Things were starting to slow down a bit by Friday but there were still a good few talks I wanted to get to see. The first of these was around The strange power of confidence. The panel talked a lot around how people aren’t born with confidence and how it grows over time – and how it can be nurtured. There were some good examples of how brands like Suntrust Bank have focused on confidence within their advertising and how Jim Beam completely changed their approach to re-launch as a confident brand to appeal to a younger audience. I’m sure Mila Kunis helped here!
Actor David Oyelowo then talked about preparation being his key to confidence and they closed the session by picking an audience member to recite some Shakespeare live on stage. Firstly without any guidance and then after a few tips. To be fair, she did very well!
I then went to see Sir Martin Sorrell in Conversation with Ken Auletta. Given the recent furore following Sir Martin around I was intrigued to see how much they’d talk about his departure from WPP and the accusations that he faced. It was a slow start but soon got going as they talked about a range of topics, starting with Ken’s new book on the advertising industry - Frenemies. They then jumped about discussing everything from the future of the big media holding companies, regulation for Facebook, Google et al as well as the balance between privacy and targeting.
They then focused a little bit on Sir Martin’s departure from WPP and the 2 main accusations he faced – firstly his aggressive and potentially abusive management approach and then alleged misuse of corporate funds. Whilst he admitted he could be a difficult person to deal with he talked about his drive for high standards and delivery and suggested the aggressive accusations were a step too far.
He went on the flat out deny the second accusation as completely untrue – after a bit of further probing from Ken. It was really interesting to see the discussion!
I then ended the day with the final session of the festival. Parkland Survivors: The Real and Raw Power of Conviction was a story about hope and about the power that people can have to make change in the world. It featured three survivors from the horrific shooting in Parkland, Florida in February 2018. A shooting in which 17 people lost their lives. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to listen to and even harder to imagine what these young people went through that day.
Despite this, it was an incredibly inspiring and powerful way to end the week. These amazing youngsters have responded to the tragedy in a truly fantastic way – all setting up social enterprises and platforms to help drive real change to tackle the gun problems in America. They’ve already had laws changed and are continuing to fight the battle to make America [and the world] a safer place.
Take a look at Branches of Bravery, Societal Reform Corporation and Change the Ref to see what these guys are doing.
People can make change.
I’ll follow up with a blog to reflect on the week and the key themes that I’ve taken away with me as well as sharing a few more pictures from the week.
Thursday started with a trip to the innovation stage to listen to Black Swan and PepsiCo talk about how they have been using social predictions to drive activity and campaigns within their business. The interesting part for me was trying to unpick the simplicity within the very complicated.
Huge amounts of data [54m pieces of data per day], processed by complex algorithms powered by machine learning and AI. Pretty complex stuff. I think that brilliance lies in harvesting this and turning it into a simple, clear action.
It was good to see the speakers pull in some real world examples rather than try and blow our minds with the theory of all this stuff. PepsiCo have used social prediction to implement a number of business changes – one of those being across their Walkers Sensations product line. By taking the data and making long term predictions [i.e. what will happen in 6 months] they were able to forecast certain ingredients becoming more popular and then produce a new range of flavours to take advantage of this future demand. A new range that is performing really well. Pretty impressive stuff.
They also touched on how Black Swan as a company have developed a charity arm [named White Swan] which is using the same technology to help better diagnose people with currently undiagnosed conditions – helping the medical profession to treat people better and ultimately save lives.
As with other presentations this week, the most powerful opportunities come from the combination of humans and machines. We should be focusing on how these relationships can be strengthened rather than fearing for our jobs!
I then went for some creative inspiration at Google’s What Creativity Can Do session. This was all about how the creative teams at Google have helped to deliver some truly inspiring and socially impactful products, services and work and helped to change people’s lives. Whether that’s partnerships with UNICEF, helping to rebuild countries like Greece after the economic collapse through digital training for people or an app that helps refugees when they first land in a new country. These things all came from the creative teams rather from the strategy or product innovation or leadership teams.
We can’t all do things on the same scale as Google clearly but we should all remember how powerful creativity can be and use it to do more. It’s certainly something I’m going to spend a lot more time thinking about.
I then listened to a great panel on Embracing the Future with some big hitters from the world of media, publishing and brand. It was great to hear the thoughts of WPP, Google, The New York Times and GSK about some of the big challenges and opportunities in the industry.
The last session I went to was about the Nike Breaking2 project. If you’ve not heard about it then you can find out a bit more in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkhtgbBr-cY
I was interested in this more from a people point of view and how the whole project was around pushing the boundaries of what is or isn’t possible. This is a great mind set to have – and whilst I’m clearly not going to attempt to run a marathon in 2 hours – these type of ‘moon shot’ projects so inspire people to do strive to do more. Originally a small idea with limited support at Nike, the team behind it got the support of one passionate senior leader to support it and then they took a big risk and made it happen. He was so bought into the idea that he even got his hand tattooed!
How much could you achieve if we strive for something seemingly beyond reach?
We then ended the day at the Vice+Virtue party at L'église Notre-Dame d'Espérance overlooking La Croisette which was nice! Off to the final few sessions of the week now.
Wunderman, the below the line agency for BT & EE, and our media agency Essence gave us their curated view of the interesting shortlisted work from both a creative and media perspective.
A fantastic example of this is Xfinity Mobile from the US.
They partnered with YouTube to target customers on other networks to show how much their data was costing as they were streaming on 4G turning YouTube's most popular downloads in to 6 second pre-rolls. The innovative targeting, use of data and impactful creative tripled online searches for Xfinity Mobile. I think we can take this approach and flip it round for our existing customers to illustrate how much they get with a Plusnet Mobile package - building on a campaign the customer engagement team are working on already. You can see the film here with more details here - you’ll need to sign up:
https://www.lovethework.com/campaigns/392153
I also met one of my idols, Johnny Marr. Who knew all those years ago in my angst ridden teens Iistening to The Smiths that years later I would be having a selfie with him. Selfies weren't even invented then. It was really interesting to hear about his connections and chance encounters which have taken him in different directions including working on the sound track for the film Inception. He kept returning to his work ethic- it's not easy to write amazing songs apparently (although he did write This Charming Man in 15 mins in between doing his homework!!) and he mentioned one of David Hockney's favourite quotes that he refers back:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
Wednesday was another day where we just couldn’t see everything we wanted and had to split up a bit. It was also another extremely long day so I’ll try and keep this brief.
We had another tour around The Palais – this time to focus more on the shortlisted media work, with some great insight and curation from our friends at Wunderman. I think Jane will drop her thoughts down on a couple of pieces in a blog to follow shortly.
On face value, the sessions I went to after this looked a bit more light-hearted and entertainment focused but, as you’d hope, there were a number of important themes within them.
I went to listen to Conan O’Brien and Shaquille O’Neill talk about personal brand and entrepreneurship. This was a pretty funny session as both of these guys are naturally very entertaining. They talked about some of the different work they’ve been doing and what was important to them. The big take out here was around authenticity. It’s all about choosing the right partnerships and being true to yourself. They talked about partnerships they’d never do [who knew Shaq hates Spam so much!] and how you’ve got to move with the times and the technology. They also both spoke about creating content for different platforms rather than just playing out a TV ad across every channel. This is something we are trying to do more and more of at Plusnet.
I then dived across The Palais to hear Ari Weiss [CCO of DDB North America] and Rankin Carroll [President Fruity Confections Mars Wrigley – yes, that’s his real job title!] talk about their crazy Super Bowl ad from earlier this year. Chaired by David Schwimmer [who featured in the ads] it was a really interesting look at a unique piece of work.
In a nutshell, Skittles made an advert for one single super-fan and played it to him during the Super Bowl. Exclusive the Rainbow. They got tonnes of coverage and also avoided having to actually buy an ad slot for millions of dollars. They even had his mum and best friend in the advert. You can see some of the teaser ads on the video at the end of this post.
There were two massive learnings for me and, albeit on slightly different budget levels, some great similarities with how we try and work at Plusnet. Firstly, whilst clearly a pretty impressive ‘stunt’ the creative was the result of clear business need and insight. Skittles [and the rest of the category] sold the most in the four week run up to the game. During the game was too late and they needed to engage earlier. They took this insight and ran with it and that turned into this great, disruptive campaign.
The second was that this was about being super smart and super creative. How could they get massive reach and engage the right audience without spending millions and millions on media. How do you make the creative so strong, unique or interesting that it works harder for you. Given our low share of voice this is something that we constantly have to do in order to take the fight to the bigger competitors.
I then continued the celebrity presenter theme and went to hear Edith Bowman quiz Johnny Marr on his life and career. I’ll let Jane cover this off later [and post her selfie with the man himself!]
There’s definitely a theme running though the talks I’ve attended and the work I’ve seen about the importance of gender equality and how having this balance drives change and brings a different perspective.
There are many shortlisted campaigns on show where brands are championing this cause, here’s a great execution from Stabilo using its products to ‘highlight’ the issue - brilliant and simple.
The talk which stood out most for me on Tuesday was the one I went to out of curiosity not necessarily thinking it would be relevant to me. The title was Music & Motherhood with Jessie Ware and Paloma Faith. I was intrigued to see if Paloma lived up to her reputation! However the theme of the talk really resonated with me as a working mum. Obviously I'm no pop star but even with all their money and privilege it's still not easy to juggle kids and work without the guilt of either feeling like you should be working when you are picking the kids up or feeling like you should be with the kids when you're at work. Having said that the really good point they made was actually this pressure on your time makes you more focused and productive, being clear about what you need to do in the time available.
Workplaces do tend be more male dominated and traditional and there is a pressure to almost pretend that the kids don't exist and to make apologies (even if you have been in the office since daybreak in order to get to the school pick up) I think we're fortunate in the marketing team at Plusnet that we have a good gender balance and have a positive attitude to needs outside of work - whether that's kids or commutes or whatever (and this applies whether you're a boy or a girl!).
I also loved Paloma Faith's new initiative of consciously doing one act of kindness every day - doesn't have to be a grand guesture - as a way of counteracting all the negativity currently around, especially on social media.
Oh and just for those who want to know Jessie and Paloma had amazing outfits and looked cool in the Cannes heat - this is an obvious prerequisite of being a popstar not a Plusnet Marketing Manager! I even managed to get Amy an autograph from Jessie Ware 😍
Disclaimer: I have a fuzzy head so the below may not actually make sense. I make no apology for any grammatical errors contained within.
There was so much to do on Day 2 that we had to divide and conquer to try and see it all. We kicked off the day with a curated tour of the shortlisted outdoor work with Posterscope. It was great to see the different campaigns that stand a chance of taking home an award. There was a whole range of creative as you would imagine but the ones I liked the best all followed a similar pattern – very simple, easy to understand and true to the brand. There were a fair few that took a while to work out what they were trying to do or say and I’d lost interest before I figured it out in some cases.
There’s a few examples that we liked below and a few more over on our Instagram.
I managed to get a few minutes at #googlebeach and made a custom hat too which was nice.
I then went to see What Matters Next with the Youtube CEO, Susan Wojecki, and a number of other speakers. They talked about upcoming YouTube developments and spent a lot of time talking to L’Oreal about how they have used YouTube as a key part of their marketing strategy. The key take out for me was about listening to customers when creating content. It shouldn’t be about ‘what do I/we want to say [i.e. what do we want to sell] but more about ‘what do people want us to talk about’. Clearly there is a very important job for DR activity but brand content should be led by the audience. We’ve started doing this more at Plusnet too with content specifically created to answer the questions that we know are being asked.
I then spent a bit of time walking around the Great Ads for Good Causes exhibition – full of really thought provoking material and the sort of stuff that makes you stop, think and realise there are far more important things in life than selling some broadband.
It was then on to Think Like a Toddler – this was a good extension of the conversation started by Evan Sharp of Pinterest yesterday focusing on how we can be more creative and how everything is a possibility. It’s all about shifting from a fixed to a growth mindset. Helpfully, they offered up some tips on how to make this work:
Prioritise learning agility
Feedback is a gift
Nail it and scale it
Question your benchmarks
You need to be prepared to fail and accept that. If we all did the safe boring activity every time then we wouldn’t learn or develop – it’s just about making sure when you fail you do it as quickly and cheaply as possible!
There were some great real world examples of this approach working in practice from Oreo too.
We rounded off the day with a talk about The ethics of AI – A very interesting way to finish off with a clear focus on making sure that machine learning and AI is as transparent as possible. People need to trust it and that’s difficult when the majority is very opaque. It’s also a must that brands have to remember that on the end of all the fancy algorithms are still people and they need to be treated like people. There was also some great conversation about how people and machines can work together for the greater good – and how this combination can be so much stronger than either humans or machines in isolation.
Once the talks were done we grabbed a bit of food and some drinks at #Facebookbeach and then headed to Baoli to eat. Probably the single most crazy restaurant I’ve ever been in. Not really sure how to describe it! I think crazy does the job!
We’re back off to the Palace shortly to tour some of the shortlisted media work before another afternoon of brilliant talks – I’ll hopefully get to see Shaquille O’Neil, David Schwimmer and Jonny Marr!
Morning all. I’m sitting at Spotify Beach with a coffee in hand after a pretty manic first day in Cannes.
I thought I’d try and post something before the day comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Yesterday was long. Long but excellent. After arriving in Cannes and sorting all the admin I managed to get to a couple of things yesterday afternoon.
Firstly, I went to see The (not So) Secret Lives of Creatives. Evan Sharp, co-founder of Pinterest, gave a really interesting talk on creativity – supported by Coleen DeCourcy, the CCO of Wieden + Kennedy.
“We are all born creative”
My big take out was that being creative isn’t a skillset – it’s a mindset. Whilst some are more creative than others, we are all born inquisitive, full of imagination and fearless. Then life takes over. Fight back, make time and be more kid.
I then spent some time at the Innovation stage listening to Whitney Wolfe Herd talk about her experiences founding Bumble. She’s created a $1.5bn brand before the age of 30 and I can’t help but think this is because of her sheer dedication, clear vision and resilience to make it happen. She also had a major aim to drive cultural and societal change and recalibrate how women are treated online.
It looks like she’s on her way to do that with the platform growing rapidly across the world. She was unerring when talking about the brand values and what Bumble stands for, and more than comfortable to make short term sacrifices to ensure she doesn’t deviate from this. Turning down 95% of potential brand partners [and the £££ they offer] can’t be an easy thing to do when you are trying to rapidly grow but if they would compromise the brand then it is strong, decisive and brave leadership.
I managed to catch the England World Cup game with our friends at Accenture & Karmarama – not a bad setting for the last minute winner!
That’s all for now. Heading off to see What’s coming next in Branded Consumer Experience shortly before touring the work at The Palais.
What better way to kick off Wednesday than with a bit of creative immersion and a tour around all the nominated work at The Palais.
I like the look of AI Will Kill Creative. AI Will Save Creative where two experts on the subject of AI will discuss their radically opposing views of how it will affect the creative industry and battle it out live on stage.
I think I’ll then jump to a bit more light-hearted entertainment. Conan & Shaq– Jacks of All Trades, Masters of Some will see Conan O’Brien and basketball legend Shaquille O’Neil talk entrepreneurship, marketing and more.
If I’m starting to feel a little tired then an afternoon sugar rush at David Schwimmer - The Rainbow looks like a good pick-me-up. This session promises to tell the story of the world’s most exclusive commercial and Skittles used their 2018 SuperBowl advert to target Millennials and teach the industry about driving online conversion. Hopefully there will be some Skittles too!
Johnny Marr: A Life in Music is likely to be the next stop. Whilst I’m sure the session will cover the power of music to push boundaries and challenge convention as the description suggests, I think it will be great just to sit back and listen to Johnny Marr talk about his life in music!
I’ll try and kick start Thursday with Social Prediction: Understanding What Consumers Want (Before They Even Know). Over the past two years PepsiCo has partnered with data science specialist, Black Swan, to help transform its research and innovation programs through the application of Social Prediction - using Social Data to predict consumer behaviour. I’m hoping this session will give some real insight into how a major organisation like PepsiCo has started to use this emerging technology to make better decisions.
The next talk is in the ‘Impact’ track but feels like it could just as easily be in ‘Good’. Unlocking Brilliant Ideas with Conscious Creativity will feature discussion about how caring for creative minds leads to increased happiness and great work. It’s not rocket science and hopefully this will be a good demonstration of how looking after the health of the people who work for you is good for everyone.
Great Marketers: Story Tellers or Data Lovers? Looks to be tackling the battle between magic and measurement. In order to be successful I don’t think that you can only follow one of these routes so really interested to see how Diageo is tackling both together to help brands grow faster.
Following this theme I like the look of Why Being Commercially Creative is Not a Paradox. How does a commercially creative agency create ideas that don’t just change the direction of a brand, they change the direction of a company?
Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Advertising is all about the nature of chemical reactions and how they influence people. What do you need to evoke through your communications? This sounds like a great session looking at the scientific reasons creativity and emotional content will always be king.
Breaking2: NIKE’s Audacious Effort to Beat the Two-Hour Marathon will hopefully be my next stop. This session is all about NIKE and their quest to make history. How can they help people do something that had never been done before. Not only am I interested in this particular challenge and how they went about it, but also in the more general themes about inspiring and leading people to deliver things that they didn’t think could be done.
I want to end Thursday with Parkland Survivors: The Real and Raw Power of Conviction. On February 14, 2018, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida USA became unwitting warriors in a movement to change laws that many in America believe to be inalienable. Their response to the tragic shooting that took the lives of 17 classmates was to lift their voices and launch a crusade that quickly moved beyond thoughts and prayers to rallies, fundraisers, marches, Web sites and causes. With sheer passion and conviction, the Parkland survivors have captivated a country. A much more serious topic but something that I’d really like to see and hear about how the students have responded in such a positive and passionate way to try and drive real change to the USA.
There are a couple of things that stand out on Friday as the event will start to wrap up. The Strange Power of Confidence will delve into the secrets of confidence and how it can help ordinary people find direction, overcome obstacles, navigate uncertainty and create change.
Sir Martin Sorrell in Conversation with Ken Auletta should be an interesting one to catch as they have a candid discussion about marketing industry issues of the day.
It looks like the final session I’ll try and attend is Radical Neuroscience Making Us Rethink Creativity, Innovation, and Empathy. This is another session looking at brain science and how understanding and using it wisely can help brands connect better with their audiences. There’s a warning, which is always interesting: they showcase an immersive 4D journey through their own wildly atypical sensory perception. Known as “synesthesia”, their unique forms of sensory perception include tasting sounds, literally feeling what someone else is feeling by sight, and more. Through this mind-blowing, multisensory experience, they combine art, music, science, and technology to reveal how we can use these neuroscientific insights to change the world around us.
I’m sure my actual week will look different to what I’ve listed out but I’m going to try to get to as many of these sessions as possible – as well as spend some time wandering around The Palais looking at the nominated work and attending some of the award sessions to find out who takes how the prizes.
I’ll try and keep blogging regularly when I’m out there – one thing I can guarantee is they will probably be a fair bit shorter than this given I’m not sure when I’m going to find the time! And they’ll be some pictures too!
This will be my first year attending the Cannes Lions so thought I’d write a few bits and pieces down to share with the guys back in the office – and anyone else who happens to stumble here. Before I head out, I’ve had a scan over the programme and start to plan what to go and see. There are loads of things that jump out and look really interesting but I’m not sure I’ll get to all of them - unless I can be in two places at once!
The events programme has been divided into 9 topics or ‘tracks’ dedicated to different themes: Communication, Craft, Entertainment, Experience, Good, Health, Impact, Innovation and Reach. It looks like I’ll have a fairly balanced week as the events I’ve picked out cover pretty much every track there is.
Monday
I’m heading out Monday morning so I might not actually get to the festival until early afternoon. If I do get there a bit earlier then I’d like to catch Sonic Arousal – A Live Neuroscience Experiment.
The blurb states: Global, The Media & Entertainment Group, and world leading Neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott scan award-winning film composer David Arnold, live on stage, to measure the psychological and physiological effects of sound and music on his body and brain.
I’m really interested in the impact of psychology and physiology on people and the influence that things can have - not just from a marketing point of view but also the wider topic of behavioural psychology [On this note, I’d recommend Predictably Irrational by Dr Dan Ariely]. How powerful can sound and music be and how can it influence behaviour? Worth checking out I think.
It looks like a busy Monday afternoon with loads of different events taking place. The first of these I’d like to catch is Advocacy Over Awareness. Hosted by Oath, this session is all about building brands people love. That’s something which is central to our strategy at Plusnet so I’m keen to hear about how other brands are adapting their approaches and building better relationships, engagement and advocacy with their customers.
I’ll then dive over to see The (not-so) Secret Lives of Creatives. Technology isn’t only at the forefront of digital developments but can also be central to the creation of brilliant advertising. Hosted by Pinterest and featuring a great line up of guests, this session should give some great insight into how creative teams are using innovations to bring their ideas and concepts to life.
The creative and innovation themes should continue with Joanna Coles in Conversation with Whitney Wolfe Herd. Founder and CEO of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd helms one of the fastest-growing social networks in the world. In three years, her strategic vision has led to Bumble’s growth of nearly 26 million users worldwide and has singlehandedly disrupted the way people connect online and off.
Coles and Wolfe Herd will tackle topics including how to foster creativity and innovation in a data driven environment, and what lies ahead for the world of tech and social networking.
I’ll then try and round off Monday by crashing back down to earth from an afternoon of creative innovation to look at effectiveness. Advertise Like You Give a Damn: The Future of Effectiveness will explore the measurement of advertising effectiveness through a panel debate. Are we being too blinkered by just looking at the economic impact of our work? Why don’t we measure social and environmental impact? What happens if we do or don’t go down this route?
Measurement is key to what we do and, whilst our advertising will always need to show a commercial benefit [If I want to keep my job!] how else can we enrich our evaluation processes and capture other positive and negative impacts of our work?
Tuesday
There’s even more to see on Tuesday with a full day at the fair. What’s Coming Next in Branded Consumer Experience? Introduced by the International Advertising Association this session will focus on the key trends and expected developments in the customer experience space over the next 18 months, with a particular focus on how artificial intelligence can help revolutionise consumer experience.
I’ll then need to toss a coin and decide on where to go next. F*ck-Ups. The Mother of Reinvention is all about the success of failure and how coming out of your safety zone and not being afraid to fail can result in reaching new heights – featuring some real life insight from Tamara Mellon and MT Carney. The alternative is along a similar theme. Taking Risks and Building Brands is a session featuring a panel of three women who’ve built global empires through taking risks. Stephanie McMahon, Bozoma Saint John and Lilly Singh will discuss how they’ve built, and in many cases rebuilt, their respective brands, the challenges they’ve had to overcome, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Given I used to love watching WWE I think the latter session may just shade it.
It’ll then be time for a bit of good. Addicted to Likes: Consumers in the Age of Attention Armageddon will look at the culture of attention maximisation and how this disturbing trend is continuing to grow. How can brands look to create a more stable future and grow followers and engagement in a more ethical and moral way. A good question indeed.
There’s only one place I’ll be after lunch at that is at What Matters Next. This session is hosted by YouTube where CEO Susan Wojcicki will talk about brand building, engaged audiences and accountability in the digital age. There’s an outside chance we may see some Plusnet work as a case study so will have my fingers crossed we make it onto the big screen.
Think Like a Toddler stood out given I have a three year old and he is wonderfully crazy. I’m not quite sure I could think like he does! There are two types of mindsets cultivated from a very young age: one that assumes intelligence and creative abilities are innate and fixed, and one that views any challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. Is it too late for us grown-ups to shift our mindsets?
I’ll hopefully close off day two with a couple of differing topics. Creativity in the Age of Resistance will look at how creativity and collaboration build a more empathetic and equitable world – using Spotify and ‘I’m with Banned’ as a brilliant example. The ethics of AI will then investigate how Artificial Intelligence will change how we work, entertain ourselves and interact. More importantly it will question how we have a responsibility as brands to ensure we use AI ethically to empower the many and not the few.
I’ll follow up with another blog shortly to look at the rest of the week and what tickles my fancy.
