APN Outdoor’s General Manager, Marketing, Charlotte Valente, outlined the key themes to more than 300 marketing and advertising executives at the company’s Cannes Lens: Creativity In Focus presentations in Melbourne and Sydney this week (the presentations will be staged in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth next month).
According to Valente, the three themes dominating Cannes were:
- The importance of finding and communicating what is authentic to a brand and, in many cases, using that authenticity to develop a “higher purpose”.
- Increasing conversations around inclusion and equality.
- Finding the elusive balance between data and creativity.
“These themes are shaping how our industry approaches its work and are keeping many marketing, advertising and media professionals awake at night,” Valente said.
“Cannes brought these issues into sharp focus and showcased some brilliant insights into how to tackle these opportunities and turn them into highly effective and engaging campaigns.
“APN Outdoor’s association with Cannes is part of our commitment to creating opportunities for brands to have deeper, smarter and more meaningful connections with consumers,” she said.
The Cannes Lens: Creativity In Focus presentations included a panel of leading industry executives discussing some of the most acclaimed work at this year’s festival. The panel was moderated by PwC Chief creative officer and partner and Gruen regular, Russel Howcroft.
Howcroft said: “While I couldn’t be in Cannes myself this year, it is fantastic to hear from our panels that there was a shift back to what is really important: the celebration of great, creative ideas. It has been a privilege to be able to sit down with our panel and get a deeper understanding of this year’s award-winning work.”