What I learnt at Cannes this year, and other truths for a better life

If Creativity is the ability to imagine a better future, then the 70th anniversary of the Cannes Lions Festival was filled with signposts for how brands and businesses might craft better pathways and experiences for consumers and communities. The need to deftly balance the enduring principles of brand building, of knowing your purpose, with the relentless pursuit and embrace of innovation shone through, and what was inspiring were the different expressions of that over-arching lesson.

One of the challenges of this festival is the paradox of choice. And this year, the options to immerse yourself in sharp, smart, scintillating content felt even greater. Dizzyingly so, in fact. The challenge of deciding who and what to see, where to focus, and what to then capture in a quick (yet fleeting) comment, versus enshrining it within the next framework, or committing to the long form write-up, can lead you to stay in your safe zone. To not venture into the Palais to hear the talks and walk the work, to not meet up with a dear friend, or worse, to not commit any of it to paper. But to fail to write would be a huge personal disappointment for me, and so I plough on with the reflection and implications that writing demands, before I forget what makes the Cannes Lions such an electric week. 

Here are the 4 learnings that stood out to me, from those who have contributed to the incredible legacies of the brands they serve. 

1.     Know who you are, so you know what’s worth holding onto, what to invest in, and what to sacrifice.

On day 1 in the Palais, we heard from Richard Dickson, Mattel, in Create to Differ: Invention in the Age of Perpetual Reinvention, who opened with the reminder that creative thinking is ranked within the top 3 most important cognitive skills required by workers in 2023 by the World Economic Forum, and when combined with analytics and purpose, creativity can be a significant (double digit) growth multiplier for businesses. The ability to create a culture that fosters creativity so that teams are filled with purpose, and able to invent the ideas that will drive relevance for products and brands in culture is the goal; it’s how a brand extends its lifecycle, propelled by design-led innovation, and flawless executional excellence. Two statements stood out for me, and I circled back to them throughout the week, and they were:

‘Purpose-built brands, based on an idea, gives it staying power for generations’ and ‘Purpose makes a brand immortal.’ In a category where the average toy lasts 3-5 years, the ability to not simply endure but rather, to also be reflected and celebrated in culture, made me stop and think about how we might support the brands we serve to connect even more authentically with communities and culture. The most successful brands are the ones that understand that they cannot be selectively purposeful, but rather, must know themselves, know where to play and be prepared to challenge themselves, and commit to nurturing the creativity that will make their corner of the world better.  

In CMOs in the Spotlight,  Mark Kirkham , PepsiCo, shared the critical importance of marketing as a lever for growth. As he explained, ‘You must have a growth mindset, and that begins by being numbers-focused to leverage creativity to be a growth driver.’ The ability to analyze and harmonize different data sources, to commit to ongoing learning in oneself and across teams, so that you in turn inform the building of capabilities that lead to more effective and purposeful work, is necessary to deliver the growth you seek.

The commitment to creativity as a growth driver was a recurring theme across many categories, including healthcare, where Lina Polimeni, Eli Lilly, spoke of the need to foster a creativity mindset that is expansive, ensuring that the differences between treatment needs of multicultural audiences is woven into the ideas that are developed, so you always see a person (not simply a customer) on the other side of each prescription. 

Knowing your purpose ensures that you and your teams are aligned on the north star that you set yourself, for the values and actions that you take, and in turn, the perspective you apply to the work that you do.This leads me to my second takeaway:

2.     Hone Your Craft, while opening the Aperture for Inspiration

The Lumiere Theatre was of course filled for the session, Unboxing, from the inspiring Tor Myhren, Apple, whose presentation was captured by a sea of iPhones. Three words that had the audience reaching for their phones yet again were: Media is Art. The invitation to make the space better so it beautifies, and does not pollute, reminded me of the importance of ‘better’ in how we strive for creativity, not simply imitation or replication. After all, as  Colleen DeCourcy , Snap, remarked in the wonderful Women at Cannes lunch celebration, ‘Anything that’s fresh is better than anything that’s polished’. Hear! hear!

So how exactly might one unearth that which is truly new, or is the best that we can reasonably attain simply a curious combination of that which is familiar? Perhaps it is through the explicit creation of spaces that we fuel fresh ideas. Consider how you might deliberately design for greater inclusion in the ideation process. As I listened to Deepthi Prakash , on TBWA’s The Future of Innovation is Accessibility presentation, and how different organizations like Kate Cronin, Moderna and KR Liu, google weave inclusion into their product development, I was reminded of the importance of operationalizing inclusion into the way we crack a brief, in the reminders we give us ourselves to ensure that the composition of team members is diverse (externally and internally), so we also consider diversity of discipline and skillset to further expand the aperture for better insights and braver ideas. 

The ability to hold multiple perspectives in your head, and close the chasm between the classical strategists and the tech-forward enthusiasts, brings me to my third learning, which is that of the need to:

3.     Balance Knowledge of the Enduring Truths while getting Future-Fit with Tech 

Understanding the fundamentals of how brands are built, of how advertising works, and doing the hard work to steadily improve the impact and effectiveness of campaigns can feel less than headline worthy, at an event that heralds the newest partnership, the shiniest tech, and the never-been-done before activation. However, you only needed to check the Cannes content app to see that the well-researched material was there, as evidenced by the IPA: The 3rd Age of Effectiveness. It was comforting to see the improvements that have been made to digital ads since 2010, as captured by the IPA database. However, if someone can let me know if those improvements were also seen in the captured the campaigns that ran during the Pandemic, when we saw the meteoric rise in e-commerce spends, that would be helpful. It was also good to see Dr. Karen Nelson-Field PhD ’s attention findings referenced on stage, because having worked with her, ‘attention’ can indeed be applied as a lever for campaign optimization, if you commit to the rigor of knowing best practices around content, and what the format will be used, and therefore the story arc you should tell. Creative should ideally be developed for the platform, and consider the context within which appears, alongside the volume of contact (that’s good old frequency), and if you’re really good, you might even consider the drivers of choice in your decisioning. And a plea to future presenters; let’s make sure to credit researchers properly, and not just include tiny source notes at the bottom of the slide. Merci!

Once you’re rock solid on your fundamentals, it’s much easier to then navigate the latest opportunities and consider legislation, ethics, and responsibility in terms of how you might apply those technologies and opportunities at scale. Just because people spoke of NFTs a lot last year, doesn’t mean Generative AI should be consigned to the same pile. The opportunities of the latter are significant, and we all need to dive in and learn about them as quickly as we can, and not stand on the sidelines while others define it for us. Kara Swisher was firm with us all at the lunch for female leaders, of the need to commit to learning about technology to change the game. And the reminder to get involved, to keep learning and growing through new avenues, was repeated in more one-to-one discussions where I realized that I the need to:

4.     Find my Community and Commit to them 

As I’ve gotten older, the importance of expanding my world beyond my immediate circle has become more apparent, in part, because of the influence I have, but also, because of my own need to make the world a better place. If you listen, you’ll hear the clarion call to help. To lean in, harder. To understand that ‘educating people is our responsibility, to ensure the right voices are being heard’, as we heard in the LinkedIn 'Dare to Deliver' panel, held at the Omnicom Cove.  To do so, you must find personal nourishment beyond those you work with every day. Thank you to my mentor for reminding me of this. I so appreciate you. You know who you are. This lesson is one I’ll be committing to in the years ahead.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to share what I have learnt on interviews and panels, so thank you to my fellow panelists and excellent moderators ( Andrea Lennon , Tameka Kee , Nathalie Krup , Suzanne Vranica , Jonathan Cloonan ) for traversing the terrains of brilliant brand building, economic forecasts, DEI commitments, the latest on attention metrics, and what it means to be a leader today. May we move forth through the months ahead with the same energy and commitments we expressed in France, steadily advancing the body of knowledge in creative and media spaces, because the industry needs it. 

Be good, be well.

C.