In conversation with Menno Kluin, CCO, Dentsu Creative USA
The jury for the Abby One Show Awards at Goafest 2022 included world-renowned industry veterans from across the globe. We got the chance to interact with one of the international jury members- Menno Kluin.
Menno Kluin is the Chief Creative Officer at Dentsu Creative USA and has a proven track record of creative success. Apart from being one of the jury members at this year’s Abby One Show Awards, he also undertook a knowledge seminar at Goafest 2022 discussing collaborative creativity in the advertising world.
In a candid conversation, Menno shared his key insights on the campaigns he witnessed by Indian agencies and organizations, “As a jury, I saw work that was contextually relevant to the ‘now’ and I think the best agencies have done work that is connected to the culture, and what’s happening in the society. There were a couple of campaigns that were connected to the pandemic, some were connected to the purpose-driven topics, that is extremely relevant now. So the winning campaigns are ultimately the ones that are connected to the now.”
While the Indian advertising industry matches global standards, there are certain differences that Menno has observed in the US advertising world, “In the US it’s still more TV heavy. The big winners at awards usually have campaigns that are big TV productions and TV is still considered as the highest form of creativity.” He further discussed how creativity is enhanced by key tech players in the US, “They tend to build out their own creative departments and get more autonomy. A lot of creativity comes out of it as there is no friction between the client and agency dynamic. In most of the cases, they don’t have any revenue shortage and the overall goal remains to do more interesting things and to be positively viewed in the culture and society.”
The conversation then steered towards the role of international jury members in awards and the values they bring to the table. He shared his opinion, “I found myself voting for local-specific things higher because I didn’t have the full context. For me, it was new while other jury members were of different opinions. So while I didn’t know the full context, I voted higher for those things because of their newness and uniqueness for me. But it all depends on the individual.”
On the topic of tech dominating the ad world and whether it would impact creativity, Menno shared how it all depends on the DNA of the agency, and the ask of the client. He shed light on how stories and narratives are the most important component and need to be at the center of an ad, despite it being tech-heavy. Towards the end of the conversation, Menno shared that while awards are important to celebrate a campaign; he believes that the ultimate goal behind every campaign, irrespective of how long or short it is, should be to stand the test of time and be remembered.
Agency Reporter published Goafest 2022 newsletter on all 3 days. Download to read here: