A flight back can lead to many things.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is renowned as a melting pot of the world's most creative minds, where industry professionals gather to celebrate and discuss the latest trends, innovations, and groundbreaking ideas. As attendees make their way back home, the conversations sparked during this event often evolve into honest reflections, providing valuable feedback or some light industry gossip.
I made it to the Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, and could not help but identify the hundreds of festival attendees that were waiting in line with me. Something about using promotional tote bags as personal items and strong tan lines made me realize we had all been in Cannes for the same reason.
Although I tried to mind my own business, I couldn't help but overhear some of the conversations the rest of the passengers were having among themselves. Between debating whether their bags were overweight, choosing their favorite panel, or trying to find the boarding gate, I admit that it was entertaining to listen to them talk about their experiences at the festival.
Here are some key takeaways:
The Power of Purpose-driven Creativity
If there is one thing marketers and creatives can't help but do is over-analyze every existing promotional effort. Including the way the festival markets itself. Cannes Lions highlights this concept of being "the home of creativity", or where creatives and industry people make things happen, especially when this is aligned with causes that matter. One thing most attendees I carefully eavesdropped had in common was their take on the festival's emphasis on purpose-driven work. More so, how it encourages industry professionals to recognize the impact they can make beyond traditional business objectives. In many ways, some agreed with this notion, understanding that some incredible work had been done in several award winning campaigns. However, some also pointed out that this cause-driven marketing can sometimes lack substance. I guess that in many ways this has been the quintessential ethical debate when it comes to marketing. As it makes it seem as if some would only choose to advocate for different injustices and issues for the sake of appealing to mass audiences, playing with people's emotions, or winning Lions.
Marketing to Marketers
At the festival, brands embark on a cleverly ironic quest to capture the attention of the seemingly unimpressionable guests. Avidly, some brands choose to create cabanas, experiences, and even freebies that mock traditional advertising tactics and adapt it to their audience. Two that really stood out were Tubi and Sprite's cabanas. At Tubi, for instance, you the chance to pick out posters with clever titles related to the festival and the industry itself. Some of them reading, "Posing with a Lion", and "Show me the Receipt".
While Sprite's activation included free soda cans in exchange for "sharing your heat". Heat in this case meant anything that people found annoying or ironic. Festival attendees could share their heat on twitter using Sprite's hashtag and receive free Sprite cans delivered to anywhere in the festival. Some of the heat shared included tweets such as: "More group chats than people you know", "Is this still the TikTok queue?", "Thought this was the film festival" and "Just got outwitted by Chat-GPT". Everyone agreed that although marketers seem to be pretty desensitized from any promotional effort, irony and sarcasm really go a long way.
Unusual Connections
It came as no surprise to anyone that our flight was delayed. We stood in line waiting for updates for what felt like eternity. However, many took this opportunity to make unusual yet hopefully meaningful connections. Few examples were the two strangers standing in front of me, who bonded over shared festival experiences, and exchanged LinkedIn profiles.
It was amazing to me to see how even though the network-y culture is imbedded in our industry, these interactions appeared to be very much genuine.
Probably because it is impossible for humans, in our social nature, to not feel the need to connect, vibe, and get to know others.
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