By: Andrea Štimac, Change Management Strategist
We said goodbye to Cannes Lions, week of inspiring creativity. As the festival experience draws to a close, there’s likely to be a lot to reflect on.
We’ve heard from world-class speakers with ideas that will set the tone for the year ahead. We’ve been part of the career-changing moment when campaigns become Lion-winning creative. And there are some highlights which could find a way to guide and grow our industry.
Creativity topic would be the best reflected through words of Droga5 Creative Chairman and Unilever CMO. David Droga: “The best advertising is visceral. Our job is to move people and do extraordinary things”. Keith Weed: “Leading brands and agencies have known for many years that more creative work delivers better results than ‘safe’ and rational advertising. What has been exciting in more recent times is to see the emerging proof of this; the hard evidence that creative work is more memorable, more effective and more able to drive overall business performance”.
Future of agencies: Per Pedersen was provocative and honest about what it takes to make agency relevant again: 1. Great work solves all problems. 2. Stop doing ads that look like ads. 3. Don’t chase the awards. 4. Have the swagger of a rock star. 5. Be a network of human beings with a shared passion to kick ass. 6. Put creativity at the center and creative people at the top. 7. Hire talented, hungry people that will do the best work in their career. 8. Unleash creativity instead of managing it. 9. Celebrate your heroic failure as part of winning. 10. Stop doing what you are told.
Agents of change: Most disruptive catalysts from our industry use their boundless creativity to move us toward an equal and better world. Relentlessly act of great individuals is a force for equality – across media, advertising, entertainment and the entire creative world.
Transformation: Digital revolution began with a series of technological innovations that quickly coalesced into a completely new connected way of living, working and communicating. few takeouts from RG/A session: don’t just think – make stuff, be incentivised to move at the speed of innovation, it takes more than copying your competitors, don’t all think and act the same.
Diversity: We need to move the conversation from diversity as value issue and begin to share the fact that diversity moves a business forward. It is a time to stop talking about diversity and start taking bold actions because diverse teams are more creative, innovative and deliver transformative business results.
Brand Marketers’ Creative Summit was a new format in the program, a one-stop shop for time-poor, information-hungry marketers who want a digest of Cannes Lions and key pointers on what they should prioritize going forward. Great sessions with Marc Pritchard and Scott Galloway who shared challenges to change the industry, talked about trends, and looked at the innovations and technology that will shape the future.
We had a fantastic time at Cannes Lions. See you next year!
