SINGAPORE – September 19, 2013 – The first-ever ‘Kopi with Leo’ took place at the InterContinental hotel on September 17, hosted by Leo Burnett. The first of its kind, ‘Kopi with Leo’ was an opportunity for regional representatives and clients alike to gather in a casual setting for a lineup of talks by some of the network’s top minds. The common thread of the talks, according to Leo Burnett Asia Pacific President Jarek Ziebinski, was creativity as seen through a very human lens.
“We would like to use this event as an annual platform to gather with clients and partners to discuss important things and share our learnings and interesting case studies by different people from the Leo Burnett network,” Ziebinki told adobo.
Following a short welcoming address from Ziebinski, James Kirkham (Burnett Worldwide’s global head of social and mobile) and Will Sansom (Contagious Insider’s senior consultant) took to the stage for a Southeast Asian reprise of their well-received talk, ‘Wildfire/Full of Tomorrow’, originally presented at Cannes 2013. The aim of the talk was to show that, for as much as we might think brands are integrated into our everyday lives, it’s nothing compared to what the next five years could bring. The important thing brands had to remember, said Kirkham, was to avoid becoming just so much visual spam: “Enhance, don’t distract. You need brands to act smart to be truly relevant." This was backed up by Sansom who pointed out that they also had to avoid the temptation to use shiny gadgets for the sake of it. “Good technology is no excuse for a good idea.”
Next up was ‘Creativity Without Borders’, by Leo Burnett Worldwide chief creative officer Mark Tutssel, driving home the idea that constant reinvention and evolution is necessary in a world where anyone with an internet connection must be considered an independent media outlet. Tutssel stressed that a good idea was the only thing that could really propel an agency and that, no matter what the technological advance, “The one thing that will never change is the power of an idea to connect human beings.
Following Tutssel was the pair of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific regional chief strategy officer Saurabh Varma and Global Prospective & Trends director Steven Van Der Kruit, presenting how the discovery of trends and cultural fuels had more to do with walking the streets of any given city than sitting in a boardroom, as well as how they had exhaustively identified between 1500 and 1800 individual behavioral types to better understand what sorts of marketing work for different people.
“As the world becomes increasingly informal, there is a need to bring back some sort of structure, said Varma. “Once you identify the different types of behavior, you can use the knowledge as a tool to brainstorm.”
With its informative talks by excellent speakers, backed up by fresh coffee and good company, the inaugural ‘Kopi with Leo’ session was an unqualified success, and an event well worth looking forward to in years to come.
