2014 in Review with... Gui Borchert

72andSunny Los Angeles group creative director Gui Borchert takes a look back at 2014 and reveals the work that's impressed him most, why it's best not to be precious about ideas and why 'social' doesn't always have to involve a screen. 

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

I think every year has a mixed creative output, some incredibly great stuff and some not so great stuff. Looking back, we probably won’t find many years that had a lot more of one or the other. It usually evens out after 365 days.

And how about in the US; has the advertising been of a high standard?

There’s just so much creative output right now. Gone are the days where you’d see a few ads every year and by the time award season came you pretty much knew what was getting picked up.

Nowadays, there’s just so much stuff. And that’s a good thing. I think technology is playing a bigger role every year. And what that means is that as an industry we’re trying more things, getting some things right and failing at others while learning a tonne to go make even more awesome stuff next time. So I’d say that’s a yes.

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

I loved the New York City Landmark OOH work our Google team did for Google’s mobile voice search app [below]. New York was home for 10 years and the campaign just felt super authentic to me. It embraced local culture and let the product naturally amplify it.

It’s my personal “wish I had done that” work from 72andSunny this year. Outside of 72andSunny, I loved the Honda R interactive film [The Other Side]. Super simple, super engaging. And great craft.

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

Was it? I feel like we have yet to see it truly used to scale. There were awesome uses for it. But then I also love that cardboard version of it Google made [below], which is far more scalable in a way. So I hope 2015 is the year of many things, not just one. Just look at Kickstarter. It’s almost overwhelming. Technology is moving faster than we can keep up. And that’s also a very good thing.

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

Definitely the Meet Me at Starbucks campaign. We were able to capture real people having genuine moments all over the world in just 24 hours with an interactive documentary. Starbucks is probably the most social brand in the physical world, and in a time where most of us spend so much time being social through screens, it’s nice to remind the world that there’s still a place just around the corner to connect face to face with each other.

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

The importance of trying and not holding anything as precious. There’s magic in the art of trying something before talking too much about it. As creatives, we’re often trained to treat our work as a precious thing, but that’s often just what gets in the way of the continuously iterative process of pushing the work to a better place.

What are you most excited about for 2015?

The prospect of learning a tonne of new things, all over again. There’s just so much going on in culture and technology right now, that it’s impossible not to get excited. That’s why I don’t think we should ever look for trends. Trends are short lived. And by the time something’s a trend, it’s probably time to move on anyway. Unless we’re talking about GIFs. GIFS are here to stay, no doubt.

What do you think the big talking points or changes in the industry will be next year?

Change is the only constant, now more than ever, so stuff’s just going to keep moving faster and faster. Which means one-upmanship is more collaborative and fertile than ever. It’s up to us to embrace it all and keep up.

So if that’s any talking points for next year I hope it’s “holy shit, I have no idea what just happened but it was pretty awesome!” – Although I’m pretty sure that’s not really a legitimate talking point.

What are you asking Santa Claus for this year?

I’d love some more Twitter followers. Santa, if you’re reading this it’s twitter.com/guiborchert - thanks!

What will be your new year’s resolution?

To stop caring about how many people follow me on Twitter.