PR / News

Back to Listing

2022 Creative LIAisons Virtual Speaker Series Concluded With a Talk Given By Sebastien Rouvière, Creative Director of DAVID, Madrid and Former Creative LIAisons Alum

29 November 2022

2022 CREATIVE LIAISONS VIRTUAL SPEAKER SERIES CONCLUDED WITH A TALK GIVEN BY SEBASTIEN ROUVIÈRE, CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT DAVID, MADRID AND FORMER CREATIVE LIAISONS ALUM

Sebastien completed the Creative LIAisons program in 2018 and has since moved up the ladder to Creative Director. He shares his wisdom with the next generation of emerging talent.
 
 
Sebastien Rouvière, Creative Director of DAVID, Madrid welcomes his virtual audience to the 24-hour ad cycle

“Better to be known for something than to be forgotten for nothing.” – John Hegarty.

Sebastien Rouvière, Creative Director of DAVID, Madrid, who has been with the agency since 2020 has these words to say about doing risky advertising for all types of clients and all types of markets. “If you f*#@ it up, in 24 hours ‘all’ will be forgotten. Unless you really mess it up and air something you should never have, because the idea was terrible in the first place”. 

However, his premise is not based on reckless abandon. Shorter attention spans give us, as Rouviere puts it, “a reasonable excuse to embrace risk.”
He reminds the audience that in the current culture, we are bombarded with news 24/7,  whether or not you are searching, watching or listening for it. Headlines have become the news. Rouviere highlighted that six out of 10 people share news before they have read the article. Right now, the average attention span of the audience is narrowing to about eight seconds. We are all fighting to get noticed. Whatever grabs our attention today won’t tomorrow. You never know what you are up against. No matter how much you test your ad, you can never be sure that it will work.

So how do you get noticed?

Rouvière quoted Lee Clow who said, “Most ideas are a bit scary.  And if an idea isn’t scary, it’s not an idea at all.” 

Rouvière agrees that you need to take calculated risks. He cited the Diesel campaign “Enjoy Before Returning” as a stellar example. The brand allowed consumers the liberty and luxury of returning their purchases even if they have worn them.  A risk that paid off in spades.

Using other award winning and notable work as examples to bring home his points, Rouvière distilled his advice to: bend the Law by finding creative solutions and put your brand where they shouldn’t be; don’t try to please everybody; be less serious; outsmart yourself and respect your consumers, because they are smart; break the mold; don’t forget to tweet - it’s super simple and that in itself can be a risk; finally, do it yourself. Get people in your agency to help as this will expedite the process.

As a final round-up, Rouvière encouraged his audience to do more. When you embrace the philosophy of doing more, you’ll create more interesting stuff. And you’ll learn more in the process. He also advised his viewers to build trust with clients. Start taking small risks. 

The client will see that what you are proposing is not just a crazy idea, but a crazy idea that gets things done. In the end, you’ll get better. You’ll be faster. You’ll get noticed.

Barbara Levy, President of LIA, said: “We are very encouraged by Sebastien Rouvière’s talk. Sebastien Rouvière is an alumnus of Creative LIAisons, having been part of the 2018 program. As a show that’s Created for Creatives, we are very gratified when we see young creatives further their career. We also get very excited by ideas that are at the cutting edge and that push creativity further into unchartered territory.  This is a perfect way to end our virtual speaker series. Our thanks to Sebastien Rouvière, and also to all our speakers throughout the 2022 virtual speaker series, for making the time and effort to share insights, expertise and professional perspectives with us on this creative learning journey.”

For more information, go to https://www.liaawards.com/creative_liaisons/