“How can we say YES to the that bold, brave idea? Rather than why it’s not going to work and why it can’t be approved, what if we ask ourselves what it would take, what would need to happen for us to say YES. Finding more reasons to sign up than to opt out of great creativity.” #Cannes2024
DAY ONE
Cannes Lions Day 1 summarised in the spirit of Brutal Simplicity of Thought. Robert Grace and I sharing highlights in a format of One Word, One Quote, One Piece of Work.
One word:
YES
Global McDonald’s CMO inspired with a challenge to look at brave work and consider how one says YES – what would it take, what would need to change – vs just saying NO. A spirit of optimism and excitement around bold creativity featured prominently in many CMO talks on the day.
One quote:
“I’m a technology optimist.” ~ HRH Princess Beatrice
Excited to see how the industry (and even royalty) is leaning into AI, moving away from a conversation of fear and uncertainty last year to new ways of embracing AI to unlock creative excellence, agility, new opportunities.
One piece:
Loved the Dinner after Dinner McDonald’s campaign in Dubai that rewarded still-hungry fine dining patrons with a free burger in exchange for their expensive restaurant bill. One can imagine the many logistical NOs vs the YES for a campaign that delivers off a real truth!
~ Jacques Burger
DAY TWO
Day 2 of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity saw an inspiring line-up of speakers and the wealth of smarts shared could probably inspire multiple posts and articles, so Robert Grace it will be interesting to see how you summarize it – it’s a hard one, but in a good way!
One word:
Truth
Plenty of conversations around getting to the bottom of effective work and what we think is working, but actually isn’t. Sobering statistics shared by Jon Evans and team from System1 quantified the staggering cost of dull advertising and highlighted just how much bad work is out there, but with inspiring tips on how to make sure one avoids it – more to follow on this!
One quote:
“55% of people can’t think of a single brand they feel connected with or that understands them”
Sobering research across 2000 UK consumers motivates for more authentic and entertaining storytelling, such as the beautiful, simple moments shown in a lot of the P&G work Marc Pritchard shared.
One piece of work:
I have to share two. A campaign for Magnum, where they shared coordinates of places where you could find some sun in winter to enjoy a Magnum – a beautiful truth around how people associate ice cream with sun and summer as a consumption moment – and how to use this to inspire different behaviour. Then a campaign for Heinz, again tapping into a simple truth, beautifully executed.
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M&C Saatchi Group South Africa
DAY THREE
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity day 3 highlights shared together with Robert Grace in a format that is hopefully quick and easy to digest.
One word:
Play
It’s exciting to see the many inspiring and frankly mindblowing applications of AI at Cannes – from data and analytics to creativity and everything inbetween. One idea I came across at the Festival is an app in Canada (The Inflation Cookbook) that tracks inflation on grocery prices in real time and advises on best prices per item in the moment as you shop, then building recipe suggestions instantly using these products as you build your basket. Where Cannes 2023 dealt with AI as a theme, this year it’s very much about playing with and exploring application.
One quote:
“We have to unpack it, break it into different pieces first, before we put it back together”
In conversation with the very brilliant Karen Nelson-Field PhD from Amplified Intelligence, she briefly shares a view on AI in reference to a journey on effectiveness and it strikes me as so true and important. We have to play with AI, start using it, even if it doesn’t fully make sense yet, in order for it to make sense, in order for it to become valuable and start to present as a powerful solution in our world.
One piece:
Disclaimer: it’s not an ad. It’s a photo from a Google presentation highlighting features from their AI tool Google Gemini showing a user drawing of a stickman dreaming about another stickman dreaming about another. The AI bot is then asked to think about a movie this image references and it comes up with the answer: Inception.
What to do with this and how it can be useful in the development of our next ad campaign? I have no idea! But it’s mindblowing and makes me want to go and play!
hashtagCannesLions2024
M&C Saatchi Group South Africa
DAY FOUR
Day 4 of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity delivered some of the best talks of the week and I’m sure Robert Grace will agree. Some talks provided enough brilliant content for an entire presentation, nevermind a post, so this is going to be a tough one!
One word:
Dig
Getting to a deeper level, understanding what lies beneath the surface, is key to unlocking powerful communication tactics. I loved the talk by Microsoft Chief Brand Officer Kathleen Hall, making the most sense of AI for me at the event so far. How she framed a benefit of search enhancement to productivity enhancement, perfectly articulated a benefit lead approach to AI in a way that was easy to understand and interpret – for the first time this week, like her family she referenced in her talk, I felt included, understood and excited about AI!
Carla Zakhem-Hassan from JPMorganChase managed to ground the idea of Brand Purpose in a similar way by talking to how what can be a lofty statement, is grounded in communication and action through initiatives such as 2nd chances – a genius initiative to help individuals clear a minor criminal record in order to access credit – giving substance and gravitas to the JPM purpose of making people’s dreams come true.
One quote:
Be in it – James Patterson
Genius storyteller and commercial mastermind JP shared this insight as the key to powerful storytelling – if you can’t feel it yourself, if you’re not there in the moment feeling the emotion, neither will the audience. A simple, but powerful filter for how we judge work and ideas.
One idea:
The Kraft Heinz story deserves special recognition and possibly its own presentation. In fact, I might do a seperate talk or post just on the talk done by chief growth officer Diana Frost. What is incredible is the clarity of thinking that has moved them from a lost organization trapped in conventional FMCG communication less than 4 years ago, to a leading brand and creative company with exceptional commercial success today. What I loved is orientation around not reinventing oneself, but rather understanding oneself. Unlocking a truth around a consumer (and internal) love for the product that borders on the obsessive and irrational has unlocked endless campaigns of brave and exciting work, delivering massive commercial success.
M&C Saatchi Group South Africa
hashtagCannesLions2024
DAY 5
