There's been some negativity around Cannes this year. Both Mark Ritson, and IPG's Mat Baxter have called out aspects they think miss the point.
But with all due respect, they both got it wrong this time. Cannes offers significant lessons for marketers and everyone in the industry of eliciting behavioural change or emotion.
I am a big fan of both. Baxter and the team of Aussies running IPG MB in the US are truly inspiring for young media professionals like me. Likewise, I have great respect for Mark and his way of thinking, of going against the grain, challenging industry norms and stripping things back to fundamentals. I have even requested to sign up to his MBA mini-course in September to gain a better understanding of how our clients think and to learn from a different perspective.
MEC took 14 employees from across the world to form the global Thrive Talent Team, a band of roving social media reporters to be our agency’s and our clients' eyes and ears at Cannes. Fortunately, I was selected along with my Young Lions partner Allister Hercus to represent MEC Australia and to bring back inspiration to our local teams. IPG's Young Lions team was there too. It's a great initiative that all agencies should be doing to inspire the people who, as you said “do the work” day to day.
There is no hiding the fact that Cannes is notorious for lavish parties, super yachts and rosé. But to say that it has “lost its way”, or that there is nothing for marketers to learn, is absolute bullocks. I’m unsure of who is click-baiting here, the festival by placing celebrities on panels, or the esteemed thought leaders of our industry who are bagging an amazing festival that connects some of the greatest minds in our industry from across the globe. As the little legend in the El Paso advertisement would say: “Porque no los dos?”
Why can’t we learn and have fun at the same time? If you think this is not possible, go to the MEC Facebook page and #MECATCANNES on Twitter. And while you’re at it, check out the respective hashtags of other agencies making some noise at the festival: #TeamMindshare #CannesOgilvy #MCNCannes #IPGMBCannes16
To me, the overarching theme of this whole festival is people. Not data, creativity, tech, mobile or content. At the end of the day, our business will always be about connecting people and helping better their lives. The rest are just tools and conduits to help us achieve this
The theme of “people” was referenced by most speakers at the festival and it shone through in the great work that won awards. Here are some examples:
1. At the Cannes Lions Innovations shortlist presentations, we saw Lexus create a hover board, Audi take a branded rover to the moon, Volvo create a digital key for in-car delivery, but the one that really stood out was a campaign delivered by EPM, Colombia’s largest public service company. Through an understanding of its audience’s lifestyle and needs, EPM created innovation through brutal simplicity to better the lives of rural, working Colombians who had no source of electricity at night – sun hats that would protect the workers from the sun in the day and be used as a source of power to light up their nights.
2. Google has connected people by taking over one million students on virtual reality school trips across the world and Glen Keane took us down memory lane with a live spine-tingling animation through using Google’s Tilt Brush.
3. Mill Labs’ latest experiment, Strata, is the world’s first VR experiment using data visualisation driven by biometrics. Essentially, it gamifies the art of meditation by connecting people to the invisible machinations within, to inspire mindfulness. And it does this by generating beautiful, visual immersive worlds and music powered by our biometric data, really driving wearable technology to the next level.
4. Here is an MEC exclusive short clip of Cindy Gallop calling on all brands to understand that everything starts with values. Identify what your brand values are and out of that will flow what you should be doing with your business to be socially beneficial and at the same time sell more product and make more money
5. Anna Wintour spoke of a conversation with Ryan Seacrest about him continuing to be active in radio, even though he doesn't need to. His reason being is that interaction with people on a daily basis makes him better on all other fronts. It’s how he understands his audience and has remained relevant over time. Similar words of staying true to the art and understanding the audience were reverberated by the likes of Usher and Wyclef Jean who have managed to stay relevant over years of emerging trends that have come and go. As Anna Hill from Walt Disney pointed out, brands don’t start trends – kids and families start them.
6. Shingy, our fellow Aussie from AOL encouraged us to create emotion through content as people tend to choose brands for their principles and not their products. An Australian study from Pedestrian backed this up thorugh its findings that over two thirds of millennials were more likely to purchase products that were authentic and supported social causes. And Marc Pritchard from P&G demonstrated how P&G can use CPG brands to raise the bar of creativity and help fix true societal issues.
7. Will Smith, who considers himself a marketer, was able to deliver a piece of education through hilarious entertainment in a way that no CMO or CSO could. “The power has gone away from the marketer, the power is now in the hands of the audience. As someone who wants to market material globally, the only choice I have is to be in tune with their needs, not trying to trick them into going and seeing Wild Wild West,” he said on stage. He went on further to say that people purchase based on the perception of your values and that the only mission statement worth having is, to improve lives.
I realise that I am still young and inexperienced in this industry, which is why listening to these people may be astounding to me. However, if you have the opportunity to immerse yourself among some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry, not through reading or viewing behind a screen, but from experiencing – I would choose that option any day. No matter how much experience you have, there is still room to learn and be inspired and the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is the perfect environment to do so.