It takes a village to voice a message.
Departing the BCAMA 50th Anniversary MOY Awards gala last month, I reflected on how exciting it was to see so many of this region’s raw creative talent converge - in grandiose fashion.
Many of us sporting varying degrees of gold shimmer, as requested by the event hosts. We gathered for cocktails before entering the ornate Pacific Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver , an architectural and interior design artifact from our colony’s history with its soaring 23-foot ceiling and crystal chandeliers.
Strategy teams from client and agency side mixed across tables as we began to settle in for a celebratory evening. A chance to get away from the every day-and-night pressures of keeping our businesses afloat under mounting economic pressures, while somehow staying aligned with the growing need from communities.
Throwback nods to all things pop culture from 50 years ago came easily from the night’s emcee, Global BC Meteorologist Mark Madryga . Only to be outdone (in this author's opinion) by? Dennis Thomas-Whonoak, MBA , a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, who educated the ballroom on the ancient way of holding up our hands in gratitude - pinkies facing inward. We then feasted our eyes on the menu of marketing campaigns that drove BC community over the last year, plus.
Congratulations to the nominees and award recipients.
It takes a village to voice a message.
As I searched the room for faces old and new (to me), I noticed few under 30. Still coming up in this industry are the creatives, marketing and business graduates, interns, juniors and whiz-kids yet to enter this awards scene.?
After a brief intermission from some well-crafted presentations, I had the good fortune to meet someone in attendance actually under 30. She’s moving mountains within her organization for their National Black Professionals Network at KPMG Canada .
Immersed in conversation about the concept of community, we surreptitiously stayed behind at the bar a little longer as more awards were being handed out.
While nursing my second bourbon, she shared what the expression “it takes a village” meant to her back in Kenya where, as she informed me, tea is a leading export. She told me a story of how villagers are known to come together to support one another under difficult circumstances - across competing farms and production lines - to ensure the timely output of tea for export.?
Different tea businesses, same social profit.
The closest thing I could compare this to was what my family observed while in Fiji, where we spent our first post-lockdown vacation in mid-2022. Tourism is on the rise for this South Pacific nation’s GDP, and it's no wonder.
In an attempt to see the real Fiji, we chose locally-owned or operated Airbnb homes - over resort life. Outside of frilly Fijian resorts, this small multi-island nation might appear underdeveloped to the average Western tourist.
Village after village along our exploratory highway drives and random stops, whenever we chatted up a Fijian local - it became perfectly clear - these are in fact some of the richest people on earth. Their values are some of the richest we've witnessed in decades of global travel.
Why? Fiji is grounded in a communal society. Fijians place great importance on the value of the family unit, the village, and the vanua (land).
Given the pace of climate change, more environmental damage will be done to their vanua this decade. Villagers who have lived along this coastline, or cast nets from it as their ancestors did centuries before them, will lose their land.
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Sanasana, one village we came across, was entirely built along the water's edge. In Fiji, the tide is rising and their beaches are shrinking fast. As of this fall, Fiji Airways has launched direct flights from Vancouver, at wicked rates, so feel free to see for yourself what the world might very tragically lose sooner than later. What the Fijian people are losing now.
Outside the ballroom of my peers celebrating the work done to impact our local communities, I struggled to see how, by and large, we Westerners are "communal". Our societies have devolved into individualistic, me-first nations.
We're so very busy keeping up with the Joneses on our socially-scrolly-iPhoneses.
Standing across a high-top table I confessed to my new connection, “I've got 20 years on you and I grew up here. We were a more communal society back in the ’70s and ’80s... at least on the East Coast. I PROMISE you, it wasn’t always this way.”
Then I stood there wondering, how can I make more of an impact? How can I stop the hamster wheel I’m on and shout louder, “We can’t go on like this!”?
To say Mad Men values matter less these days would make a creative copywriter cringe, but the Baby Boomer legacy of putting profits first is swirling in a storm of GenZ comeuppance that we haven’t even witnessed the full wrath of yet. But they're coming up.
Soon some of you will retire - or fake retirement and sneak back in with a double-entendre “P.S. I’m still Chairman” role ;). Or you’ll work insane hours into your 60s because you’re passionate (maybe a little unbalanced with your health choices), and strive to still feel recognized for your contribution.
All of us have a responsibility to educate the next generation in a way we weren’t: to boldly put the planet first.?
Keep your eyes on the real prize, kids: protecting this precious earth.
No pressure on the next generation, but earth's tenuous future will carry with it several dragons for future Marketers to slay with more questions than answers, such as:
In his famous March 11, 1854 speech, Chief Seattle, a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish first peoples was written down and translated into plain English by a young colonist as follows:
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”?
To all the young marketers out there, I hope the big shiny award you win one day is a healthier planet. Everything is riding on it.
- By Penny Greening
Certified Google Ads Partner Agency | Reviews Marketing | Lead Generation | Email Marketing | NLP Master Practitioner | QHHT Level 1 Practitioner.
2 年Well written Penny, yes we do have a responsibility to our planet and sustainability.