Wednesday in Cannes. Hump Day. The halfway point (unless you’re among the roughly 80 per cent of the festival who don’t want to stick it out until Friday).
The day started slowly and then rapidly accelerated as I ventured into my first Palais-based talks in the afternoon. Just after lunch, I got the chance to sit down with WPP’s global CCO, Rob Reilly. Good bloke.
We had a very interesting chat about what the future holds for the business. Spoiler alert: it has a lot to do with AI. But don’t let that put you off (we all know it can sometimes), it’s really insightful and honest. No word on who Mark Read’s replacement is, however.
After that, I headed over to the Palais to see System1’s Andrew Tindall, former DDB effectiveness chief Les Binet and current Adam&EveDDB global planning director Sarah Carter deliver a talk on the compounding commercial effects of creativity. Mark Ritson would describe the talk and Tindall’s research, in particular, as “the most significant thought of the last 10 years in advertising”.
Whether that’s right is subjective, of course. But it builds on Ritson’s research that he presented at last year’s Cannes, showing that large portions of the Lions-winning work are not commercially effective for the brands the ads are for and that creativity awards distract marketers from the main function of their jobs – selling more stuff. Ah.
I have my own thoughts on Tindall, Binet and Carter’s talk. First, it was fantastic and exactly the sort of reality check that is occasionally needed. Vast reams of data have shown that marketers need to stick to their guns, rather than chasing fads. Second, you should certainly keep your eyes on B&T for our write-up of the session, if you missed it. Third, it was over at the Forum stage in the Rotonde building, not one of the main theatres. A wasted opportunity if I ever saw one.
After that chat, I headed up to the Terrace stage to catch a bit of Rob Mayhew’s hilarious pretend pitch talk. His imaginary agency was set to pitch for Bank of America’s creative. But with three-quarters of the four-strong pitch team down with food poisoning, Mayhew bravely soldiered on alone, revealing that his agency wanted to make BoA the Brat bank. It was hilarious, and I was chuckling away for large parts of it with Leo Australia CCO Andy Fergusson.
I had to run off before the end, sadly, only to return to the Rotonde stage later on for another incredible talk that probably deserved a larger room. Though it was 5pm so most festival attendees were either parked up at a beach somewhere, rose in hand or were heading home to freshen up before returning to see their colleagues on the beach for a rose.
The talk saw Rob Campbell, CSO of Colenso BBDO and Paula Bloodworth (what a name), founder and CSO of Alien Baby, discuss why more advertising creatives need to start thinking and acting like real creatives, y’know, musicians and that. If we embraced that, the industry would produce more interesting work and make its people happier.
Speaking of interesting work, I joined the team at R/GA for dinner at Mr Nakamoto. It’s a very important time for R/GA, given its recent separation from IPG. The enthusiasm among the agency’s staffers was palpable about what the business could become. On my table, however, Australian chief creative officer Seamus Higgins and I spent a large portion of the evening explaining how Australia’s fauna kills people to some rather scared-looking Americans. A very important conversation, I’m sure you’ll agree.
As the night slowly wound down, attention turned to the parties. Yahoo was hosting Diplo, Spotify Mark Ronson and Cardi B – who I was told was very enthusiastic about shouting out all the “corporate baddies”. I probably would be too, if I were collecting the pay cheque I’m assuming she would have received. In the end, I went to neither party and instead chose to go home.
Thursday might be most people’s last day in Cannes, but it wasn’t mine. There was yet more to see.
