MediaCom Invites Cannes Delegates to Unleash Their Inner Elvis

LONDON, June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MediaCom invites the delegates at next week's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to free their inner Elvis at a forum on Monday, June 17. "Free Elvis" will be co-hosted by acclaimed creative leadership guru, Chris Barez-Brown, and Matthew Mee, MediaCom's global chief strategy officer.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130613/NY31698)

The "Free Elvis" forum is based on Barez-Brown's "Upping Your Elvis," a creative leadership approach designed to unlock the power of creativity, possibility and innovation in everyone.  "When Bono was working to eradicate global poverty, he'd turn up at big organizations and ask, 'So who's the Elvis around here?' meaning 'who is it here that challenges the status quo and uses creativity to solve problems?'" said Barez-Brown. "Upping your Elvis is about discovering where that magic of creativity comes from and how to unlock it and spread it to others."

Barez-Brown, who has written two best-selling leadership books, has helped unleash the creative potential at some of the world's largest organizations, including Coca-Cola and Nike.

Not sure you have an inner Elvis? We are. "At MediaCom, we believe that everyone has an Elvis inside them – a brighter, more dynamic, more creative version of themselves," said Mee. "We've had great success working with Chris to free that Elvis in every single MediaCom employee, and thought that the Cannes Lions Festival would be the perfect venue for his message of creative empowerment and fresh thinking."

"Free Elvis" starts at 3:30 PM at the Audi A stage at the Palais des Festivals as part of the festival's Creative Talent Management forum track.

About the Hosts

Chris Barez-Brown:
For the past 15 years, Chris has been challenging and transforming some of the world's biggest organizations through speeches and programs on innovation, insightfulness, breakthrough thinking and staff engagement. After enjoying a varied career in the army, brand management, innovation and corporate hippiedom, he founded "Upping Your Elvis" in 2009, driven by his personal passion in creative leadership and the belief that everyone can shine more brightly. Much of Chris' skill lies in generating the energy and instilling the confidence in attendees to go forward as creative champions, driving the same agenda from within their organizations. He is the author of "How to Have Kick-Ass Ideas," a best-selling Harper Collins book. His second book, "Shine – How to Survive and Thrive at Work," published by Penguin, was recently lauded as "Business Book of the Month." For more information, visit http://www.uppingyourelvis.com and follow @UppingYourElvis on Twitter.

Matthew Mee:
Matthew was recently appointed the first ever global chief strategy officer for media services agency MediaCom. Previously the head of strategy for the EMEA region, Matthew works with regional and local strategists to ensure that world-class planning and pioneering innovations help "future-proof" client business around the globe. His primary goal is to ensure that the agency builds connections with consumers through smart, effective content and communications strategy. A leading communications thinker at MediaCom for more than 17 years, Matthew also continues to lead strategic thinking for a number of key clients.

About MediaCom
MediaCom is one of the world's leading media communications specialists, with billings exceeding US $28 billion (Source: RECMA 2012). It employs 4,600 people in 113 offices across 89 countries around the globe. The company's strategy is driven by its "People first, better results" philosophy, which places people – consumers, clients and employees – at its core to generate optimum business results. MediaCom was named Network of the Year at the Festival of Media 2012 and 2010, as well as M&M Network of the Year for three consecutive years 2011, 2010 and 2009.

The MediaCom family includes a number of industry-leading divisions, such as: MediaCom Interaction, a global digital and interactive marketing agency, which uses future-forward proprietary technology to grow client businesses; direct response agency MediaCom Response, which creates close, measured connections with consumers; branded content specialists MediaCom Beyond Advertising; sports sponsorship and strategy team MediaCom Sport; and  MediaCom Business Science, which ensures clients achieve maximum sales return. MediaCom Worldwide is a member of WPP, the world's largest marketing communications services group, and part of GroupM, WPP's consolidated media investment management arm. For more information, visit www.mediacom.com.

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About GroupM
GroupM is the world's largest global media investment management operation, with total billings exceeding US $90 billion (Source: RECMA 2012). It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including MediaCom, Maxus, MEC, and Mindshare. Its primary purpose is to maximise the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of its clients, its shareholders and its people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, and to bring competitive advantage to its clients and companies. For more information, visit www.groupm.com.

SOURCE MediaCom