Istanbul Brand Week 2024: Major Insights Recap
Festival Frenzy: Global Injustices up for Discussion at Brand Week Istanbul
Last week (6-8 November), Brand Week Istanbul, the mother of all creativity and business festivals for the EMEA region, went down a storm packed with over 50,000 attendees and 500 speakers from everywhere. Across three days and fourteen stages, they tackled the hot issues that are rocking businesses today.
Global Wrongs in the Spotlight
Kicking off the event, Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, made some powerful statements, claiming that we're witnessing a historical turning point with five big wrongs duking it out in today's world.
First off, the digital divide keeps aggravating, leaving poor countries lagging behind, increasing their dependence on the developed world. Secondly, climate injustice has become a real thing, where the damage hits developing nations hardest despite them contributing the least to it. Thirdly, the refugee burden is another unfair load falling on the shoulders of underdeveloped nations. Fourthly, Mayor İmamoğlu shared his thoughts on the weakening middle class, saying that financial inequality makes it impossible to maintain world peace. Lastly, he pointed out the biggest structural issue plaguing nations across the globe: injustice in representation.
Exploring this final point further, Mayor İmamoğlu explained that the international law system is largely shaped by geopolitics, which means that concerns from the West often get priority, while the voices of others are brushed aside. He urged the creative crowd to lend their talents in the battle against these injustices.
Human Creativity Matters
The value of creative industries was drummed into us every day of the event. Laia Gasch, Director of the World Cities Culture Forum, revealed that London boasts one in five creative jobs. She also highlighted the importance of all the future-proof skills like problem solving, empathy, and interpersonal skills which need a dose of creativity. Her conclusion? 'Creativity is an essential, unique human capacity'.
Cartoonist and design thinker, Tom Fishburne, also hit the stage at Brand Week Istanbul, talking about the power of humor with his famous cartoons. He pointed out that laughter can help us navigate changes, because his cartoons hold a mirror up to the industry, explicitly showcasing the four types of myopia (technology, customer, data, and organizational) that have the potential to create trouble for marketers today.
When asked what advice he'd give to creatives worrying about AI, he told our website, 'The key takeaway for creatives is that AI currently works like a great averager. It produces what's most likely to be what people want to see, creating room for the unique and genuinely creative to flourish.'
Fast Track Leadership
One common theme echoed throughout the event was how quickly the world is moving and how hard it is for businesses to keep pace. Sophie Devonshire, CEO of The Marketing Society and author of Superfast: Lead at speed, presented three tactics to help leaders conquer impatience and 'overwhelmitis.'
More specifically, she suggested that energy management, empathy, and editing can help leaders find the perfect pace to lead in a world where speed reigns supreme. chatting with our website, Devonshire emphasized the urgency of finding the right pace:
'If you go too slow, it's dumb. If you go too fast, it's reckless. The right pace is where we can thrive, not just survive, in a world that keeps speeding up.'
Beyond Generations
Speakers also talked about marketers' fixation on generations, particularly Generation Z. Serial entrepreneur Mark Adams addressed the topic, arguing that being born in a random 16-year birth window doesn't give people shared characteristics. Instead, he proposed that brands focus on people's passions and choose a network to support based on four criteria: their cultural positioning, the story they can tell alongside it, their potential contribution, and their creative appeal.
Explaining why this approach is more effective, Adams said that people's innate desire is to connect, not be classified by age.
Image Credit: Brand Week Istanbul stage
Insights
The Brand Week Istanbul event discusses several global issues affecting various parts of the world, such as political repression, media censorship, economic inequality, youth discontent, and human rights violations, which connect to Ekrem İmamoğlu's situation and protests resulting from his arrest in Turkey. Ekrem İmamoğlu's statements at the event address these global issues, including the digital divide, climate injustice, refugee burden, income inequality, and injustice in representation, as he calls for increased representation and the power of creativity in tackling them. The conference emphasizes the importance of tackling these issues through creativity, leadership, and understanding people beyond simple categorization.
- Ekrem İmamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, urged the creative crowd at Brand Week Istanbul to lend their talents in the battle against global injustices, such as the digital divide, climate injustice, the refugee burden, weakening middle class, and injustice in representation.
- Laia Gasch, Director of the World Cities Culture Forum, emphasized the value of creative industries, stating that creativity is an essential, unique human capacity, and that skills like problem solving, empathy, and interpersonal skills need a dose of creativity.
- Tom Fishburne, cartoonist and design thinker, pointed out the potential trouble for marketers caused by four types of myopia (technology, customer, data, and organizational), as humor can help navigate changes in the industry.
- Sophie Devonshire, CEO of The Marketing Society and author of 'Superfast: Lead at speed', suggested energy management, empathy, and editing as tactics for leaders to find the perfect pace in a world where speed is crucial.
- Mark Adams, a serial entrepreneur, argued that brands should focus on people's passions and choose a network based on cultural positioning, storytelling potential, contribution, and creative appeal, instead of strictly categorizing people by age groups such as Generation Z.
