LIA Creative LIAisons 2021: Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential, helping them learn rather than teaching them

Story by: J Bonilla – Coach

Mentees:  Macdonald Iheme, Art Director, X3M Nigeria and Ryan Potter, Group Art Supervisor, McCann NY

This was not what I expected. I naively thought I’d be handed a few fairly green, wide-eyed mentees who would pepper me with some basic questions about music for advertising, which is what my company does. What I was actually “handed” were some razor-sharp young ad creatives with many years experience under their belts, and a tight list of poignant questions in hand.

The first mentee I spoke with was Macdonald Iheme, a Art Director at the Nigerian agency X3M. It was early eve in Nigeria when we hopped on our Zoom call, and Macdonald was sitting on a leg curl machine in the agency’s gym. I’d go on to learn that he’s been an AD there for five years, and that his agency was one of the most sought after in the country. Macdonald hit me with several pointed questions about how we approach our Sonic Branding projects. We also exchanged ideas about the differences between how music is used in ads and media in the US and Nigeria. It felt more like a conversation between two folks working at a high level in advertising and media than it did a one-way download of info from a mentor to a mentee. And Macdonald’s industry awareness and creativity was as much a factor in that as my initial naivety going into the convo. I told him I would be shocked if he wasn’t running that agency at some point in the future.

To keep it super real here, my second mentee stood me up. He was in India, and we had our Zoom scheduled for a weekend, and he just didn’t show. I was a bit bummed, but I chalked it up to a pretty serious time difference and/or some wires crossed on logistics. He didn’t reach out to reschedule, so I left it at that.

The last mentee I spoke with was Ryan Potter, a Group Art Supervisor at McCann NY. After my first mentee, I didn’t go into this convo with the dumb expectations I had initially. And Ryan didn’t disappoint. He was a super bright creative with a fair amount of experience dealing with music companies, and he showed up with a great list of in-depth questions about our creative process for original music, licensing terms, etc. We also connected really well on a personal level, which I’d done with Macdonald as well.

I left both of these conversations pretty exhilarated to see how smart and switched-on some of the young people are in this industry. I absolutely learned as much from them as they may have from me, and I’m guessing that was likely the experience of most of the mentors in this amazing program. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

GIUSEPPE CONSTANTINE

Giuseppe Constantine, Founder / CCO, Loft51 LinkedIn

Founder / Chief Creative Officer
Loft51 Studio, Ecuador

Giuseppe is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Loft51 Studio. He is an advertising lover, creative by nature and together with his advertising studio he has won awards at international creative and advertising festivals such as WINA Independent Advertising Awards and publications in the advertising magazine Lürzer’s Archive. He has also been a jury member at creative festivals such as NYF AME Awards and PHNX by Adforum.
Authentic and Real Connections of Digital Marketing with the New Consumer

Commercial innovation and modernization that technology brings to the current market have been complemented in the transformation of digital marketing.

Which has two stages, since the beginnings of digital marketing. The first was in the decades of 1990 – 2010, where the search models in advertising banners, commercial transactions and social networks were redefined; and the second from 2020, with the restructuring of digital marketing as an essential element to maintain economic, productive, commercial and market operation.

The impact generated by the Covid-19 pandemic helped to maintain social distancing and bringing the client closer to the market offer of the business environment through digital media.

That is why the new connections that come from the interest of the market on a variety of products focus on authentic relationships between the new consumer who searches for products, goods or other services, through digital media and information in line, and companies that constantly and continuously update their offer, providing daily innovation and fostering competitiveness.

With this scenario, digital marketing contributes to the promotion of a globalized and innovative market, which integrates supply and demand in a delocalized way and projects companies of all sizes to a global market.

The new and authentic connection of digital marketing towards the new consumer has revealed important changes in the behavior of the current market, which increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This led companies to enter the digital market in a structured and formal way as a fundamental means to maintain its participation with the market and increase the new digitized international trade approach. With this, they are presented in a different way, with direct and personalized treatment, leaving aside the horizontal relationship to a more friendly and human one, implementing an empathic and comprehensive relationship with the needs and demands of the current consumer.

From this approach, the innovation and development of digital marketing, it is expected to project greater social and market responsibility of companies towards consumers and promote the credibility and trust that it is desired to transmit, as an element of direct connection between organizations and their customers. Therefore, the information that is transmitted must be careful, authentic, thoughtful, environmentally friendly, healthy and coherent, to build a solid bond between current consumers and companies that bet on digital marketing as the direct connection of commercial and social improvement in a world that evolves towards an integrated and responsible market with the health and the economy.

5 WEEKS LEFT TO ENTER
Take Advantage of LIA’s 25% Entry Discount
Final Entry Deadline: 31st August, 2021

New Competitions for 2021:

Creative Use of Data: Recognizes work that demonstrates the fundamental role of data in inspiring, powering and enhancing creativity.
Transformative Business Impact: Recognizes that creativity does not just live within campaigns, it now plays an influential role in the enduring transformation of businesses including their operations, services, products, internal experiences and customer experiences. This medium doesn’t just recognize work that promotes solutions to customers; it recognizes the solutions themselves.
LIA 2021 Eligibility:
As most work is a joint effort, LIA allows any company or individual to enter work they have collaborated on.
Work must be broadcast, published or released from 1st Sept. 2019 through 8th Aug. 2021.
The Entry System will remain open through the end of August 2021.