The Party’s Over. Let’s Celebrate.
In this guest post, Chris Stephenson of media agency PHD thinks he lost the room when he tried to tell the audience at the newspaper industry-organised Caxtons conference that it was time to change – and wishes he’d been able to offer more solutions.
It was reported this week that the Caxtons’ famed ‘junket’ to an exotic location will not happen this year. We were reassured however that next year said junket will be back
Well phew. Heaven forbid that in the midst of the biggest systemic shift in print advertising in several generations we miss the chance to junket it up somewhere exotic.
Bear with me…
Stephenson at the Caxtons | Source: Caxtons Facebook page
I should begin by declaring an interest; I was honoured and privileged to be asked to speak at last year’s Caxtons, on Hamilton Island no less, so last year I very much enjoyed the benefit of giving a presentation in the Caxtons’ mourned-for exotic climes.
I have to be honest though; I didn’t wholly enjoy my presentation, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why.
The truth is that I wasn’t at my best … it wasn’t the most focused of talks, and that’s my bad. But I think it was also a lot to do with the room; a mix of mainly newspaper staffers, ad agency people, journalists and the occasional flotsam and jetsam like me. You see sometimes when you present the room is with you, and if you’re like me that makes you better; but sometimes the room isn’t with you, and that makes some people stronger, but if you’re like me it can let a nagging doubt creep in … perhaps I’m wrong? Perhaps I’m crazy for even suggesting this!? … and when your presentation to a bunch of creatives pivots around your (my) belief that “the worst thing that ever happened to advertising is adverts” you can see how that would affect your (my) performance.
I’ve gotten pretty OK at reading rooms, and I think the reality is that whilst I wasn’t, by my full admission, at my best … some people in the room just didn’t want to absorb my message: a message that the time had come to change.
My audience, perhaps quite rightly, wanted to get on with what the Caxtons are there to do: celebrate creativity in newspaper advertising. Who the freak was I to turn up and rain on such a brilliantly orchestrated parade? People’s hearts and souls and time and effort had gone in to organising that celebration. People much, much, better than me had created ingenious and awesome presentations to delight and entertain and stimulate.
The words of Maya Angelou echoed in my head that night and many nights since: “People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, But people will never forget how you made them feel” … and I think that is why I failed that day last year on Hamilton Island – when the words and actions were long gone, I had made that room feel no better about the situation I believe press advertising revenues are in. I hadn’t followed-though the dark night of my presentation to deliver a dawn. I’d attempted, but it hadn’t landed.
Thanks for bearing.
So why the confession? Well, this week’s news that – essentially – the party is over, filled me with nothing but sheer optimism. Because as anyone who pays any attention to print media in Australia can attest, the party is over, something I tried but failed to say last year.
But the party being over makes it all the more important that the celebration continues; because what I experienced on Hamilton Island, that energy and passion and creativity, shouldn’t be lost because of some crazy perception that the Caxtons is a junket … what I witnessed at Caxtons was much more than that. The Caxtons isn’t living the vida loca in some exotic location, it’s an idea.
An idea that creativity can solve problems, can change how we think, how we feel, and what we do; the idea that creativity can transform the fortunes of brands, businesses and indeed whole industries.
The Caxtons, just like print advertising revenues, must now reinvent itself … and that is a conference (in the truest sense of the word) that has never been more urgent or necessary. This is the Caxtons’ opportunity to fight not just for its own future, but for the future of the media industry in which it has thrived. I believe that it’s more than up to the task.
- Chris Stephenson is strategy director of media agency PHD Australia. This is an amended version of a post that first appeared on Chris Stephenson’s blog, Mediation
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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It sounds like you came across as an obnoxious tit, if you don’t mind me saying. Maybe that’s why you left your audience so deflated. And as an aside, this whole thing of dancing on print media’s grave is becoming somewhat tired. Don’t regurgitate the problem, offer proven, constructive solutions. If I hear somebody else say “reinvention” I’ll scream!
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Hi Anon,
You may have been somewhat fooled by Chris’ somewhat self-deprecating writing style. I didn’t see his Caxtons presentation (I’ve never been – it’s always seemed like something of a hard-to-justify junket to me) but I’ve seen him present on a number of other occasions. He never comes across as obnoxious.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Cool story guy
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Yep, Anon, sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming lalalala is a great solution.This is why you’ll be left behind.
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Mumbrella and Chris, tend to agree with Anon, least on “dancing on print media’s grave ” thing, it is very tiresome, particularly when you’re in the middle of it and audience numbers are still reasonable (in the millions), and those readers are still buying the stuff advertised…if it’s dying, at least let it die a natural death, not murdered by misinformation…
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Well I was there unlike the rest of you. Chris was fuelled up, tee’d off and was terrific. Chris, you are mistaken. I think half the room was in shock and the other half needed time out to digest the truth. You mistook this for losing the room. You actually had ’em at hello.The only problem was that your media thinking comrades were absent from the room that weekend. And the boat. And the bar. And the boat.
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Hmmm. I love an informed debate about a presentation by people who never saw it and a conference they were not at. Way to debate the issue. Some observations from one who was there.
1. Caxtons has a bad rap. I hear it used to be a wild party. It’s now a serious conference about advertising. Albeit one usually in a nice location. That’s the trade off for it being at the weekend in my opinion. I heard Lee Clow and Jeff Goodby speak last year. About serious stuff. Some junket. Give it a break.
2. Chris spoke well, was humble and had an opinion. Not an easy thing to pull off. Give yourself a break buddy, you were pretty good. The KPI is did Belgo slag you off at the awards dinner? He didn’t but he did have a pop at Goodby. So I reckon that’s credit to your performance.
3. There was no dancing or graves or gloom or doom about print. Nobody hastened its bleedin’ demise. That the Mumbrella readership assumes there was says more about them and how they feel about print. There was some discussion about things not being all rosy in the entire story telling medium garden. That was the theme of the 2 days. Hard not to mention some of the elephants in the room, like declining readerships / circulations and changing mediums. But nobody vamped it up.
4. And yes I think you do read an audience well Chris. You lost them a bit. I think you’re right, you didn’t show them a way out, didn’t get to clear solutions. Given you were talking about the future of all advertising, not just print, I think you get to play the ‘but thats a lot to ask’ card. Sometime it’s not you it’s them.
In summary we all know our industry faces re-invention and Chris made a valid, informed, entertaining addition to the debate about that. If it re-invents itself without the stimulus of the Caxton’s and the mindset shift that comes from being somewhere utterly different to the office, I for one will be sad. I’ve been to 3 Caxtons now and learned a lot from some very talented people. As well as having a beer or two in a nice hotel. Long may it and contributions to it, from talents like Chris continue.
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