“Je suis un créateur de contenu"
This week my French friends started reminding me to book my flight to Cannes for mid-October – with the annual MIPCOM content creation catalyst in mind “let’s be part of the whole story” they say. Billed as “the mother of all entertainment content markets” MIPCOM is that big. It’s been the place to be, in October for decades and last year there were over 10,000 industry leaders from 110 countries there.
And if you’re attending the content “upfronts” this Australian spring, there’s a good chance that some of the best programs that you see there were conceived or acquired in Cannes last October.
Cannes has been at the epicentre of a succession of golden ages for the creative arts throughout the last century. Continuously since the last time the “Roaring (19) 20’s” came around, the creative elites from all over the world have been drawn to the French Riviera.
In these tariff-obsessed times it’s never been a better time for Australians to do business with Europe and the US via the UK since the 2023 A-UK Free Trade Agreement dramatically lifted trade barriers which had been in place for 50 years. Britain’s exit from the European Union nearly a decade ago has certainly stimulated engagement with Australia in a way that hadn’t been seen for half a century.
So now, a month or two out, I find that siren call duly rising. Just last month, The Assassin, Australia-UK co-production, a six-part thriller, transported me to that world via my own Alma Mater STAN. Keeley Hawes satisfied my curiosity of what James Bond may be like in 2025. And the story took us back to the Mediterranean where on-board an Australian corporate leader’s superyacht we quickly came to despise his privileged offspring. As someone said it was no Night Manager or The Magus, but the plot twists kept me interested even if the real mystery was how Keely resisted the temptation to turn her professional skills on either of his children. Once again it was a reminder of how an inescapable creative bridge exists between Australia, the UK and Europe.
MIPCOM falls right at the end of the European summer holidays now underway after the spring and summer season in London. There’s always an excuse to mix business with pleasure, whether your clients’ can be found at Wimbledon, the Glastonbury Festival, Royal Ascot Races, Henley Regatta, Chelsea Flower Show or Silverstone.
And then there’s the Cannes Lions and the International Festival of Creativity built around it – it’s long renowned as a mid-summer fixture in the northern hemisphere. Advertising content sometimes outclasses the programmes scheduled between the ads…and it has been a great year for Aussie gongs at the Cannes Lions. And Telstra’s prize-winning creative has taken us back to Cannes once again…
Of course, Australia is enjoying the best ski season in a decade – but it has comes at a price with the wettest winter in living memory – so, that alone presents a compelling case for jumping on a long-haul flight to the sunshine of the Riviera.
The volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world that we live in today even has its own acronym "VUCA". So, even if it means that the US President can’t recognise that “guy from down-under” in a crowded room, it does seem like the Australia – UK and European trade relationship has never been stronger. Since the 2023 A-UK Free Trade Agreement was signed, there has been an exponential shift in investment trends with the UK now surpassing the USA. And as the Brisbane 2032 Olympics start to come into focus it will really underscore the evolving economic corridors shaping our global landscape.
I saw this first hand at MIPCOM’s sister event MIP London back in February. It was great to see so much creativity coming out of Australia and amid all that international talent there was welcome news for the 20 Worlds Australian screen initiative shelved by covid, which now seems to have secured foundation investment to proceed next year. It promises to steer us towards quality away from the Stamford Prison experiments of reality TV. Soon after, Screen Australia published the findings of their industry survey which talks of feeding into a positive forward strategy of support for screen creatives under the returned government.
In recent weeks Tourism Australia’s entertainment-first marketing campaign Come and say G’day reminded me of the multi-media times in which we live. Back in the 1990’s when I was marketing Aussie Rules, AFL coverage globally at MIPCOM, I visited Tourism Australia’s offices en-route in Hong Kong, Singapore, London and New York. There we debated the power of sport to promote the magic of Australia across diverse cultures – and we were awarded the 2000 Sydney Olympics soon after. On that same trip I met with Discovery Networks in Washington DC. Their viewers loved Nine’s Getaway travel show which we were rebroadcasting each week. Off the strength of those Aussie’s visiting good-looking places, they asked me if I knew someone like a real-life Crocodile Dundee who could talk about the dangers of Aussie wildlife. To my ear it sounded a little cliché’d but sure enough Steve Irwin became a household name soon after. So, how great to see the remarkably talented (baby) Bob Irwin leveraging his Australian power of advocacy across markets globally. I can think of no-one better and it’s great to see market-specific versions available for the key markets for cashed-up tourists from China, India, USA, UK, Japan, Germany and South Korea.
It was during MIPCOM in 2019 that I witnessed such a creative journey accelerate. It was there that the soft diplomacy initiative, Pacific Aus TV received the go-ahead, leading to ground-breaking creative collaboration between Australia and a dozen Pacific nations. How lucky was I then, to recently find myself back in Fiji celebrating that content platform’s fifth birthday. I enjoyed the nostalgia of Sea Patrol on TV1 Fiji, and it was great to watch Oscar Piastri dominate the Spa Formula One Grand Prix from Europe. All in a hotel bar overlooking the Pacific – it took me back to our launch of TVWan with Australian Rugby League coverage in 2015 and the covid reset event of 2020/21 as we engineered Digicel’s divestment to Telstra.
But the catalyst, the glue that brought all of those events together was MIPCOM in Cannes – it’s central to all creative content – drama - sport and all things between, it all starts there…
But don’t take my word for it - I look forward to seeing you on the Croissette in Cannes in mid-October…