4A's friend,
More than 300 of the sharpest strategists gathered at the Andaz Wall Street in New York Sept. 12-14 for the 20th annual 4A’s Strategy Festival, whose theme was “Data + Humanity: Planning Redefined.”
StratFest kicked off with the Jay Chiat Awards, now in its 21st year, recognizing the best strategic thinking in marketing, media and advertising from around the world. Several of this year’s honorees shared case studies during StratFest, highlighting the processes and results of their award-winning work—among them, TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles (Airbnb’s “Don’t Go There, Live There”), McCann New York (Lysol’s “Protect Like a Mother”) and Anomaly (whose campaign helped turn around Hershey’s Jolly Rancher brand).
Over the 3 days of events at StratFest, speakers stressed the vitality and necessity of the discipline at a time when the human element threatens to get lost in all the number crunching. Keynote speaker Rishad Tobaccowala, strategy & growth officer at Publicis Groupe, told the gathering that he could define strategy and planning with three words: “future competitive advantage.”
Among others on the 4A’s StratFest stage this year were Kodi Foster, senior VP, data strategy at Viacom, and execs from brands including Google, Pandora and Netflix.
The 4A's was there to listen and to learn, and here we present some key takeaways for our member agencies.
Click here to view the 4A's StratFest Report.