After a two-year hiatus, entrepreneurs from world wide will as soon as once more journey to the south of France for the Cannes Lions Pageant of Creativity subsequent week.
Though the weeklong occasion took on a digital format in 2020 and 2021 because of the ongoing pandemic, the annual gathering is now returning in-person. Lengthy seen as the final word achievement in promoting, the Cannes Lions awards had some rethinking, even earlier than the pandemic, about whether or not it’s price spending just a few days — and various {dollars} — to speak store alongside the Croisette.
Ascential Plc, which owns and operates the competition, wouldn’t disclose what number of attendees or delegates can be at Cannes Lions 2022, however mentioned it'll have 90 companions sponsoring this yr. Nevertheless, some entrepreneurs say the ambiance may very well be extra tempered subsequent week given the present context. (Subsequent yr will mark the seventieth anniversary of the competition.) The convention may also have a hybrid method for individuals to remotely watch talks from wherever they're on this planet.
Learnnow spoke with Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook dinner to listen to extra about how issues have modified and what to anticipate.
This dialog has been calmly edited and condensed for brevity and readability.
What’s new this yr?
We’ve created 5 Councils For Progress. Our objective at Cannes Lions is to drive objective by means of creativity. The way in which the councils are going to work is we've Marc Prichard as the general sponsor of this, however we've 5 councils being chaired by outstanding trade individuals and can be made up of 20 to 30 people from throughout the globe with CEOs, CMOs and others. We run a state of artistic survey and we actually requested them what are the largest challenges the trade is going through as effectively and we used that data as the premise for these councils. So we've one for sustainability; one for variety, fairness and inclusion; one for expertise; one for enterprise transformation and one for artistic effectiveness. What we’re going to do is use Cannes as a platform for these individuals to return collectively and set the agenda to make some commitments.
Did you may have problem getting sponsors for this yr, given the unsure nature of the world and varied Covid-19 waves?
We weren’t positive initially of the yr how completely different companions would need to present up on the competition, however they're. They’re all coming and are excited, however the distinction is that they’re displaying up in a extra considerate method. The world over proper now there’s warfare, there’s unrest, and though persons are coming to the south of France, we need to be delicate to the whole lot that’s taking place on this planet proper now. So the large focus of our companions this yr is about connection and benefiting from being collectively so the main focus can be on networking moderately than events this yr.
What do you imply by that? What’s altering?
In the event you suppose again to 2019, we had so many phases, a lot content material. And so at anybody time, you can see many, many various talks which had been taking place in parallel with one another. On reflection, that’s fairly overwhelming, particularly for individuals whose schedules are already fairly tight. Additionally, coupled with that, they actually need to use time to have significant conversations, to make connections and to reunite with individuals they haven’t seen since 2019. What we’ve achieved is condense the content material, so we've much less content material, however it’s significantly better high quality. After which alongside that, we’ve created extra areas for individuals to community and are available collectively and we’ve launched new expertise in our app to have the ability to do this.
When Publicis Groupe introduced plans to exit Cannes Lions and not submit for awards, that prompted others to query the competition’s relevancy. What are your ideas just a few years later?
That second has actually handed now, as a result of what we’re seeing is extra manufacturers, extra shoppers coming to the competition and interesting with the awards than we’ve seen beforehand. [Editor’s note: Total award submissions received for 2022 were not yet announced at the time of this interview.] And that actually is a sign of a pendulum shift from maybe extra of a spotlight in the previous few years on efficiency advertising and marketing moderately than the kind of brand-building artistic that drives enterprise efficiency. And so quite a lot of the manufacturers which are coming this yr, if you happen to ask them why, it’s as a result of they’re beginning to understand that creativity can be utilized as a frontrunner within the boardroom and a frontrunner for progress. So coming and understanding what it takes to win a Lion and produce world-class creativity is turning into more and more essential for the model, their businesses and the companions they work with.
What themes have risen up when it comes to messaging, aesthetics and platforms?
We’ll see quite a lot of work that's centered on issues like NFTs, metaverse. What we’ve present in earlier years is that when there’s new expertise and there’s a little bit of a buzz, it undoubtedly comes by means of within the awards. But it surely’ll be attention-grabbing to see what occurs in 2023 and 2024 as a result of it’s a transparent indication of whether or not that form of expertise is adopted once we begin to not see it coming by means of within the awards. It’s solely when the expertise turns into invisible and an inherent a part of the work that you just’ve bought an actual signal of adoption and one thing taking off.
Crypto is in a tailspin. How does that change the advertising and marketing world’s dialog round Web3 for this yr?
We noticed one thing related a few years in the past with gaming. Out of the blue within the work, we noticed this theme of gaming being hacked for model messages and we actually noticed that with the likes of the Grand Prix with Wendy’s, which has achieved that actually effectively. When one thing begins to turn into the norm, that’s when you possibly can form of get a sign that it’s simply turn into a part of the panorama and the ecosystem moderately than being a brand new shiny factor, a brand new shiny toy that individuals shout about lots.
A variety of finalists for 2019 innovation awards had been manufacturers that used tech to assist individuals with impaired sight, listening to, mobility or different accessibility points. Has that pattern continued?
One of many tendencies we’ve seen previously few years has been promoting that doesn’t appear like promoting. So actual enterprise options or options for society which are tackling real-world issues moderately than having a advertising and marketing message first. Final yr I assumed it was attention-grabbing as a result of for the primary time we began to see “creativity for good” — as lots of people name it — however in actually good ways in which truly reinforce a model’s technique. In earlier years, what we noticed was quite a lot of work the place manufacturers had been maybe attaching themselves to causes that weren’t very complementary and it felt like a little bit of a plug-in like good for the sake of excellent. However now it’s coming collectively actually seamlessly.
What different tendencies have you ever not too long ago seen that you just’ll be anticipating subsequent week?
It’s been a really experimental time. There are many businesses and types on the market who're undoubtedly making an attempt to consider what their NFT technique is or what their Web3 technique goes to be. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see what sticks, to my earlier level. One of many issues simply to counter that although is we’re additionally seeing — and it’s coming by means of within the themes and content material this yr — is a return or a little bit of a renaissance of tried and examined advertising and marketing techniques. Virtually like a getting-back-to-basics theme that’s coming by means of. And that juxtaposition is de facto attention-grabbing: There’s an experimental wave we’re all driving, however on the identical time, persons are actually returning to the tried and examined elements that actually work.
