One of the four top echelon professionals chosen as a jury president for the MAD STARS 2024 awards is Emma de la Fosse, chief creative officer, Edelman UK.
Emma became the first-ever group chief creative officer of Ogilvy UK in 2016. Under her co-leadership, OgilvyOne became the most highly awarded digital and direct agency in the UK. Three years later, she became chief creative officer of one of the UK’s foremost digital agencies, Digitas UK, whose creative fortunes and reputation she helped to rebuild. She is now chief creative officer of Edelman UK, the world’s largest and most successful PR and comms agency. This legendary career began with a role as a copywriter in a creative boutique agency.
In 2020, Emma was awarded a lifetime achievement medal recognising outstanding creativity in customer marketing, the Caples Andi Emerson award. She has led her teams to win every major international award D&AD Yellow Pencils, Cannes Grand Prix, One Show Best in Show and DMA Grand Prix through to multiple Effie awards for effectiveness and has been the executive creative director for world-famous brands such as IBM, British Airways, British Gas, Kimberly Clark and Kellogg’s.
Emma gave MAD STARS a preview of her judging criteria as well as an insight into her career and her key elements of great work:
What are you hoping to find at MAD STARS?
Emma de la Fosse: Margaret Heffernan, professor of business practice at Bath University is one of my heroes. She says, “A world that was once complicated is now complex. There are still patterns, but they don’t repeat. In today’s world, creative thinking is absolutely essential to business.” So what I am looking for are creative solutions for our world’s problems. As Margaret also says, “Don’t play the game. Change it.”
What makes a good MAD STARS awards judge?
Emma de la Fosse: Sometimes, senior people can become a little cynical when they’ve worked in the industry a long time. But MAD Stars jurors are still like kids in a sweetshop when it comes to ideas. They are those who ask “why not?” instead of “why?” People who believe in the power of the impossible.
What skills and talents have you used in your career?
Emma de la Fosse: Gosh, that’s a question I’ve not really thought about before. I suppose tenacity is one of them. Average is easy. Great is hard. You can’t give up easily if you want to get the best ideas made. What else? My brain sees connections very readily, it spots patterns and recognises similarities between things. That helps when looking at old problems in new ways. I’ve got quite a strategic brain too, so I can write a decent brief and tell if somebody else’s is right or wrong. But mostly I have a sense of fun and I love to build creative teams. To me it’s like family. A strong creative culture is essential to getting great work made.
What are the biggest challenges to getting MAD STARS award-worthy work through?
Emma de la Fosse: All great creative work is hard to get out of the deck and into the world. That’s because it challenges you, it can put you outside your comfort zone. As human beings, we instinctively gravitate towards the familiar. Especially in times of global strife or economic uncertainty. So, the kinds of ideas that win at MAD STARS, those that seek to shift the status quo, will have been pretty challenging to get live.
What are the five recent piece of work you’ve most admired?
1. Pret à Voter by Solar Impulse
2. Chick Fil A’s The Break Room
3. Popeyes 50+
4. Heinz Ketchup Fraud
5. This is not recent but it’s one of my all time fave pieces of world changing work: Michelob Ultra Contract for Change
MAD STARS Festival will be held in Busan, South Korea, August 21-23.
