Over the last three days at the Lions Health Festival I have met communications professionals and creatives at the top of their game, and others just starting out. I have been inspired by their work and had so many “I wish I had thought of that” moments that I have lost count.
So as I fly back across the English Channel from Cannes, what am I taking home with me? Here are three thoughts I’d like to share with you.
1. Changing lives does not have to be about reaching the masses. Having a positive impact on one person is more powerful than a superficial effect on 1000. The campaigns which really struck me the most were not those where success was measured by reach in the millions; they were the ones where you could see the human impact, the connection with an individual or a small community.
P&G’s Always Intimate Words, winner of the Health & Wellness Grand Prix, was beautiful in every way. Working with women in an indigenous Mexican community they developed a vocabulary for the female anatomy. Where words did not exist due to cultural taboos, together they created them. And in doing so they educated those women about gynaecological conditions, and in particular the signs of cervical cancer – one of the biggest killers of women in that community. By simply giving them words, to be passed down through generations, this initiative could be saving women’s lives for decades to come.
2. Are top down global programmes a thing of the past? Or is it time to look at different models for creating campaigns that are founded on local insights.
The Intimate Words initiative was designed to specifically address a local need. But I wonder how many other communities around the world face a similar problem? The languages may be different, but by taking the Mexican example and applying the same principles and framework to other communities facing similar problems, think how many women could be helped. The power of that initiative was in finding that local insight – if the company had tried to find a global equivalent they never would have produced something with such impact. But now that model can be applied in hundreds of other setting around the world.
3. Focus on a single insight to create a single idea. Be comfortable with not knowing everything – too much information can be a burden because it can cloud your judgement, creating noise that interferes with your gut instinct.
My three year old daughter put this beautifully the other day. She suddenly came out with a very insightful question. I asked her what had made her ask it. She said “I just thought it in my heart.” The next time you get a brief from a client with reams of background information, by all means ask questions, be curious, but afterwards stop and take time to reflect. Then listen to the thought in your heart.
