking courses with a heavy focus on motion graphics, interactivity and art.

Patrice Pollack: I’ve always been compelled to create. When I was little, I never wanted to play with dolls. All I wanted was Plasticine, construction paper and crayons.

What are your thoughts about how the creative process has changed in the past 50 years? What do you think are the differences between then (such as the 1960’s “Mad Men” style) and now?

Alex: I’m very new to the industry of advertising, but as a millennial I have an unusual perspective on the last 50 years of advertising. Mainly because, I’m part of this elusive target demographic that began shaking up the industry a decade ago. I find that more recently ad agencies have had to become very nimble, very quickly to respond to a fluid audience. With the emergence of technology and social media, there has been a paradigm shift in culture of how people absorb information. It’s no longer a passive experience as it was during the “Mad Men” era. For larger firms it’s been a particularly difficult transition. Like the Titanic heading for an iceberg, large agencies don’t turn on a dime. Shedding this 50 year old structure of mass advertising and embracing the new structure of mass conversation is essential for companies to reach the newly empowered consumer. Being a new employee at JWT, I see this agency in the process of metamorphosis, and a great opportunity to ride a wave of innovation. Personally, this is the most exciting time to be in advertising in the last 50 years.

Patrice: I think the fundamentals have stayed the same, but technology and the new media we have to play with have dramatically impacted the creative process. The sheer amount of advertising that is vying for our attention has also quadrupled, so agencies have had to think of new ways to get noticed – and that goes far beyond traditional advertising.

What are your thoughts on how creativity and marketing data have to work together? Page views, clicks and other metrics are a big part of the creative world – not just “why” but “how” ads are created today. Do “Mad Men” need to become more like “Math Men?”

Alex: The measurement of creativity is almost an oxymoron, yet in a business that relies on results, metrics are a crucial part of success. I find metrics in moderation are extremely helpful in gathering creative insights, but there does come a time when metrics can hinder the ability to think creatively. If the left side of the brain (linear thinking) has too much of a strangle hold on the right side (creative thinking), there is less room to ‘play’ with a thought.