How do you motivate an agency creative department to be more creative? Better still, how do you motivate an entire agency to be more creative?
On Leo Burnett Canada’s 50th anniversary, creative director Judy John found a way to do both – by organizing its very own in-house independent film festival.
‘The Leo Indie’ proved a perfect way to build corporate collaboration and team-building, celebrate half a century of creativity – and have a hell of a lot of fun, too.
Instead of throwing the annual sports summer party, money was drawn away to finance the film festival. The rules were simple: employees were to assemble cross-functional teams, drawing people from a minimum of four different departments in order to prevent the stacking of experienced creative talent. Executives, secretaries, accountants, client service and creative people were mixed into 28 teams. The company donated cameras, stock and editing facilities, but nothing else.
As it turned out, the quality and diversity of the work surpassed the agency’s wildest expectations. Anywhere from 11 seconds to 15 minutes, the films ran the gamut from sweet to sad to serious to goofy. A mini-doc about an 80-1 shot winning the 2002 running of the Queen’s Plate, called 166, scored the grand prize of $5,000. The Job Interview, a vignette that cleverly captured the Leo Burnett corporate ethic of honesty and integrity, ended with the line: ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’
‘It was a fabulous morale-booster,’ says Marg Arnold, director of operations and an organizer of the event. People were enlisted who had never held a camera or written a script in their lives. The idea came through that everyone can contribute a creative idea. People don’t realize their own abilities unless they test them. Everybody’s creative, just in different ways.’
On July 31, after a company lunch, screenings took place all afternoon at Theatre Digital on Mt. Pleasant. Following cocktails and the judges’ deliberations, there was a raucous awards ceremony and mock Hollywood celebrity-style interviews. Moses Znaimer of CHUM presided as a judge while Citytv shot the event.
In the end, $36,000 was spent on the event, not including the favours called in from suppliers.
‘It proved hugely educational about how much goes into a 30-second spot – such as casting, etc.,’ says John. ‘The kibitzing and camaraderie brought people together. But it was also very competitive – no one would show their films to anyone during the production process.
‘It all comes down to inspiration,’ she adds. ‘We want to get away from just being inspired by other advertising. Everything becomes the same. We try to find our inspiration in an art gallery, reading a book, seeing a play or movie. Each month, I assign a team a certain amount of money and challenge them to inspire us all. Do some research and take us anywhere and show us anything. You’re on the hook to really get us inspired. It’s all about ideas. Ideas transport across all media – from a painting to a film to an ad.’
The Leo Indie not only generated buzz internally, but John also got calls from several creatives outside the agency. But its real impact has yet to be felt: when Leo Burnett’s Deputy Worldwide creative director visited Toronto and saw the films, he was duly impressed. So much so that a global competition, thrown open to dozens of Leo Burnett international offices, may soon be in the works.
