A couple weeks ago I was asked to talk to the senior management team of a multinational FMCG company.  They wanted me to speak about ‘connecting with consumers’.

I told them there were two things wrong with that brief.

Firstly, as media, technology and entertainment converge at the rate of knots, it's simply not enough to just ‘connect’. Ten years ago, in the attention economy, the goal was awareness. For the past five years, the buzzwords have been engagement and connections.
But connections are what you make at airports. Our job as marketers and creative people is to inspire action - and through that action, to generate positive momentum for our brands.

Secondly, we can’t just think of people as ‘Consumers’ or 'Targets’ any longer. Today people are empowered with endless information and all the tools to distribute it. They’re curators, creators, commentators and critics.
And if we do our jobs well, they can become valuable collaborators.

For me, creating brand advocacy is the holy grail for marketers. It may mean a different way of thinking and doing things, but the upside is extraordinary.

I'll be talking some more about why Advocacy makes sense on Wednesday next week at AdTech in Sydney, and at the end of the month in Melbourne.

I hope you'll join me at one of these sessions and encourage your local friends and colleagues to come by as well.

I’ve seen ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ four times.  Three times with Jack Nicholson playing McMurphy in the film, and once in London’s West End with Christian Slater as the lead.

Every time, it’s clear the lunatics really should run the asylum.  They’re clever, inventive and adventurous - qualities now very much in demand, if IBM’s recent worldwide survey of 1,500 CEOs is any indication.

These leaders are saying that more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision, Creativity is what’s needed to navigate the highly volatile and increasingly complex global business environment.

In other words, loony creative types are now invited to sit at the grown ups’ table.  

It wasn’t always like this.

Back in 1998 I went to NYC looking for a job.  One night I was having dinner next to a table of three businessmen, the kind that Tom Wolfe would call Masters of the Universe.  They were talking about what their kids were going to do at college.  

One guy had a son doing economics.  Bravo.  Another had a daughter off to do medicine. Fabulous.  The third guy was squirming in his seat.  He lamented that his son, for reasons he could not grasp, was going to study design.

His pals laughed and scoffed at the whole idea. “What good is that going to be?”  The irony was clearly lost on them that the building in which they were sitting – The Paramount Hotel – was a monument to the design talent of Philippe Starck.

Every stick of furniture, light fitting, carpet, curtain and cushion, everything on the table, down to the cutlery and napkin holders, was a product of Starck’s extraordinary creative vision.  A vision that had helped to put Ian Schrager, the hotel’s owner, former discotheque operator and a convicted felon, in a league above Hilton, Marriott, and Sheraton. 

Back to the table we find ourselves invited to today. What are we so-called creative people going to make of this invitation?

The challenges around business are more profound and more sophisticated than they’ve ever been. 1,500 global CEOs have already figured out that courage, vision, and out of the box thinking can unlock many of their critical issues. Like catalyzing innovation, and engaging with people in a world that is massively interconnected.

So we’d better step up to the plate right now, and prove we’re up to the challenge.

Steve Jobs now presides over the biggest creative company on the planet, Sergey and Larry rule the Internet.  And the UTS Business School has just commissioned architect Frank Gehry to replace their present digs, reminiscent of mental health facilities everywhere, with a suitably creative edifice.

Lunatics, it’s your turn.

Craig Davis is Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Mojo in Australia and New Zealand and Founder of Brandkarma.com.

We've all seen campaigns for award shows before.  

Our short films for Coca-Cola’s Burn energy drink have travelled far and wide in the creative communities. 

Award School is a proving ground for aspiring creative talent in Australia. The winners of AWARD School 2010 were announced in Sydney on Wednesday night. What follows are my notes for the short speech I gave to the graduates - hope you find them useful. 

Hello and welcome to the 2010 Award School Graduation.  Back in 1987 I was standing where you are now having just completed the course and wondering what to do next.  You’re at that wonderful, defining moment in your lives where you have to ask, what will I do with these new skills I’ve acquired?

Let me take a few minutes to remind us all why we’re really here.

Creativity is not an option.  It’s not a luxury, a bonus, a nice to have.

Creativity is not a dalliance, an indulgence, it’s not effete, auto-erotic or a distraction.

Creativity is the main event.

The most influential of man’s abilities is the capacity to create.  God-given gift, or evolutionary miracle, it doesn’t much matter.  We all have the potential to change things for the better.  That’s what creativity does – it takes us forward.

Our hairier forebears created fire on demand, language, the wheel, moveable type, the steam engine, photography, telephony, penicillin, the computer chip, karaoke, network theory, triple-choc-chip icecream, and they’ve redefined possibilities for us all.

Creativity is the force that turns problems into opportunities and opportunities into progress.

So why does that matter to young, hungry and ambitious creative people right now?

Because creativity now sits at the grown ups table.

Back in 1998 I went to NY to look for a job.  One night I was having dinner next to a table of three businessmen, the kind that Tom Wolfe would call Masters of the Universe.

They were talking about what their kids were going to do at college.

One guy had a son doing economics.  Bravo.

Another had a daughter off to do medicine.

The third guy was squirming in his seat.  He opined that his son, for reasons his father could not grasp, was going to study design.

They laughed and scoffed and poo-pooed the whole idea. “What good is that going to be?”

But here’s the thing.  They were sitting in the fine dining restaurant of The Paramount Hotel – the whole establishment a monument to the design skills of Philippe Starck.

Every room in the hotel, every stick of furniture, every light fitting, the carpets, the basins, the curtains and cushions, everything on the table, down to the cutlery and napkin holders was a product of Starck’s creative vision.

The irony was lost on them. 

Thank God the world has changed.

Creativity is no longer laughable in the elite restaurants and boardrooms of the world.

IBM recently completed the largest ever one-on-one research study involving CEOs and public sector leaders ever undertaken.  1500 people, 33 countries. 

The key finding was that when asked what they felt was the most important leadership characteristic for success in the next 5 years 60% of them answered, “creativity”.

The challenges around business are more profound and more sophisticated than they’ve ever been.

Creativity is now desirable and lusted after.

The question is, can we deliver?

It’s a challenge for us all and it’s the particular challenge facing the fresh faces in this room.  What a wonderful time for you all to get involved.

Congratulations to all of you for surviving the last few months and for being here as graduates tonight.

So here are 7 tips that you might find useful.

1.     Believe in yourself , have faith in your talent – confidence is crucial.

2.     Stay true to your values – they will become more important

3.     Curiosity is the raw stuff of creativity.  Eat up as much raw material as you can.

4.     Don’t try to be a genius, try to have one.  You’re an antenna. Be open and available to ideas.

5.     Know that your best is always yet to come

6.     Always work with the best people you can find.

7.     Be a generous person, hungry, competitive, restless, passionate, but generous.

I believe these things and I believe they will serve you well as you create progress in the world. 

You have an opportunity to create and contribute like no previous graduates.  And you have the more tool and technologies at your disposal than ever before.

But none of you would have that opportunity if not for the generosity of many people who have contributed to AWARD and who have continued to make it the great training ground for creative thinking that it has been for 27 years.

I’d like to thank Gold sponsor Google, one of the world’s most creative companies, and single out Guy and Gabi from Google for their willing and spirited support.

Thank you to FSM and Rick Schweikert and his team for editing all the lectures and providing DVDs

I also want to thank CSI who are among us tonight to single out three pieces of work to produce, shoot and retouch.

A couple more thank yous.

To all the wonderful people at the Communications Council who have handled the considerable logistics and made the trains run like Swiss Rail, you’re efforts are hugely appreciated.

And to Dustin Lane and Rebecca Carrasco who have devoted themselves to putting something of themselves back into the industry that not so long ago supported and nurtured them - Dustin and Rebecca, thank you.

Finally, I want to thank  and congratulate you all for committing the last few months of your life to learning and growing creatively.  I wish you all the best and know that some of you will go on to do great things with your talents.

Good luck.

If the gestation period had been any longer we might have had an elephant. 

As it turns out, 13 months of undying determination from a team of talented and committed people in Sydney, Auckland, Melbourne, London, Milan and Atlanta has produced a wonderful new body of work for Coca Cola's Burn energy drink.

It all started with a pitch in Milan last June against several European agencies.  And just twenty four hours ago the first pieces of the campaign saw the light of day in what will be a three-year community based marketing programme for Burn. 

The whole approach represents a major cultural step-change for Coca Cola Europe and a major challenge for everyone involved.

The crux of it was to involve pre-existing communities in the creation and distribution of the key campaign assets, rather than the brand hammering away with a heavy, paid media schedule. Energy plays a real role in fueling creative expression and these communities can, if they decide to, share, interact and embellish the overall idea with various assets the brand provides.  

Already we've seen a mad Polish skate crew make a video of them getting frantic in a giant wind tunnel.

There's too much work to show here so I'll keep it simple for now.  One of the key assets is a portfolio of three short films, ‘Ride’ (dir Garth Davis), ‘Playground’ (dir Glendyn Ivin) and ‘Peepshow’ (dir Jonathan Hill) all from Exit films.  

These pieces will be activated online with strategic seeding in over 65 community channels and will feature in Burn-branded social media spaces and an online hub.

The films are previewable at www.mojothings.com

They tell the stories of real-life characters from the skate, music, and snowboarding communities. ‘Playground’ and ‘Peepshow’ are pure lyrical documentary, shot in urban Philadelphia and Quebec City respectively.

 The Garth Davis-directed ‘Ride’, shot in Mexico City, is not something to try at the Bondi skate bowl, or anywhere that's too far from paramedics and a fire truck.  Skaters in this film are, quite literally, on fire - a symbol of their fierce creative expression. The riders were coordinated by LA-based skate guru Steve Berra, working closely with director Davis.

Here are a few thoughts from Garth on the production, ‘We went for a deeper, more compelling tone than the high-octane energy most competitor brands do in their advertising. And one of the great mistakes you can make is to over-romanticise skateboarding. Skaters smell it a mile off and will hate you for it. So this was all about doing the stunts and fire for real and really respecting the skaters, yet keeping a surreal, cinematic feel so they felt original.’

The whole production was highly collaborative and nothing was traditionally scripted. Each film was shot on 5D and the three directors were given freedom to interpret a ‘fierce’ attitude and creative expression without storyboards or pre-determined narratives.

The integrated programme will also feature filmed content created in grassroots, cross-community projects designed by Mojo and activated by Coca Cola’s local European markets. The work will be rolled out in 43 European markets as of now, with a hub at www.burn.com

Congratulations and thank you to all the many people who 'burned' so many late nights, weekends and relationships to get this done.  Everyone should feel extremely proud of this work, it's great stuff.

Billy Mays shattered the Donkey Kong world record so convincingly that he became a Hall of Fame gamer and cultural hero.  They even made a doco about him and included the recording of his miraculous, record making session.  It's great stuff.

He was to gaming what Fanning, Slater and Parkinson are to surfing. 

Gaming has become an even bigger business and cultural deal since the rise of Kong and we are trying to assemble a list of the world's emerging heroes of online gaming.  Do you know who they are, we need names, links, emails, but we'll settle for just the names? 

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

And since we're talking gaming, you're sure to enjoy this from TED 2010.

Names though, remember the names.

http://www.warc.com/News/TopNews.asp?ID=26451

Some of the bigger brains of the www and media gathered recently to contemplete the ever accelerating pace of change at Social Media World Forum Europe.  

Yep, speed is reality and the rate at which technology is being a) adopted and, b) adapted is exhilerating. And disconcerting.  Not a good time to rest on laurels, feel smug or complacent.

"We are in an equivalent period to when the printing presses and the calligraphers co-existed," he argued (he being a very clever person) . "But there can be no doubt as to which way the wind is blowing."

Mojo believes in the value of curiosity, audacity and generosity.  Now is the time for those values and qualities to shine.

"Creativity powers progress" is a mantra for now.  Media, content and marketing are being radically and forever re-invented. 

Time for us to lead, not follow. Let's go.