FBlog

The 58^th Cannes Lions festival opened this year by officially declaring it is no longer about pure advertising by re-naming the event as a ‘festival of creativity’. Today, the festival is about the blend of clients and ad/marketing agencies considering what and how creativity, technology and entertainment merge to drive new connections between brands and consumers. The festival has come a long way from merely celebrating what the best TV ad is in the world.

The festival brought together the venerable agencies of fame and ‘holding company’ reach: IPG, WPP, Omnicom, Publicis as well as the ‘hot shop’ start ups and pretenders. Most interestingly, it was the ‘client’ side of the equation which dominated both as content providers, channels and owners: Google, Facebook, Ford, Time Warner, Unilever, Nestle and P&G. This interplay led to some very stimulating and interesting debates on the stage at the main forum.

For me, there are a few key aspects of this event, which has implications for FutureBrand and for the future of brands.

1. Creativity is increasingly being defined by a brand’s ability to tap into the core DNA of who and what the brand stands for, and to express its personality both in its identity and its communications via social engagement and participation. The ability to inspire consumers and engage consumers is directly proportionate to the brand’s perceived value, relevance and preference. Indeed, the ability to use consumer participation and engagement as part of the brand’s ethos and reason-for-being solidifies its core user base into advocacy and loyalty. Creative communication must start and end with the consumer being at the heart of the brand story, otherwise the brand is endangered by ‘breathing its own fumes’ and thereby ‘talking to itself’.
2. Thinking is at the heart of good brand strategy. Today, the world is more complex thanks to the plethora of channels and media, which seek to influence our perceptions and behaviours everyday. Bombarded by messages, the future is one in which we (as consumers) will be able to both access and edit these messages via our intelligent devices (e.g. pads, phones, pods, and screens). However, a brand that does not intelligently ‘think’ about who/how/what/where and when a consumer may need or be interested in a ‘conversation’ or ‘engagement’ will be edited OUT of a consumer repertoire. Meaning, the old spray and pray model of communications is over – today, brands must be ‘intelligent’ both in terms of content, engagement and using technology. Intelligent technology and engagement is where and how the future for brand relevance will be fought for and protected once won.
3. Entertainment and content will go hand-in-hand as brand owners will no longer rely upon agencies to be ‘agents’ of determining or brokering talent, creative ideas or content. In particular, user-originated content will morph into specialist content originated from multiple sources, channels and partnerships. Co-creation and collaboration will spur new collaborations and partnerships. The very fact that Will.I.Am was speaking and is working with Intel on ‘next gen’ technology says a lot about the merging of industries. Ad agencies today are changing to deliver and create new content platforms not merely ‘sell the space’ for or in them, which means Brands now have an unprecedented opportunity to create their OWN content, and directly with the consumers they target.  By embracing co-creative technology, and brand engagement – brands can now access and interpret real-time creativity and ideas for anything from TV, movies, published content or advertising.
4. Creativity with a conscience. Perhaps the most ‘invisible yet present’ aspect of this year’s festival is the higher standards and ethics which brands are now being held accountable for – in everything from sustainable packaging and supply chain production, through to transparency in consumer communications and commitments. The ability to leverage ‘people power’ in and on the web via social media can now both threaten countries (a la Arab Spring), but also organise boycotts and re-calls of products for multinational brand owners. Not to mention, the impact that transparency places on investors to both invest and trade-ethically.  The ‘official’ Cannes satchel was a hemp woven bag from ‘Brand Bangladesh’ reminding delegates on both a practical level and ethical level not to forget about the developing world, and the ethos of caring for the planet (as the bag was made from natural fibres and fully recyclable). Which – was a bit of an irony given the ludicrous amount of paper inserts, flyers and magazines, which were distributed freely all around Cannes. In contrast to a festival, which was championing new technology and ‘social media’ connections and wireless content availability, it seemed the ‘old skool’ of paper and flyers was still very much alive.
5. Last but not least, the final big observation of Cannes was the ‘call for creativity’ to be harnessed with the ‘need for innovation’. By this, I mean a call to embrace new ways of thinking, working and commercially pursuing new products, services and designs. The reason why this showed up on the Cannes radar is the belief that the ‘old means and methods’ for communications and for products and services are now being usurped by smaller companies, entrepreneurs and brands which are more flexible and less ‘corporate’ in their approach to engaging with consumers. The encouragement of risk/reward for ideas was furthered by the yearly MDC partners’ ‘call for ideas’ and the ‘open ask’ forum for many speakers, companies and brands to ‘get involved and give us your ideas’. At the risk of sounding anti-crowd sourcing (which I am NOT), I caution these calls for innovation and ideas in that to many they are just self serving on-line suggestions boxes with very little incentive apart from either a) cash, b) prizes or c) recognition. What most of the speakers missed was that PROBLEM SOLVING and MUTUAL INTEREST are the two key requirements to get people interested and motivated to contribute. Competitions and prizes work against this, because they incentivise the individual. If a company truly wants to ‘engage’ a wide and diverse community then they shared greater good must demand a shared forum for ideas, idea-builds and success. Edmund De Bono’s ‘palace of ideas’ idea was perhaps the most interesting concept expressed, yet so little time was devoted to explaining it…why? Because it wasn’t about selling more washing powder or increasing tweet followers.

All told, Patti Smith will be the most memorable ‘speaker’ with her heartfelt and creative expression of a career in which her role was to be ‘the Ishmael for a generation of artists who didn’t survive to tell their tale’. Her poignant and humble expression of ‘always wanting to connect’ to her audience via a performance echoed Will.I.Am’s comments that a good performance ‘echoes and feeds off of the audience’ reminds me of where/when and how technology can provide ‘real time’ and ‘resonant’ feedback. The tools we have at our disposal for marketing are not just about ‘broadcast’ or ‘products’ but rather are powerful connecting tools for HUMANS and PEOPLE, which at the heart of everything is where and how CREATIVITY is ultimately created, expressed and judged.