Jamie Macken on why his first creative festival outing was so impressive
Core Media sent ten people to attend this year’s Cannes Lions annual creative festival. Why? To ensure we continue to learn and improve. Safe to say, it was mission accomplished. If you have never been to the Cannes Lions creative festival, you need to start planning for 2017. Below are three reasons to bring to your boss to help get you on the plane next June.
1 TO LEARN: Don’t go to Cannes expecting to be blown away by every single presentation, speech or work shop, you won’t be. We do great work in Ireland too. But what you will find is something new or thought-provoking that drives you to think deeper or differently. There is a diversity to the festival that allows you to pick up prize tips that go beyond client work to technology, management and mindfulness. The quality of the work and the calibre of speakers ensures this happens.
Below is a summary of the week’s from each of my colleagues:
Andy Pierce, group strategy director, Core Media: “Culture is crucial to success in understanding your audience’s cultural context but also fostering belief in creativity as a driver of real growth within a business.” Aaron Chalke, experiential client director, Mediaworks, says “creativity doesn’t need to be complex. The simple, insightful creative transcends languages, speaks 1,000 words and embraces going into the unknown.”
A head for action: Rothco won a silver at Cannes for its Defence Forces ‘Join Our Team’. The campaign was launched in response to a White Paper with a directive to double the rate of serving female members to 12 per cent. Last year, just one in four of the 350 female applicants turned up on the first day of training. The ad results well exceeded expectations.
Aidan Greene, deputy chief executive, Core Media: “The next tipping point for brands is virtual reality (VR). Creators need to reframe current AV thinking as it has no frames. It is no longer ‘screen and viewer’ but ‘world and visitor.’” Claire Corbett, director of agency development, MediaVest: “Brand narrative needs to live in real culture. A narrative people want to share because it says something they want to say, but perhaps can’t. Success is people wanting to share your message and associate themselves with it.”
Alan Cox, CEO, Core Media: “Data is not the enemy of the artistic process, it can help creative to find and back-up their hypothesis. It stops work from mis-firing.” Overall, it is important to take time, away from the day-to-day, to absorb new information and learn. As Keith Weed, CMO of Unilever, put it: “Stop chopping wood and sharpen the axe.”
2. TO LEARN HOW TO WIN: Most of us want to win a Cannes Lions. Thankfully, some of our peers are doing so. It was great to see Rothco pick-up a silver Lion for their Irish Defence Forces campaign, aiming to recruit more women to the army. We need more Irish agencies to win at Cannes. Doing so will have the knock on effect of better briefs and budgets.
As Fernando Machado, global brand management, Burger King, said: “The more good work you do, the more good work you do.” To get an understanding of what it takes to win, see as many of the entries as possible, not to mention hear the judge and jury feedback. Consistent themes emerge after spending time looking at the work and attending the many talks.
This year there was a focus on VR and augmented reality (AI). Another theme which was prominent is purpose. Most of the winners and most of the case studies used were marketing campaigns which help society. Whether it is highlighting the discrimination of women or driving awareness of HSFF, many campaigns had their roots in a bigger cause.
While it is nothing new, this year the objective of many brands was to push beyond purpose that ‘makes you feel’ towards what ‘inspires you to do.’ Two of the world’s biggest advertisers, Unilever and P&G, have purpose at the heart of their marketing strategies.
3. TO BE INSPIRED: You leave Cannes reminded as to why you love what you do. It is perhaps the most strongest argument for attending the festival. In the office, we talk about work with one another all the time. But in Cannes, you challenge one another and form points of view that not only sharpen your understanding but fill you with enthusiasm for the work.
Cannes stokes the fire in your belly and encourages you to think bigger and more laterally. Getting away from the office and surrounding yourself with the best talent and work in the world allows visitors to think beyond the day-to-day, giving you a broader perspective as to what is possible. Whether or not you return home full of new ideas, if the only take out is a re-charged motivation for your work, that is reason enough for attending the festival.
Jamie Macken is a partner at Livewire
