The Age of ‘Goodvertising’

It’s so funny how a single phone call from an unknown number, which you may not usually answer, can greatly impact your plans. Let me explain what I mean.

It all started sometime during the summer, I was in Montreal at our Edelman Office and things were, well, ‘summer in PR’ (meaning, a bit slow). So, I actually did answer the call which came in unsolicited. It was a European number. On the line, I heard the delicate voice of a young French woman, Laura, who very politely, explained that the company she worked for--—the Cristal Media & Advertising Summit (MAD)—was in the midst of undergoing a complete revamp / remodel, to become a ‘new and improved’ International Communications Marketing Event, held in France. “Um-hum”, I said, as I checked her LinkedIn profile. She continued to explain that the Cristal was very well known in France, however, aimed to become increasingly international, with some success. Yet, being a French-speaking event, they would love to penetrate the Quebec French-speaking market. In fact, over the past 15 years, not a single agency case study from the creative or PR side had been submitted by a Quebec organization, despite the number of agencies prevalent throughout Quebec. Laura proceeded to explain that she would be making a series of calls to other General Managers of agencies to have them participate in the summit, which would be held in the French Alps, in December 2018. I suddenly stopped everything I was doing: “Did you say the French Alps?” So of course, long story short, I jumped on the opportunity and offered my help with promoting the event in Quebec in exchange for a chance to present the Edelman Trust Barometer, Edelman’s annually-recurring signature piece of Intellectual Property, which has been presented throughout the world for the past 18 years! I proposed that I could present in French, in English or both! “DEAL Madame Laurier!”, she said.

So, I started making phone calls to business and trade media, other advertising and communications agencies, and other organizations, only to be told by every single person in Quebec: “Eve, I’ve NEVER heard of this event!”

Cristal Media & Advertising Summit

In the interim, I received a formal invitation from the president of the Mediachool Group and proprietor of the Cristal MAD, who invited me to accept the role of President of the PR and Corporate Reputation Jury for the Cristal MAD. Of course, without reading the fine print or even giving it much thought, my answer to him was: “BIEN S?R!” (Side note: this is me in a nutshell. I’m the kind of person whom you invite to an event that sounds new and exciting which I’ve never done before, and without hesitation, I will raise my hand and proclaim: “I’m in! I’m in! Me, me, me! Let’s do it!” Only then do I find out what it’s all about…)

So, there I was, in December, on a plane to Geneva, on my way to being the president of the PR Corporate and Reputation Jury at the Cristal MAD which no one seemed to have ever heard of in Quebec. And I should mention, not only was it being held in the French Alps, which I’ve never travelled to in winter, but it was also happening to be a brand-new Club Med resort, the Grand Massif of Samoens, near Geneva. I would be on duty for 3 days, as the president of the Jury, but luckily would then have 2 half days to enjoy skiing on the beautiful slopes before the start of the event, where 400 people from all over the globe, would participate in a series of ‘Ted Talk style’ 15-minute speaker presentations where prizes for the best ideas would be revealed on the last day.

So, I arrived at a beautiful Club Med where I was greeted as Madame la Présidente and was assigned a luxurious room with 3 bathrooms, a huge reading den and two enormous bedrooms overlooking the magnificent white peaks of the French Alps. Up until this point, everything was (really) good. Next, I met the jurors on my team; they were all amazing and multilingual professionals from all over the world with impressive curriculums, and decades of experience in marketing. For the most part, they had all participated in events like Cannes Lions and here I was, Eve from Quebec, designated to lead this jury of amazing individuals. Bang. That’s when it hit me: the impostor syndrome! I started realizing that I had never attended a trade summit, I had never been on a jury, I wasn’t sure how to be president of a jury and I started doubting whether I was even good enough to be there in the first place! While everyone was enjoying their first cocktails at the reception, I ran back to my room in a fury to immediately start going over 60 cases repeatedly, as I felt I had not prepared enough in advance, and the weight of the responsibility began to wash over me. Oh, this is NOT going to be a leisurely ski trip after all, I thought…

Luckily, I was assigned to the coolest cast of juries I could have hoped for. We soon started to debate cases (and even had some heated arguments). This aspect was as fun as it was intense, and I felt I was able to convince everyone to speak their mind and move on, one case at a time. Most of the work was remarkable, and it wasn’t an easy job, but since the cases were all so inspiring, I instinctively had opinions, positive or negative about each. The magic of the Alps also helped me focus. I realized that to be the president of the jury, you need three ingredients: active listening, the ability to debate and finally, the integrity to make a fair and final decision on the winner. To be fair, these were three elements I felt I knew in a very solid way.

The rest is history, as they say. We had an absolute blast presenting the cases, agreed White (bronze), Azure (silver) and Cobalt (gold), and in the interim, I got to present the Edelman Trust Barometer to 400 people, in French (using my Quebecois accent in a room full of proper French-speakers from France who were clearly charmed by my quaint accent). I was also asked to moderate a panel and present a closing 15 minute debrief of the entire week. What an honor it was to be a part of such a fun and inspirational journey.

The thing that struck me most is that the people I met, from Japan, Romania, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Dubai, Greece, the USA and many more, were all so amazing and passionate about their work. Even though it has been my dream to ski in the Alps since I was a little girl, the best part of my trip was actually spent locked up in that room, with my fellow jurors, debating why one case deserved to win over another, and of course, making new friends which I now consider international colleagues.

Finally, I can’t conclude without highlighting something that really uplifted my spirits during the case review. Most of the cases, in all categories (media, creative, integrated, digital, tech, PR etc.) had a societally impactful component to them. Brands seem to be getting the message that it’s ok to sell a product, make profits and grow, but that you must do so while contributing toward a social good to make the world a better place; either by fixing something or by bringing awareness to a problem or issue. Profits for the sake of profits and pure product marketing don’t seem to be acceptable anymore. I believe that very soon, the ‘goodvertising’ category will disappear as there will be a ‘social good’ component in all the communications and marketing campaigns. I tried as much as I could not to devalue cases that did not include social impact components, but in a room with over 50 jurors, it felt only natural that the big winner would somewhat, somehow, have a GOOD story to tell. I’ll toast to that with a glass of Chablis!

+++ A very special merci to Laura, Novlaine, Marie, Franck, Julien (you are the best mon ami!), Juliette and to my crew of jurors as well as my Canadian buddy Peter Ignazi who made it all even more special. Trust me, if you work in communications marketing, you want to submit your work to the Cristal Media & Advertising Summit and enjoy a 4-day event in the Alps with some of the coolest people from our industry, and be the one who, like me, wants to tell the world about this amazing happening where international professionals of all walks come together to talk about great work, with a delicious glass of Chablis and maybe a little piece of Tartiflette.

Here are the 3 winning cases:

1. Universal Love

2. Black Supermarket

3. BlindMeters