Pharrell Williams: Ideas that Inspire at the 2010 CLIO Awards
SOHO, MANHATTAN: The 2010 CLIO Awards, one of the world’s most widely recognized international awards ceremonies for advertising, communications and design took place in New York City last week. The two days of awards shows were preceded by the CLIO Conferences “Ideas that Inspire”, which included guest speakers such as Penny Baldwin, Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing and Brand Management at Yahoo!, Billy Chaser, founder and CEO of stickybits.com, and Alison Fahely, Executive Director of Content at AdweekMedia Group.
Pharrell Williams at the CLIO Awards, Photo Credit: Erika Pontes
On the final day of conferences Pharrell Williams, award-winning music producer and singer (The Neptunes, N.E.R.D), made an appearance as keynote speaker. Although his musical accomplishments have earned him a name in music, his business ventures have also provided him with hands-on experience in advertising. An entrepreneur himself, as owner of The Neptunes record label, Billionaire Boys Club clothing line and Ice Cream shoe collection, Pharrell has had the opportunity to not only create, but also participate in various advertising campaigns.
In 2006 Williams worked with Louis Vuitton on a line of sunglasses and jewelry and continues his involvement in fashion working alongside Japanese music producer Tomoaki Nagao his clothing line Bathing Ape, and serving as the spokesperson for Bionic Yarn, a New York-based manufacturer of environmentally sustainable fabrics made of recycled plastic bottles.
In his talk at the CLIO’s, Williams noted the unique aspect of advertising is “stickiness.” He said, “Advertising is much more refreshing than television or film,” as movies and music have come to a point so literal that people have become desensitized. However, Pharrell said the advertising industry has to constantly come up with something fresh that gets people’s attention, something that “sticks.”
Convergence? “Yes, I’m a fan, 100%,” declared Williams. He went on to say that “technology is the way of the future and anyone who is fighting that is a dinosaur.” Williams believes we benefit from the evolution of technology and he himself has used it to reach out, creating Twitter campaigns for his band N.E.R.D. and the Billionaire Boys Club. He also founded kidult.com, a news outlet for young adults, and artst.com, an online community for artists.
Although a charismatic character cracking jokes throughout his speech, Pharrell does not seem to consider himself a ‘celebrity face’ but rather a music producer and member of N.E.R.D. whose new album, Nothing, will be coming out this fall. When asked why they titled their album Nothing he explained it was because they started off with about 27 tracks but none of them were unforgettable, and lacked “stickiness.” As a result, they scrapped them all and started from nothing, hence the title.
Pharell Williams
He noted, “After all, every great idea starts with nothing […] like the Big Bang.” According to Pharrell he and his band members, Chad Hugo and Shae Thornton, wanted to create an album that was more of a conversation, “a round table with women” discussing ideas. As for his business goals and advertising opportunities Pharrell said he is “blessed to be surrounded by people who are doers.”
As a grand finale, the band previewed their new album later that night at the CLIO awards ceremony held at Skylight Soho – a very musical addition to one of advertising’s most notable events. – Erika Pontes