About the lecture: “The Leitidee. What is it and where does it actually come from?”

Everyone is talking about if and how and through which channels communication could work today and how to get through to people who no longer watch television, where second screens are available, etc.

Nevertheless, we are still seeing great ideas that manage to move people every year in Cannes. Ideas that touch us, and that – quasi incidentally, even automatically – run within a host of different channels, thus rendering all theoretical discussions superfluous.

Over 50 years ago, prior to the big idea, founder of DDB Bill Bernbach already realised that “nothing is as powerful as an insight into human nature.” Just as then, today’s most stunning, beautiful and simplest ideas are based on a profound human truth.

In his lecture, Matthias Schmidt shows how to find such truths, how ideas evolve from them, what sort of power they unfold and how to work with them on a daily basis.

About our guest:

Matthias Schmidt is Creative Director at DDB Berlin. After graduating, he spent 14 years of his life at Scholz & Friends, beginning as a junior writer and ending as chief creative director. He won over 100 awards there, from ADC Germany in bronze to Cannes in gold. Cars fascinate him most. During his career, he worked for Mercedes Benz, Honda and Opel, moving to DDB in 2012 to create advertising campaigns for Volkswagen at long last, and to follow in the footsteps of the great Bill Bernbach.