Why Creative Bravery Is A Business Imperative - Views - Interbrand

16/10/2018 Why Creative Bravery is a business imperative - Views - Interbrand
VIEWS
Why Creative
Bravery is a
business
imperative
   
As Henri Matisse famously said,

“Creativity takes courage.” But, how do
you start being brave with your creativity?
Interbrand set out to explore this at its Creative Bravery

event in partnership with D&AD on July 26, where
speakers from D&AD, MINIWorkUSA,Views
ChobaniBest
, charity:
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water, WeWork, SAP and PAC discussed how they are
 
embracing the power of creative excellence as a force
https://www.interbrand.com/views/creative-bravery-business-imperative/ 1/10
for good in the world, creating better commercial,

social, cultural and environmental outcomes for
everyone.
Interbrand’s very own New York and Toronto Managing

Director Daniel Binns kicked off the event, addressing
the fact that the desire for brands to create an image of
being good corporate citizens is one thing, but they
need to actually put their marketing dollars where their
mouths are and take action.
If there’s any organization that truly does put its money

where its mouth is—by giving its profits back to the
industry—it’s D&AD. The non-profit’s CEO Tim Lindsay
took to the stage, giving the audience an overview of its
mission to inspire, stimulate and nourish the creative
community to work towards a fairer, more diverse, and
gender-balanced industry future. In the words of Bill
Bernbach, “If you stand for something, you will always
find some people for you and some people against you.
If you stand for nothing, you will find nobody against
you and nobody for you.”
He discussed the importance of industry awards, not

purely for back-patting reasons, but to help create a
benchmark that drives everyone forward. “Awards
encourage and reward innovation, experimentation and
risk taking,” he said. He Work
shed light on theBest
Views fact that
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companies in the top quantile for racial and ethnic
diversity are 45% more likely to have see an increase in

financial performance. “These organizations can actually
deliver the solutions that their clients need because they
can properly represent them.”
Speaking of delivering on client solutions, MINI USA’s

Metro Manager Lee Nadler then presented a keynote
about MINI’s partnership with Sing For Hope, where,
collectively, they gathered 50 colorfully painted pianos
and installed them in public places throughout New
York’s boroughs, along with creating a 51st touring
piano built into a 2018 Countryman. From June 4-24,
2018, MINI roved around the streets of New York with
their mobile MINI piano, throwing block parties, piano
lessons in schools, surprise performances by big name
artists, and even on-demand concerts on the Sing for
Hope app. “Music and the arts have a power like no
other to bring people together from all walks of life,” Lee
said.
Work Views Best Brands Services About

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Bringing people together from all industries for a

panel,Adweek’s Lindsey Rittenhouse sat down with SAP
Ariba’s Head of Global Customer Marketing April
Crichlow, WeWork’s Culture OS Deployment Director
Deborah Alden and Packaging Consortium (PAC)
Founder and CEO James Downham to discuss all
things “creative bravery”.
SAP Ariba’s April Crichlow shed light on how

professional and personal creative bravery has
historically been compartmentalized. “Now we’re living
in an age where you can bring your authentic self to
your work,” she said. She also spoke about the
conscious effort SAP has been making in the last
couple of years to double down on diversity and
inclusion. “For many years, the hero was always the IT
Director, but now it’s not about the technology itself, but
the impact technology has on people’s lives. How is
technology enabling good in society with regards to
equality, sustainability, and helping the world run
better?”
WeWork’s Deborah Alden discussed WeWork’s mission

to inspire people to make a life, not just a living.
“Authenticity is such a big part of
Work our lives
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company’s mission doesn’t resonate all the way through
its organization, it will come out,” she said. She also
touched on how there is no gold star for sustainability.

“There are only progressive, continual decisions that are
made.”
PAC’s James Downham voiced his opinion on how the

circular economy concept is going to drive innovation
for the organizations that embrace it. “It’s no longer
about just getting products to the consumer. You have
to ask yourself, ‘What’s going to happen to it once the
consumer is finished with it?’ We need to turn our
consumption society into a society that takes what we
produce to the next life, so it’s not ending up in landfills
or oceans.”
Beyond speaking of what happens to products in their

‘after-life’, but instead what happens to them pre-
production, Chobani’s first-ever Chief Creative Officer
Leland Maschmeyer shed light on the yogurt company’s
bold rebrand that he led and how it needed to get
internal things right first before it began on any form of
expression or design. “Before we attempted to change
the outward-facing brand, we had to change our
inward-facing product innovation roadmap, architecture
and brand positioning, along with defining our culture
and what we believed in,” he said.
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They realized they were part of a ‘food movement’—

from foodies who instagram their acai bowls to hardcore
activists that advocate fort sustainable sourcing.
“Popeye eats spinach and his muscles get bigger. Alice
in Wonderland drinks potion and gets smaller. We have
all these phrases like ‘superfood’, ‘soul food’ and ‘liquid
courage’. Food is a powerful force of change in the
world. It has a magical impact on the mind, body and
soul. So, we in our own special way wanted to
contribute to that vision to make universal wellness
happen sooner,” he said.
On the topic of universal wellness, we then listened to a

tale of transformative character development if there
ever was one. charity: water founder and CEO Tom
Harrison went from working as a New York club
promoter toting Rolex watches to moving to Liberia to
found a charity that aims to bring clean water to
everyone on earth. After spending time as a medical aid
in the country, he realized that so much of the sickness
and suffering was related to the fact that 50% of its
citizens were drinking dirty water. “It was absolute
madness because back in the New York night clubs I
used to party at, my friends would pay $10 for a bottle
of water that they didn’tWork
even drink!”
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 
Scott asked himself if he could create a business model

where 100% of profits would go towards funding water
projects. The idea was that private donors would cover
the operational costs and all of the public donations
would go towards the water projects themselves. They
developed 11 different technologies across 26
countries, drilling wells, hand-digging wells, using
biosand filters and piped systems. “The momenta local
community would see clean water for the first time, kids
would rush to the drilling rig clapping and dancing,” he
said.
Setting out to build the most hyper-transparent charity

people have ever experienced, Scott worked with
Google Earth founder Brian McClendon to provide
Google Earth locations for every donation so donors
could track what their money went towards. “The more
people can see the impact of their giving, the more they
are willing to give,” he said.
He also touched on how most charities don’t work to

build a brand, but work to get donations. “Toothpaste is
peddled with more sophistication than all the world’s
lifesaving causes. We never wanted to be the hero; we
were just the guide, trying to connect those who wanted
to do good in the world with those that wanted to
implement it, and then using tech to show their impact.
We wanted to create something so cool that people
would feel that they were missing out if they weren’t a
part of it.”

GlobalContact
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Speaking of impact, Interbrand’s Global COO Andy

Payne gave the final keynote of the evening, breaking
down Interband’s approach to creative bravery in three
phases: new expectations, new creations and new
orchestrations.
He discussed how consumers today expect relevance,

transparency and authenticity, and showcased
Interbrand’s G’ AY Mate campaign for same-sex
marriage in Australia, where our Sydney office rolled out
how-to-vote flyers, free G’ AY MATE T-shirts, social
media conversation starters, a national poster
campaign, and pro-marriage equality marches, and
even won two D&AD pencils this year. Andy also spoke
about our Mandela95 Poster Project where we
challenged our designers to honor Nelson Mandela’s
95th birthday and life by designing a poster that was
exactly the same dimensions of Mandela’s prison cell
where he spent 27 years of his life. This poster was
chosen out of over 700 entries to be part of the exhibit.
We then showcased it in spaces around the world.
Beyond this, Andy discussed how brands and

businesses need to adapt how they engage and
operate, defining not only their ‘what’ but their ‘how’,
‘why’ and ‘where’. “What’s needed is an always-on
operating system for a new era—one that takes current
brand inputs (such as research, customer and
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communications data) and filters them into a new model
—one based on action,” he said.
Speaking to this, he showcased Interbrand’s ONE

HUNDRED project that we worked on with six other
Omnicom agencies, launching the world’s largest
multidisciplinary collective with a mission to create
positive, purpose-led change. ONE HUNDRED was
awarded a D&AD impact award in 2016.
“In today’s age, there must be a new definition of

success. In the age of immediacy, we need to think
bigger and go long. Growth alone is a limited goal for
business. We need a broader definition and goal in
which prosperity is connected to helping businesses,
communities and people thrive,” Andy said.
And, that’s a wrap! We hope to see you at our next

CMO Leadership event. Please continue the dialog by
calling out brands and ideas that represent
#ActivatingBrave on social.
If you have an inquiry about our CSR work, please

contact us at hello@interbrand.com.
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16/10/2018 Why Creative Bravery is a business imperative - Views - Interbrand

As Henri Matisse famously said,

Interbrand set out to explore this at its Creative Bravery

for good in the world, creating better commercial,

Interbrand’s very own New York and Toronto Managing

If there’s any organization that truly does put its money

He discussed the importance of industry awards, not

diversity are 45% more likely to have see an increase in

Speaking of delivering on client solutions, MINI USA’s

Work Views Best Brands Services About

Bringing people together from all industries for a

SAP Ariba’s April Crichlow shed light on how

WeWork’s Deborah Alden discussed WeWork’s mission

touched on how there is no gold star for sustainability.

PAC’s James Downham voiced his opinion on how the

Beyond speaking of what happens to products in their

They realized they were part of a ‘food movement’—

On the topic of universal wellness, we then listened to a

Scott asked himself if he could create a business model

Setting out to build the most hyper-transparent charity

He also touched on how most charities don’t work to

Work Views Best Brands Services About

Speaking of impact, Interbrand’s Global COO Andy

He discussed how consumers today expect relevance,

Beyond this, Andy discussed how brands and

Speaking to this, he showcased Interbrand’s ONE

“In today’s age, there must be a new definition of

And, that’s a wrap! We hope to see you at our next

If you have an inquiry about our CSR work, please

Video Article Article Article

Growth starts here

Pages Follow Companies

© 2018 Interbrand. All Rights Reserved. Site Map Privacy Policy

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