AdWeek 2015

Well that was the week of AdWeek 2015. Disparately dressed advertising and marketing bods pounding the streets of London, oversized AdWeek lanyards (identifying them) violently swinging as they shout into mobiles, only to steady as they join long queues at St James's Church, Piccadilly - or the other multitude of venues across London – ravenous for content and sensors set high to identify the smallest vibration of a new oncoming trend.

In its third year, AdWeek Europe “is a hybrid of inspiring thought leadership featuring the world's best and brightest with engaging special events that galvanize targeted constituencies. Advertising Week Europe draws from the client, media and broader cultural communities with a laser focus on key business drivers that shape and influence the global industry”.

Over 4 days and 209 events with an expected 23,550 in attendance visiting 113 seminars & 70 workshops; they'll be 4,059 delegates, 248 members of the press reporting on over 185 hours of Thought Leadership content and enough speakers from the world of business, technology, sport and entertainment to put an annual TED conference in the shade. The numbers speak for themselves; it’s a busy week for sure with a lot of content and distance covered and late nights extending into the aching light of the following day.

So what’s been covered this year? Here’s a snapshot:

Speaker Rafe Offer  discussed The Future of Brands: What is a 21st Century Brand?

Advertisers slammed for treating older women as they’re invisible.  Nicola Kemp, Marketing Magazine

Smartwatches to flop  according to The Drum’s Ad Week Europe Piccadilly Circus poll. Gillian West

John Lewis  marketing boss Craig Inglis: ‘Be authentic and look for the big idea’  Gemma Charles. Brand Republic.

And Grayson Perry challenges ‘coolness’, something arguably at the very centre of the industry, by saying “Coolness is a form of orthodoxy. It’s a set of rules already coalesced around something. Being uncool is a powerful creative force”.

Of course there’s far too much content from the last week for this small news roundup but it hopefully shows the breadth of discussion and the ongoing attempts of advertisers to better understand our ever shifting relationships with brands while identifying new channels for them to reach emotions we may not even have words for yet.