CANNES, FRANCE, JUNE 2012: On day 4 of Cannes Festival, IPG hosted a session called “Conversations on Women in the Advertising Marketing and Media Industry” hosted by Huffington Post president and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington. Lowe Philippines’ president and chief creative officer Leigh Reyes was one of the panel speakers. 

Reyes shared that taking risks and knowing which risks to bet on are keys to being a successful creative leader.

She narrates her experiences on taking risks in selling her agency’s idea to a client. “What happens to me almost everyday is that I risk our agency reputation, our agency finances on an idea because that’s what we do. We bet on our ideas that will win for our clients on the marketplace. ”

Reyes shared an example of one the biggest risks she had taken but failed.

“It was when I bet on one huge idea which I thought that would really sell the client on getting us as an agency and that did not happen. Absolutely turned off the client, scared them away, etc. .. But what was great about that exercise was I said: ‘okay we went through all this work, let’s see what we can save and maybe we can go and sell it somewhere else,’” narrates Reyes.

“I think that you can’t stop a great idea no matter how many times it’s failed. Just keep at it until you get it,” concludes Reyes.

The session was held June 2, 2012 and included other panel of women leaders such as Betsy Frost Webb, General Manager, Media and Agency Management of Microsoft; and Klara Farkas, Global Market Leader of Yum Restaurants.

In photo: Lowe Philippines’ Leigh Reyes with Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington