Caxton 2010 seminar in Noosa: prepare to be provoked by Woolley, Wilkins, Horton and Sinclair
CB Exclusive – There’s only one place to be for Australian creatives from October 22 to 24 this year and that’s the Quay West Resort Noosa, the venue for the 2010 Caxton Seminar and Awards.
It’s already shaping up as a vintage year for hot debate and brilliant insights from some of advertising’s most notable, not to mention frequently controversial, figures.
The initial line-up of speakers for the Seminar includes Jon Wilkins (top right), co-founder of international advertising powerhouse Naked; legendary advertising icon, Ted Horton (bottom right); Peter Sinclair (bottom left), the man charged with marketing more than 58 beer brands at Carlton & United Breweries; and TrinityP3 founder (and ex agency creative) Darren Woolley (top left).
Says chairman of the Caxton Committee, Rob Belgiovane: “It’s smallwonder the Committee is already excited about the Caxtons this year -without doubt it’s going to be a Caxtons weekend to remember, with anassembly of some of the brightest people in our industry preparing tooffer their take on what’s great, and what’s not so great, about whatwe do.”
Jon Wilkins co-founded Naked in 2000 and has fosteredthe agency’s growth into one of the world’s most cutting-edgecommunications businesses. No stranger to controversy, Wilkins oncefamously compared Naked Sydney as “working in cells like al-Qaeda”, andhe’s getting ready to stir the creative pot at the Caxtons this year.
SaysWilkins: “I’m really looking forward to the 2010 Caxtons because it’ssuch a fantastic opportunity for like-minded people – and some not solike-minded people – to come together and thrash out what exactly wemean by this thing called creativity.
“Commercially, we’reliving in a copying culture and with creative ideas all being recycledor stolen, it’s more and more challenging for us to come up with anoriginal idea, much less sell it to a client. Popular culture isovertaking advertising as a source of original ideas and I don’t thinkthe ad industry has got its head around this yet. Maybe we can start atthe Caxtons 2010.”
Darren Woolley, founder and managingdirector of TrinityP3, echoed these comments: “The Caxtons I’veattended have always generated heated discussion, and are one of thebest forums I know for stimulating new thinking about creativity,advertising and its function in the wider world,” Woolley said.
“Ibelieve the way advertising creativity is valued – or should say notvalued – is at the very core of advertising’s problems today. Yet forall the talk, nobody’s been able to crack that as yet. Is this becausethe industry really doesn’t believe it creates real value? Or is itjust too scared to take the risk? Come to the Caxtons and let’s sort itout,” he said.
Quay West Noosa, the venue for this year’s CaxtonSeminar and Awards, is a new resort located on Noosa Sound at the edgeof nine hectares of national park. Delegates at the 2010 Caxtons willenjoy world-class accommodation, leisure and conference facilities.
“It’snot an exaggeration to say there’s nothing like the Caxtons weekend onthe advertising calendar in Australia, and this year at Noosa we canguarantee delegates a fantastic experience,” Belgiovane said, addingthat more speakers would be announced in coming weeks.
Entries to the 2010 Caxton Awards will open in mid-June.
Forfurther information on the 2010 Caxton Seminar and Awards, includingbooking enquiries, please contact Justine Kendall at Two de Force, +6129281 8788 or email justine@twodeforce.com.au
17 Comments
Wilkins, Horton and Sinclair – good line-up.
p3?
Surely we can save some money by not inviting the enemy.
You can’t sort out anything with a bunch of politicians.
If Darren Wooley was serious about what he said, he’d demand that clients pay for creative pitches. But he doesn’t. He gets paid, but not the agencies. So therefore more importance is being placed on outsiders opinions than the creative idea. Way to undervalue what we do Wooley! you’re part of the problem! Try being a part of the solution. We pitch, they pay. Not $5000, not $10000 but $25000 minimum. We spend more than that anyway. That’s the only way to truly put value on what we do. Clients will be a hell of a lot more considered in their choices and less time and money will be wasted on guys that never had a chance.
Will Sinclair be bringing the piss?
As part of his commitment to green audits etc., I assume Woolley will be walking. Or was that just bandwagon jumping like poor old Kevin07.
You can kick the shit out of Darren Woolley all you like, he’s an easy target, but for all the changes in the media landscape, the issue of how agencies get paid by clients is still stuck in the past. We charge for our time, not for our ideas. Head hours versus Intellectual Property. How do YOU, Mr 1:44 or any other know-it-alls with poison pens poised propose we change that?
2:47 said “You can kick the shit out of Darren Woolley all you like”
We can?
2:47, let’s be honest that in our economy the rewards go to he who holds the risk. Until you put your own money on the line, you will always be just a service provider entitled to fees. Yes, some clients may offer you some more innovative reward structures to recognise the quality of the work but you are still just a service provider.
The dude who created 42 Below. I don’t know. He probably mortgaged his house, went without a salary. Had countless sleepless nights and headaches. He deserves to make a shit load for the risks he took and the commercial success that ensued.
Had he stayed at his original agency with a comfy salary and corner office and pitched a new concept for a vodka to a client, would he have deserved anywhere near the upside that he finally got? No. Skin in the game. Balls on the line. Before you start bleating about being underpaid, stop and think about it in those terms.
“But my idea made them a lot of money.”
“It was fucking meant to. That’s why you get paid pretty well to wear trainers and doodle all day.”
He put ‘skin in the game’ and ‘balls on the line’ because he couldn’t put many awards on the shelf.
Chill out, 3:54 PM. It’s just advertising. Or is that your point?
Hmmm…. gee, let me think:
3 Gold Lions, a couple of Clio’s, 4 D&AD noms and a Silver, and two One Show pencils is nice…
But $80,000,000 (that’s eighty million dollars) in my pocket for having just sold my vodka brand to a global giant. That’s a bit better than nice.
Somehow, I think he’s not all that fussed that he “couldn’t put many awards on the shelf” in his advertising career. Don’t you?
Calm down, 3:54, for most wage slaves in advertising, being an entrepreneur is not really an option. Who are you, Richard Branson?
6:09 – you really live for awards? I honestly and humbly feel sorry for you.
I see awards as a carrot to keep us doing mediocre work on all the big accounts that are completely ballsed up and over-anal-ised by suits and pay us less for the privilege (at least initially).
Does popping out a couple of scam ads every year really add up in the long run, if you add up how much time you spent earning less than an account manager?
It’s a very transparent game, takes a genuine creative thinker to play by his own rules. Fuck man, when you’re rich, you can buy all the bloody statues you want.
I’m shocked by the Stockholm Syndrome some of the smartest creative people I’ve met seem to exhibit towards the very statues that hold us hostage from doing truly innovative work.
Most awarded work is derivative with all the ‘rules’ of award show thinking written all over it, not something genuinely brilliant.
6:51 PM
I’m giving it a go, mate. Giving it a go.
Richard Branson?
You don’t need to be Usian Bolt to enjoy and improve your running, either.
6:09 can you give us some examples of truly innovative creative work ( from this industry not another one) which didn’t win awards? I’m not taking the piss – I’m actually interested in your point.
6:09 Nike’s live just do it ads. Andy Fackrell thinks they are some of his best ever and they never won a thing.
Sorry 2.09, but if you’re relying on someone from the Foster’s marketing department to bring the beer, you’ll be sadly disappointed. From the chaotic nature of their marketing strategies – abandoning great strategies here, taking on absurd ones there – it’s obvious theyt couldn’t organise a piss up even when they own the brewery.