TV triumphs at Media360

Not my words, but the words of Campaign. So don’t go all ‘Thinkbox would say that wouldn’t they’ on me. This is objective reporting.

It’s doesn’t mean, though, that my face wasn’t plastered with a stupidly large grin.

The reason TV triumphed at Media360 was because of a genius pitch from Channel 4’s David Amodio in the battle of which medium (weirdly including mobile, which isn’t a medium) has the best growth prospects. The audience voted TV the clear winner, with magazines – erotically personified by David Weeks (you had to be there) – coming second. You can read David Amodio’s winning poetry here.

TV also triumphed, hopefully, because the audience knows it works.

Anyway, there I was, about to publish a blog about ten golden, finely crafted takeaways from Media360, when Campaign, no doubt sensing the hard work I had put in, gazumps me with…ten sodding takeaways from Media360.

However, thankfully, giving it more thought, there were actually 13 takeaways in total, so here are the other three:

Creativity was worth waiting for

One of the best sessions was Claire Beale’s panel of creatives at the end of the first day. It was strange to have to wait an entire day at an advertising conference to see some ad creativity up on the big screens – at times you could be forgiven for thinking you were at an ad tech conference – but it was worth the wait.

Justin Tindall, Tim Lindsay and Ann Wixley showcased world-beating examples of creativity, including Channel 4’s brilliant Humans campaign, which helped the series become Channel 4’s best ever UK commission; Burger King’s cracking McWhopper work, which held out the olive branch to McDonald’s for Peace Day; and Leo Burnett’s inspiring idea to create the first-ever bus ticket made of soap to help improve healthcare in Sri Lanka.

The collaboration paradox

I hate myself for coining that phrase, but that’s what it was. With the announcement that Blue 449 and Saatchi & Saatchi will be ‘rooming’ together to service their new client Asda coming alongside increased chatter about a return to the days of full service, the panel on collaboration was timely.

Unsurprisingly there was broad agreement that collaboration is a good thing, but less of a consensus on the best way to effectively make it happen. Chris Macleod, Marketing Director of Transport for London, hit the nail on the head when he explained that ‘the paradox is that we need to be integrated more than we’ve ever been before at the same time as being more and more specialised’.

Emotion wins

It was telling perhaps that TV won the audience vote thanks to an emotional approach. David Amodio’s hilarious poetry clicked with the audience and echoed TV’s ability to create the emotional connections which make more effective advertising. Other presenters who employed more rational approaches to sell their media made perfectly good points, but were less memorable and less persuasive (David Weeks not included; he was pure emotion).