Cannes 2015: What I Learnt!
They say “Better Late than Never”. This was what played in my mind as I sat down to write this piece. Though I had visited The Festival of Creativity last Month, I could not put down my thoughts to paper. This attempt is to share my two bits on this Festival. I hope you will enjoy the effort and put in your comments to help me improve.
June 21st to 28th, 2015 will be etched in my mind forever. Cannes 2015 was an Awe Inspiring Experience. It was the first time I went to Cannes to attend the Festival of Creativity. The scale was jaw dropping. The way the whole festival was planned and executed was impeccable.
Over 13,500 delegates, across a 100 nationalities attended the event across Lions Health, Creativity and Innovation. I was ‘Mega-Impressed’ to say the least.
Now, this festival could be used for Networking, Partying, or Simply Learning. This was a great opportunity, I felt, to opening your minds to some stellar thinkers and start questioning the work that you are putting out.
I attended the whole festival and was lucky to be part of the #CMO Accelerator Program that is conducted by Jim Stengel.
Jim Stengel is the Ex Global CMO of P&G (2001 – 2008) and led P&G to become the ‘Client of the Year’ at Cannes in 2008. He has also written a book called Grow, which I would recommend everyone to read. This rounding off, of the Creativity festival via the CMO Accelerator Program, helped me jot down some of the Key Themes that seemed to be important at Cannes this year.
I am using that, as well as some notes that I had kept aside, for the purpose of this write-up on The FIVE KEY THEMES from Cannes.
THEME 1: BRAND PURPOSE
A lot of the winning work this year was not Creativity for the sake of being Creative. It was being Creative with a Purpose. Be it Volvo’s LifePaint or Grand Prix Winner ALS, or Shark Attack signaling systems, all the work told you that Brands are going beyond Products and Services and getting into “Purpose”.
The two wins from India – P&G’s “Share the Load” and “Touching the Pickle” also had Purpose behind it.
Global work from P&G – which included “Like a Girl” also had Brand Purpose behind it.
It is becoming evident that today’s discerning consumers will like to do business with Brands which not just deliver a superior Product or Service, but also stands for something.
Doing Good really matters!
Ex Vice President of USA, Al Gore was at a Q&A with Sir Martin Sorrell and also a winner, which went on to show that this industry heavily believes that sustainability will be the next frontier of communication.
I expect this kind of communication to increase in India over this year.
THEME 2: AUTHENTICITY
This was a theme that was being discussed by a lot of Agency Leaders as well as Brands.
This pertained more on the Digital Medium.
LinkedIn as a company was strongly focusing on this theme.
As a Marketer, I do believe you always need to be Authentic.
However, while positioning a product, and when you are seeking the USP of the product or service and helping it look better vis-à-vis competition, you may sometime tend to overlook this.
However, the key take out was that, today consumers have so many different sources of information, they will find out the truth way before they make a decision. They will search, seek reviews, speak to people and then speak to experts before coming to a decision. For Brands, therefore it is all the more important to be Authentic and Transparent all the time.
THEME 3: TECHNOLOGY, DATA AND CREATIVITY
This seemed to be the MOST debated topic this year. Almost every Agency tried to pitch themselves as ‘Data Scientists’ be it Media or Creative Agencies Alike! This apart from the ‘Specialists’ in the domain.
Data and Creativity will go hand-in-hand and the creative have nothing to worry from Data. There are some new business models coming up on the entire visualization of Data. Music Notes giving birth to Synchronized Lighting is one of it. There seems to be endless possibilities with Data leading to Creativity.
It is important for Brands to Listen carefully and interpret what their consumers are talking about.
The remaining is action. Actions to either improve Products, Services or just Communication. Better targeting, right messaging are outcomes of Technology, Data and Creativity.
This seemed even more apparent with the way Technology& Innovation Companies were ‘PRESENT’ throughout the festival.
Google had its ‘own beach’, Microsoft was a key sponsor, Facebook had its Hacks, Spotify its parties …. The list is endless. While the Big Brothers like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft are apparently there in a big way every year (this being my first visit), the amount of visibility for small shops, fringe tech companies, data interpretation companies seemed to be enormous. Every company I know of is talking about this.
My Technology is ‘bigger’ and ‘better’ is already the talk amongst Senior Management.
“Data – inspires strategy – inspires creative work. But when data seems to come too close to creativity, that’s when people get nervous.”
Guy Murphy, worldwide planning director, JWT
(Courtsey: WARC, 15 Quotes from 2015 Cannes)
I personally think this will be a big trend for future as Social Media, Technology, Innovation enters our lives through mobile devices and wearable technology, and Collides with Real world and the whole Convergence Culture evolves.
THEME 4: CONTENT & DESIGN THINKING
“Great advertising feels less like advertising and more about content.”
Sean Rad, co-founder, Tinder
(Courtsey: WARC, 15 Quotes from 2015 Cannes)
Content seems to be winning. From what I heard from the rest of the people (Veterans at Cannes), content and engagement were the hottest topics at Cannes in 2014. This year, what it seemed to me is that, winning Brands are winning at content. The storytelling is becoming more entertaining. With Digital Medium, the restrictions in ‘time-bound’ stories seem to be going down. We have already seen this catching up in India, but it is going to be even more.
The other thing that seems to be going hand in hand with content is the design thinking. With the advent of Digital, more and more thought is being put into the way websites and apps are being designed. Design is at the heart of innovation.
While every example seems to be going back to Apple and Google, there were some fabulous work, which were showcased in the various talks and workshops conducted at Cannes 2015.
An allied topic with respect to Content and Design is the advent of Pictures and Video as the backbone of telling a story. The understanding that I clearly got was that people would rather “see” than “read”. This is interesting as well as challenging for Marketers and Brands. How can we design the experience for our users/ customers keeping this in mind.
THEME 5: DISTRUST BETWEEN AGENCIES AND CLIENTS & AGILE MARKETING
One of the major things that happens at Cannes is Networking. Networking for business, networking to find out which agency might be really offering a more holistic experience.
This year, from what I understood, there were multiple businesses, which were going in to a ‘pitching’ stage. One of the primary reasons why this is happening is because of lack of right talent working on Brands. I understood that every marketer, not just in India, but also across the world is facing a huge problem around fragmentation.
They have specialists across every domain. The problem, therefore, increases for the Marketing Team as the smaller companies may not be on board as far as the Brand is concerned.
Marketers today have to respond ‘faster’ than ever before.
This agility will be possible if there is one ‘dedicated’ team with strengths across multiple domains and is economical. This mix seems really difficult.
So, one thing was clear, that in the new order, there will be Large Agencies that will co-exist with New Scrappy Technology companies that will be working on specialized projects with the Marketing teams.
The Marketing teams co-ordination efforts will need to be at the peak as they will have to be the Guardians of the brand and ensure the New Tech Companies are on-boarded as far as the Brand is concerned.
Unilever Foundry was an example that I took back home. Unilever works with a number of startup companies. They have created this Foundry, keeping the future in mind, where they understand that these new companies will bring up some ‘disruptive’ ideas.
The question is, while this may be possible for a large advertiser like Unilever, how will smaller advertisers replicate this model?
IN CONCLUSION:
Apart from the 5 Key Themes, which as per me were evident at Cannes, there was a huge emphasis on Gender Equality. The landmark verdict that happened in US soon after the Festival was a key awareness point of the event.
These 5 Key Themes will be something that I think will have an impact on Marketers like me. Hope it resonates with you as well.
Anything that I write will not be complete without the mention Rose` Wines. South of France and Rose` go hand in hand. The house wines are even great. I wish I could carry some of it back. Hopefully, I will make it again to Cannes sometime soon and will deepen my relationship with the Wine.
(Image Courtesy: MEC Global, WPP Group).
(* Post Appeared on 20 July 2015, at random shades.wordpress.com)
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