2014 in Review with... Andrea Stillacci

Andrea Stillacci is the former Grey Paris co-president and CCO and is now co-founder, president and ECD at independent Paris-based agency Herezie, and here he peruses the last 12 months in advertising's creative calendar to let us know what ticked his boxes and what he's looking forward to in the year ahead.

Do you think that 2014 has been a particularly good year for global creative advertising?

Now that we are getting used to living in a mood of global crisis mood, we are not anymore paralysed by panic and we realise that, no matter what, it’s still a 550 billion dollar market with a 5.7 per cent growth. So, the show goes on.

The market is mixing advertising agencies, media agencies, digital studios, tech labs and start-ups like a gigantic DJ. The music is pumping up, the creatives try new moves on the dance floor and it’s definitely much better than the silence of 2013.

And has France acquitted itself well?

France is a tiny market with big players like Havas and Publicis and despite an economy in slow motion it keeps producing world class ideas. Agencies like Ogilvy, Marcel, Les Gaulois, BBDO, Leo Burnett, BETC, Fred & Farid, Sid Lee and Herezie, together with production companies like Iconoclast, Henry, Wanda and Telecreateurs, keep the French flag pretty high on the horizon.

What campaigns or pieces of work have stood out for you this year and why?

I am particularly impressed and inspired by ideas able to turn familiar spaces into unfamiliar ones. And this year we had several of them. Nike’s House of Mamba [above, by AKQA] changes the way we see a basketball floor; Teatre Neu’s Pay Per Laugh idea changes the way we see a theatre; Honda Civic’s The Other Side and Sony’s Like a Rolling Stone [from shots Awards 2014 New Director of the Year, Vania Heymann, below] change the way we see a film, and BA’s The Magic of Flying changes the way we see a billboard.

Technologically speaking, this year seemed to be the year of virtual reality and Oculus Rift; would you agree and do you think it will be even more prominent in 2015 and beyond?

If we go beyond the motion sickness, it’s definitely a fascinating and entertaining thing. I think that the real change will happen when we will use it without thinking that we are using it. It happened with the watches, the radio, cars and with the smartphones… let’s see if it will happen with the Oculus Rift.

What work achievement(s) are you personally most proud of from this year?

We started Herezie four years ago and we were three [people]. Today, we are 63 employees working with more than 30 clients including multinational companies like Coca-Cola, Barilla, Unilever, LVMH and Essilor.

2014 has been our best year in terms of growth and awards. Gold at Cannes, Eurobest, Epica, LIIA and a grand prix for the best radio campaign in France in partnership with Shazam. Our flagship campaign? The Beauty of Sharpness for Miyabi knives. Our pride? Being 100 per cent independent.

What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned over the course of 2014?

How to deal with companies’ acquisitions; how to work with the Coca-Cola Group and the LVMH Group and how to decode the txt messages that my daughters send me.