Cannes Lions is often derided for being a big adtech and martech knees-up masquerading as a creativity conference. But the festival proves that the creative industry is in good health, according to Adam Ferrier, co-founder of Thinkerbell.
Cannes Lions is proof the creative industry is in wildly good health. It’s also proof that it’s completely changed.
The money, the attention, the brand focus, the parties and the content is not what it was.
The new Cannes Lions is all about creators, social, technology, distribution, branded content, integration, TikTok, Google and AI.
Yes, there are still a few bemused ghosts of advertisings past wondering around, but the place is bursting energy, excitement, creativity… and money.
The Carlton (the upmarket version of the Gutter Bar) now commands a 100 euro a head per hour spend if you want to drink on the terrace.
I was taken on a boat to an island where we ran into Sasha Baron Cohen and Rob Lowe having a very enthusiastic lunch where the only drink on offer was the flowing Cristal champagne.
As a speaker I got a pass for the actual festival but scores of mini festivals have popped up in other agencies houses. The more interesting ones were Collins’, Mischief’s, VanyerMedia’s, and Common Interest’s (between us the Thinkerbell pop up shop at the Cairns Crocs was better than any of them but please don’t tell them that).
There’s now a massive divide between paid advertising (paying to disrupt someone’s entertainment) and brands being the entertainment themselves. You still need both but the industry is betting big on the latter.
I’m writing this on the Google Beach, with pastries, recovery coffee and ‘entertainment’ all paid for by Google.
It’s all much more branded than it’s ever been before but perhaps finally the industry has got the memo that it’s all about creativity, but it’s creativity in service of brand building.
That’s the whole point.
