VCCP’s Post

Enter the Lions' den 🦁 Last week was the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the largest gathering for those who work in creative communications, advertising and related industries. The week-long event celebrated the best in advertising with the Lions awards and educated attendees with talks on industry trends. Some of the key branding takeaways: 🤖 AI is here to stay Artificial intelligence and its impact on the industry was heavily discussed with many brand activations at the festival involving the usage of AI. While some talked about the capabilities that allowed for better work, others talked about the pitfalls such as the lack of diversity in AI-generated images. 🤝 The business case for inclusivity Due to diversity fatigue and culture wars, many companies have begun defunding their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. However, one panel at the festival highlighted the commercial benefits of more progressive advertising, citing it helps brands sell more and retain customers. ⚖️ Brands can’t shy away from politics Sessions highlighted the importance of brands getting involved in politics. According to Research Live, 60% of consumers buy brands based on their politics. 🎨 The power of the creator economy This year was the first time the festival included a Creator Pass, an initiative designed specifically for content creators to learn about the advertising industry. Simon Cook, the CEO of Lions, acknowledged the major contributions influencers have had in advertising and the potential growth of the creator economy. Creators with a real connection to their audience are who brands should be partnering with, not necessarily the biggest names. 🏎️ Embrace the now The “Coors Lights Out” ad campaign, born from a pure accident that went viral, was a Lions Award winner. Shohei Ohtani, a baseball player, damaged a billboard featuring a Coors Light ad with a foul ball, and within 48 hours, Coors responded with a special edition can that replicated the damaged ad. Brands should be moving fast to capitalize on what’s happening in culture. Want to learn more about the Cannes Lions Festival? Visit canneslions.com 📸 Contagious ---------- #canneslions #cannes #branding #globalbranding #brandingcontent #brandingmanagement #strategicbranding #brandingforbusiness #professionalbranding #brandingstrategies #svanyc #mastersinbranding #svamastersinbranding #svamib #schoolofvisualarts #sva #svabranding #branding #gradschool #mpsbranding

A whopping 82% of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity attendees feel that the festival has become more geared to tech companies than about creativity. "The overwhelming agreement that focus has shifted from creativity towards tech is, if not surprising, still a startling fact. I’d like to think creativity will always remain at the heart of the festival, and be the central tenant of what we do as a sector" - MullenLowe UK chief growth officer, Lucy Taylor. More insight's from MullenLoweUK's research here >>>https://lnkd.in/evcieU7r #advertising #creativity #marketing

Recently I spoke with Ad Age about all the news, drama, and big takeaways from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. We all know the weeks after the Festival are the beginning of our New Year. Everyone’s fired up, talking about inspiration, determined to have brave conversations, motivated by being pissed off at not winning a Lion, pouring through copious trend wrap-ups, promising to do work that makes a difference. Then we bring on the ‘big idea’ meetings, the how we win action plans, the hack sessions, the unpack the work workshops. Now, I'm not mad about this. This is a very good thing. We all need this kick in the arse to power us forward BUT... I would stress one big thing as we take our New Year's vigor to the table. Let's save the business before trying to save the world. This year, we saw a healthy body of work awarded Lions that used the power of creativity to transform businesses - AND people's lives, communities, and maybe even the planet. Work where the purpose was real, demonstrated at scale, and delivered tangible outcomes for both business and cause. We finally, hopefully, have gotten over being completely drunk on ‘purpose', and awarding advertisers with Lions simply for paying lip service to causes and social well-being. Let's go make more of this work, please! Happy New Year.

The Cannes Lions – the major global advertising festival – has just completed and prizes have been awarded. See this AdWeek story about who won what and for what ideas. This is a remarkable event, that showcases the best of what creative minds have generated over the previous year in numerous categories – but all are surprising and impactful with their ingenuity.   Read this and you can pick your own winner – maybe it is the Peruvian cement company, that designed city pathway tiles, that help visually impaired people? What a simple and yet powerful idea. Or maybe it is the Pedigree adoptable dog campaign, that uses artificial intelligence in a helpful and lovely way. There are moving ads that elevate the role of women and girls in sports and societies and also more classic – brand or product selling campaigns, that are beautifully executed, like the Magnum ice cream outdoor campaign.   These campaigns are important not just from a marketing perspective – I think they have a greater societal meaning, as they always deal with relevant issues and blend the traditional media and the latest technology. See the full AdWeek story here:   https://lnkd.in/d2EKiCag   #creativity #advertising #branding #marketing #idea #canneslions #visualcommunication #communication #brandvalue

This is WPP picking up Creative Company of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week. In this weird and wonderful world of ours, this is the biggest prize of them all at the biggest show of them all. Now look at the guy holding up the trophy. He's surrounded by some GREAT people - some of the very best ever to do what we do. I'll pick out Rob Reilly, Liz Taylor, Devika Bulchandani, I bet the legendary Pandeys are up there, and Debbi Vandeven, and leaders from across all the group's agencies. Mark Read of course. They're obviously very happy. They're also saying thank you to the guy with the trophy. That's the orchestrator, connector, assessor, right-hand, left-hand and all-round creative excellence mastermind who played a role no-one outside the group will see. WPP won 160 Lions last week. That needs an extraordinary volume of great work of course. But that's not enough. It can't happen without the kind of intelligence, planning and diligence that Eric brings to that team. He and his team have done it before. They'll do it again. And while he might not be as 'visible' as a Rob or a Nils or an Anselmo or a Piyush or a Rob'n'Lol or a Colleen or a Jeff or a Dave or a Liz or a Margaret or a Cindy - everyone on that stage knows it it wouldn't have happened without him. I love the visibility of this industry, and our collective ability to make change happen. I love many of those leading the charge at the front. I also love that there can be less visible heroes too: the quiet influence and the soft power. Eric Monnet - chapeau mon ami.

It's almost time for Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.   For most attendees, the event is about toasting the efforts of creative departments, and getting a few deals underway (with some employing an approach of rosé-powered persuasion).   I love Cannes because it's a bellwether for the ad industry - and for business more broadly.   This week I wrote a column for The Drum about that very thing.   You'll find the link - as always - in the comments.   #cannes #advertising #creativity #ape

Having let the train take the strain, Stuart Button, our Executive Creative Director, shares his first impressions of Cannes 2024: “Cannes is here again . . . as adland's hopefuls descend on southern #France for some much-needed vitamin D. “The commercialisation of this 70 year old creative festival continues with more brands showing up than ever before. “Judging by the fringe event talks, AI is still top of the agenda - only this time, it's less: 'We're all doomed!' and more 'we're all going to be rich!'. “As well as AI and D&I, sports is sticking its hand in the air for some much-needed attention (Stagwell's awesome sports beach by Cheerful Twentyfirst is now double the size). “What with the #Euros and #Olympics coming to #France (although you wouldn't know it - it's pretty mute from what I've seen), they’re even parading the old torch thingy down La Croisette tomorrow. “The other topic that's still going strong, is that dirty word 'effectiveness'. The thing that all clients want and creatives struggle to care about. “With stuff like ‘advertising value chain’, ‘digital waste’ and ‘closed-loop attribution’ being thrown around . . . If I didn't know any better, I'd say marketeers were making up stuff just to sell more things. Sneaky little buggers. “Is it any wonder that advertising has only just dropped off the top spot of the UK's LEAST trusted industry for the first time in a decade. “According to Simon Stone, of LoopMe GM International: ‘There is no point in creating the next Guinness Surfer if fragmented viewing habits, skippable ads, and decreasing attention spans prevent it from being seen. Creative remains essential to branding, but only when supercharged with data-driven media placement.' “I mean, I'd love to write the next Guinness Surfer ad - effectiveness be damned! “But then, what's the point in doing what we're doing if absolutely no one cares? And, according to Mark Ritson, no one does. “Hey ho - off to my first event I go.” #cannes2024 #canneslions #events #festivalofcreativity

Being on the ground at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, here’s my initial dispatch: In 2010, Cannes Lions dropped the word “advertising.” It made sense at the time because there were starting to be so many new forms of advertising that didn’t fit the old mold. Branding-wise, I believe it was a great positioning move. Since then, the festival has grown tremendously. It now attracts so many people from so many different job functions and companies, not just agencies and production companies. So many new categories have been added also. Naturally, I thought there would be way more creative work entered into the show. Not so. Almost 40% less creative work. Does that mean this industry is now less about the work and creativity? Creatives used to own the word creativity. That may have been true in the context of advertising. However, in a borderless, always-on world where anyone can create, creativity no longer belongs to creatives only. I made this point to a strategist friend of mine near the Croisette today. He said candidly. It never did. #CannesLions #creativity #advertising

"As consumers, we're inundated with more noise than ever before. And so, as a brand, a key way that we can stand out is through creativity—but it has to come through in a way that feels authentic to us and to our audience," shares Katie (Risch) McAdams on why creativity is vital for good business. Check out more via Ad Age by MediaLink.

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