My first talk of the day was with Unilever. The speakers were Alessandro Manfredi, Chief Marketing Officer of Dove at Unilever, and Conny Braams, Chief Digital and Commercial Officer at Unilever. The night before, a Dove ad had won a Lion, so I couldn’t wait to see more examples of the brands work. Conny Braams mentioned 3 critical things that are changing: how consumers live, play and shop. People are living differently. Emotional messages matter. The connection makes brands last long. You need to stand out and navigate change.  

Brands need:

• Simplicity - The center of gravity

• Emotional connection - A belief system. 

• There’s a difference between having purposeful campaigns and putting it at the heart of your company

• Consistency - You need to learn what your boundaries are (discipline and choice)

• Don’t edit/ distort images

Dove has many ads directed toward empowering people. They explained having low body confidence prevents young girls from participating in things. By age 13, 80% of young girls have repeatedly retouched their images. After a few times, it’s “fun,” but it eventually has a negative impact. Dove believes sometimes, to change society, you have to go as far as changing looks. I was surprised to hear that not long ago, you could still send a kid home from school because of their natural hair.

This was another favorite. Liz Taylor, Global Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy, talked to Mike White, Award-Winning Writer, Director, Actor, and Producer at Ogilvy. Mike White wrote and directed White Lotus. I had watched season 2 of White Lotus and, at the time, unknowingly saw him on Survivor. One thing I loved about this talk was how it seemed like Mike was just word-vomiting. It felt like he really was sharing all his thoughts and not holding back. He was very candid and talked about how he had reached a breaking point where he pushed himself too much. You can really tell that he loves what he does and is very creative. Something that I could relate to and thought was funny was the way he presented the idea that he thinks of himself in layers. One is the survivor contestant in him, where he can bullshit with anybody. Fake it till you make it. Underneath, this anxious person is saying, “What am I doing? This is stupid. I’m going to be a failure. I’m going to be exposed.” Underneath that, there is the “I’m unstoppable. You cannot stop me. I will show you.” He explained how when he goes into meetings and the people tell him his script is bad and not to make the movie, he goes home and is sad. The next morning he changes his mindset and is like, “I will show you.” Resilience is a big driving part for him to be in the business. He would rather change the values instead of copying what has been working for everyone else. That makes him feel more fulfilled even if it’s a longer road or there are moments of dissatisfaction.

This talk was at The Female Quotient, which was held at Hotel Martinez. Suzi Watford, Chief Growth Officer at SiriusXM, interviewed Christina Najjar (Tinx), Creator, Author, and Host of "It's Me, Tinx". This talk wasn't on the main schedule, so I didn't even realize it was happening until it was sent in my school group's group chat. I was thrilled to go, as I have been following Tinx on TikTok for a while. She talked about becoming a content creator and trying to create the type of content she would want to hear on that platform. Tinx believes in the connection between women. If someone has a problem, there's a solution in there. They have to make that connection. Through her podcast, Tinx wants to make more room at the table by being there. She preaches independence, and part of that is financial literacy. Growth is important, but she doesn't focus too much on it. She thinks if you do good work, your community will grow naturally. I am glad I attended this talk and The Female Quotients suite. They had such a pretty view, and it was different from all the other beach clubs and tents since it was on the rooftop of a hotel. It also felt good to be in a female empowerment space.

I was very excited about this one. I enjoy watching Saturday Night Live (SNL) skits, especially when I am a fan of the host that week. Willie Geist, Host of NBC's TODAY with Willie Geist, interviewed Executive Producer Lorne Michaels and SNL Cast Members Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, and Mikey Day. They reflected on SNL, and its past 50 years. Lorne pointed out that after that long, he's written everything he wanted to write at least twice, and it could be better and better and keep changing and keep redoing it. They talked about how different SNL is from other productions; it's "surreal, wonderful, and [they're] appreciative of the process." They shared that everyone is on their A-game to make it come to life quickly. Things can go awry in dress rehearsal but come together on air.

Mikey Day took us through the process of getting to 11:30 PM on Saturday night. Monday is the pitch meeting. Cast producers and writers go to Lorne's office to pitch. Tuesday is a writing day. They get there at 2 PM and write through the night. Wednesday is the table read, where they go over 40 sketches that take 4.5 hours. Thursday night Lorne and the producers pick sketches. If your sketch is picked, your say goes when it comes to rewrites. On Friday, they do the pre-taped digital sketches. These shoots can go until 3 AM. Saturday, they block through everything in costume on camera and then dress at 8 PM. They lose a few sketches between that and going on air at 11:30 PM.

When Geist asked about how SNL has stayed a "well-oiled machine" Lorne replied, "We're nothing like that. We give the appearance of that."

I was a bit let down by this talk. While it was interesting to hear behind the scenes of SNL, I could tell the difference in how business professionals and show business professionals speak. I didn't feel as engaged in this conversation. I also feel like because they are performers, I was expecting a type of performance that I wouldn't see with other talks. I also wish the cast members had more opportunity to speak more about their experiences. Overall, I still enjoyed hearing the behind-the-scenes of how they have been running SNL.