The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has since its debut in 1954, remained the most globally recognised and prestigious creative advertising platform for recognising and celebrating excellence. Brands, agencies and individuals jostle every year for glory not just for themselves but also to give a good account of the country at the ‘World Cup’ of creative advertising.
This year’s edition (which was the 66th) which held in last month, did not see a resolution to Nigeria’s elusive first win of any works at the festival in France. However, the country no doubt continues to inch closer to achieving this feat and joining other African countries like South Africa, Egypt and Zimbabwe in registering its name among winners of the much touted and prestigious global creative event. Over the course of the last few years giant strides have been made in this direction by Nigerian agencies.
This year however, Nigeria’s glory in France at the creative festival rested on the shoulders of a young creative disruptive start-up agency that has consistently wowed the international community with the kind of works that come from its stable, Up In The Sky. Relatively small, nimble and continuously creative, this agency has consistently won at different global showcases since it commenced operations in 2016, winning accolades and recognitions for its cinematic and attention-grabbing work. The Agency became the very first Nigerian creative shop to host a full workshop at Cannes which ran for 90 minutes.
Workshops have been a part of Cannes since its first outing in 1954. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been bringing the Creative communications industry together every year at its one-of-akind event in Cannes to learn, network and celebrate creativity. It explores the value of creativity in branded communication: from product and service development to the creative strategy, execution and impact. Hence, it gathers seasoned experts from across the world to share their experiences and insights through panel sessions and workshops. The time allotted to a workshop as opposed to a panel (a panel is usually between 30 – 45 minutes while a workshop is usually longer) is the first fundamental difference between the two types of sessions at Cannes.
Secondly, on panel sessions, speakers come to the table with their unique perspective on issues, leveraging their experience, markets, and background. Workshops, on the other hand, are hands-on practical sessions with emphasis on actionable learning. It is a teaching session. Therefore, workshops are not held in any of the Cannes theatres, but in a dedicated workshop room. These sessions most often are more participatory for the audience as attendees are given the opportunity to put what they have learnt into practice – just as it happened at the one organised by Up In The Sky.
The implication of Up In The Sky’s hosting a workshop at Cannes therefore is significant as only the best gets to the stage at Cannes to speak. Indeed, at this year’s edition, only six workshops were held. As the organisers of the festival noted on their official website, “We interrogate the methodologies, approaches and achievements of all types of companies: from tiny start-ups to huge multi-nationals. Anyone with original ideas can enter speaking submissions or awards entries, but only the bravest – and most effective – will make it on to the stage,” and Nigeria’s Up In The Sky did just that in 90 minutes.
Recall that asides its consistent local and global wins, the agency is today among the Lagos Advertising & Ideas Festivals (LAIF) top five agencies in Nigeria. If you consider the fact that it has achieved this and more in its less than five years of operations and the fact that Cannes trusted it with the onerous task of organising a workshop for the global stage, then the realisation that in the next few years it could redefine advertising locally, continentally and globally is in order.
The workshop which held on the 17th of June, was a major highpoint for Up In The Sky which has since carved a solid niche for itself as an Agency with a strong reputation in making globally acclaimed short films and running visually stimulating cinematic cause-related campaigns like ‘Special Day,’ a short film focusing on the plight of street children it executed for the Royal Diamond Orphanage. That campaign delivered its first win at LAIF in 2016 as well as international recognitions, including the Platinum Award for the Best of Category at the 2016 Summit Marketing Effectiveness Award competition.
On why of all the other creative advertising agencies on the West African coast, Up in the Sky was chosen to organise a workshop, Idiare Atimomo, Chief Operating Officer of the firm was reported saying that “the idea of the Cannes workshop began when we received communications from organisers of Cannes, where they asked us to pitch a proposal idea for a workshop. We looked at our body of work at Up In The Sky in the past three years and realized we have actually come up with a very unique process for creating films. This process of creating films was borne out of creative collaborations – how we believe copy writing and film direction can be harnessed. It was why Tolu Ajayi, a highly decorated film director was our first draft pick to join us in delivering a workshop such as we proposed to the Cannes team” Idiare explained.
“We proposed to share our unique workflow template at Cannes on how creative collaboration should happen between copywriters and film directors, how they work together, collaborate, all from the unique African and Nigerian perspective, with our body of work to support. The Cannes content team got back to us earlier in the year to say they were pleased with the idea. They thought that it was something that could enrich the quality of the festival this year, because of the content. They observed our body of work and our speakers and felt that we could make a positive contribution. Basically, the workshop idea was approved for us to come and run, based on the strength of the proposal itself and the supporting documents and the speakers we were bringing. They actually went through a vetting process before approving the workshop for us to run at Cannes,” he said.
Centred on the theme, “From Crap Script to Crazy Film” the workshop focused on the development of stronger craftsmanship in the copywriter and film director communities. These two disciplines are integral to advancing how the creative advertising industry interprets stories and are many times in conflict. Oje Ojeaga, Chief Executive Officer gave more insight: “Up In The Sky is an agency that has built its core from cinematic storytelling, it is something we do very well. Two, in today’s world, the prevalence of video is global. Video is currently without a doubt, the most powerful medium for communication on any platform. You will find brands are making more videos, people are consuming more videos whether they are skits, memes or vlogs. If a brand really wants to speak to people, creating a video it’s a no brainer. The cost of the video is relative. It doesn’t have to be expensive but it has to be impactful.
Asked about the significance of the workshop to him and the team at Up In The Sky, Oje answered: “I find that when you are a start-up agency, it seems like you are always in a struggle for survival. Living to see the next day becomes the top priority. Sometimes, when you have huge achievements, they can just go under the radar. But this was different. There is literally, nothing bigger than Cannes for an Ad Agency. We are talking about the World Cup of Advertising!
“It is one thing to be given an opportunity to make an impact and it is another thing to witness first-hand how people respond to that knowledge. Just the sheer amount of enthusiasm for the subject material by a truly global audience was overwhelming. The audience at the workshop comprised of people from such countries as the US, Sri Lanka, Denmark, India, etc, cutting across the diverse portfolio of departments – Directors, Brand Managers, Copywriters – even Clients”
“We do have a unique perspective. Yes, we are global, but we have a unique way in which we tell our stories. At the Cannes workshop, we did not shy away from telling that story, neither did we pretend like we are not Nigerians. We presented a uniquely Nigerian point of view. That has been our ambition and we will keep driving that. That is how we aim to keep competing and changing the narrative about Nigerian creatives.”
It is inevitable that a Nigerian agency is going to win at Cannes soon.
“We proposed to share our unique workflow template at Cannes on how creative collaboration should happen between copywriters and film directors, how they work together, collaborate, all from the unique African and Nigerian perspective, with our body of work to support
