In this interview the Ceo of Festival of Media, Jeremy King, speaks about the story of this event. It was developed in three editions: GLOBAL in Rome, LATAM, North America (FOMNA) and Asia (FOMA)
By Francesca Ferrara (@netnewsmaker) –
- Can you tell us when and why Festival of Media was born? What about genesis of this project?
“Festival of Media was curated on the French Riveria at the Cannes Lions Festival in 2006 by our former founder and now board member Charlie Crowe. The premise was to create an event, which provided an opportunity for the global media hub – agencies, brands and media owners – to come together to discuss the latest trends and insights taking place in the media landscape, celebrate media excellence and create an environment for its delegates to do business. It was launched in 2007 in Venice in Italy and this year Festival of Media Global will celebrate its 13th edition. The event has evolved over the last 13 years in line with the changing media landscape and the agenda is curated based on the educational media needs of the world’s biggest spending brands from P&G and Unilever to Coca Cola and L’Oreal. It is now an event for advertisers to learn and discover new opportunities to drive their media and marketing campaigns, a hub for celebrating the best campaigns around the world and an event with a heart, which provides professional life coaching, wellbeing MOTs and sessions in how to deliver ROI from networking at events”.
2) How many editions are? There is a division which includes/groups different countries. Why? Which differences among them?
“In 2010 Festival of Media Latam was launched followed by Festival of Media APAC 12 months later, Festival of MENA in 2014 and Festival of Media North America in 2017. It means we are serving the advertising and media community around the world and providing education and opportunities to advertisers to understand the complexities of the new media landscape”.
3) “Defining Purposeful Media: Culture Future, Innovation” is the theme of this edition. What do you mean exactly? What is your personal vision about our future in Communication and Journalism? And what about business and advertising? Which kind of path, are the companies supposed to undertake in the next future?
“The main ‘hook’ for the event is based around purposefulness. This can be purposefulness from creating campaigns that create social impact, champions inclusivity or simply meet the purpose of advertising. In today’s world consumers are interested in brands that are having a positive impact on communities, or helping those that need help.
The media eco-system needs to be saved by brands before journalism becomes its biggest casualty. As brands look to cut costs and programmatic has driven the costs of ads in publishers down it’s always journalism that gets cut, so the industry needs to act to save it.
Brands needs to be creating campaigns that have a purpose and resonate with consumers in a cultural and social environment. They need to do more than just sell a product, whereas agencies, media owners and tech companies have to provide key ideas that are transparent, creative and engaging”.
4) What about your Awards? Exactly, what is it? How Awards idea was born?
“The awards are set up to celebrate the best media campaigns from around the world based on a number of criteria and judged by three different juries, who adhere to strict judging standards and cannot talk about their own work. The awards were born in 2007 at the same time as the conference and have grown around the globe”.
5) Since 2014 you guide the Festival of Media. Can you describe your professional personal balance about this experience? Could you tell us a story/episode in particular?
“It has been an interesting journey and as a company we have had to be flexible and adapt with the audience. When I first started it became clear that the main set of audience wanting content were the advertisers, so we created the event around their needs and now we have created a Festival that has advertisers at its heart and speaks to them around the world on a daily basis. It’s been a tough job with plenty of highs and few lows, but I have managed to create a great work/life balance that allows me to spend time with my three children and my wife. Admittedly I am always on, but able to focus on my family whenever I can.
When I first started my first Festival of Media Latam event saw me programmed to chair two different sessions in two rooms at the same time, while before I started at the company and came just to observe I was asked to chair three sessions, even though I had told my old job that I was on holiday…”.
