SPARK - Day One

Gareth has lent me his blog for the next few days so that I can report in from the Account Planning Conference in Miami. I did have to promise him that I wouldn't sully the reputation of his blog, so I'll be keeping keep my comments short, sweet and (mostly) devoid of sarcasm. Truth be told, I do want to find a job in planning someday, so keeping my snarkiness to a minumum is probably a smart idea.

Day one was relatively uneventful. No booing. No hissing. Everyone sat in their seat and applauded politely when appropriate. The highlight of the morning was a main-stage presentation by Mother's Andrew Deitchman. While I certainly cannot do his presentation justice here, it was the best thirty minute discussion of hot-dogs, anorexia, Kevin Federline and fistfighting I have ever heard. By the end, the audience was left with both a sense of what we do wrong in planning advertising and what we are capable off doing if we give it some thought.

Another highlight was the announcement of the Jay Chiat Planning Awards. The gold winners are certainly deserrving of the honor. Each campaign reached its audience in a new and engaging way. They are proof-positive that there is life after the thirty second spot.

Extra-special congratulations to BBH for their Best Crispin Porter Imitation Award for their Axe work. (Guess I'm never working at BBH. Damn!)

All sarcasm aside, congratulations to Gareth and the team at Moderninsta! for their silver award for their Napster entry. I promise to bring it back to Boston for you, unless it's too heavy.

That's enough from me. More to come tomorrow...

Steve Kulp

Related Tags: AAAA account planning conference

Comments

[Gareth]

Steve
You will need to tell me all about hot-dogs, anorexia, Kevin Federline and fistfighting. I am very intrigued. And while you may have burned your bridges at BBH, I'm sure doors will be open elsewhere (anywhere where they have an idea for a movie).
Don't worry about the sarcasm - this blog has no reputation to tarnish.
Thanks for posting from Miami - don't trade the award for rum based drinks.
I'm going to add a technorati tag. Enjoy the next couple of days.

[Mansi Trivedi]

I think this is very interesting and I am looking forward for an everyday journal! :)

[Kirsty]

I would love to hear more about Andrew Deitchman's talk, can you elaborate for those of us who couldn't make it?

[Ken]

Andrew talked about an upcoming entreprenurial investment Mother is backing called Dogmatic.
It's basically a gourmet hot-dog stand that has "revloutionized" hot-dog consumption: a roll is drilled into put on a warming rod, then sauce is put into the hole and finally a hot dog into the hole. A person eats the hot dog similar to eating a banana.

Using this example, he managed to relate all kinds of trends and issues going on in the industry. With panache.

Mother.