Cannes Day Three

Day three came early. I blinked off the rosé to head to the Palais for the Being Human in an AI World session. It was a cheery movie that showed how AI will “free us from the burden of repetitive tasks”. When it wasn’t busy harvesting fruit and lettuce, it was telling farmers where and when to fertilize, identifying skin cancers, detecting pancreatic cancer earlier than humans and keeping seniors company. All good. Then deepfake came up along our increasing inability to determine what is real. By the time we got to how the Chinese government uses facial recognition for surveillance and tracking of its citizens, and they showed an AI creative director I broke out into a cold sweat. I guess you can see why it’s such a hot topic.

Save the Walruses

This improbably titled session was led by Unilever’s Alan Jope. He accused brands of “purpose washing”. Stats show 64% of us chose brands based on social stands but that connection to a cause must be legit, sustainable and long term. Issues that matter deeply to us include ocean plastics, species extinction and forest depletion. But when brands “borrow” a cause to make us cry then buy, we are very quick to call bullshit. Stats show that 84% now say advertising is the least trusted profession, and 6 in 10 don’t count on us to keep our promises. Edelman’s Trust Barometer lays it bare. Jope implores us to unleash purpose on the world, and use the power of creativity to propel societal good.

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Says Sorry.
Okay, we love Sheryl but we’re still not over it.

“Advertising does not reflect the real world.” Whaaaat?

Marc Pritchard, Katie Couric and John Legend shared the deflating fact that 70% of women do not see themselves reflected in advertising. Thank goodness John then sang his most recent hit for us to calm us down. (link to song? Image.)

With Mandy Gilbert, founder of Creative Niche

In the south of France with King Ursa

The Globe and Mail’s Canada Party
Oh Canada! We have bagged many Lions this year. Between that and the NBA title, this Canadian couldn’t be happier

Quote of the Day:
“Fear is kind of octane.” Steven Spielberg

Fave Ads of the Day

Cannes 2019: The future of brands sounds good

The seedlings of sonic branding were quietly sown years ago. First our mobile phone reached out. Siri helped us find our way around a foreign city, told us when we needed to pack an umbrella, and located a decent sushi restaurant on demand. Then along came personal home assistants like Alexa and Google Home and we no longer needed to lift a finger for help, just our voice.

Thermostats, washing machines, cars, and dryers have caught on and joined the party, they talk to us too. Thanks to the use of sound, we are at the point where we are developing pseudo social relationships with our appliances, it’s no longer a passive relationship.

We will continue to interact with brands on a sonic level through a rapidly expanding number of customer touchpoints, we have left the passivity of television behind and traded up. But there are other significant shifts in how brands orbit our world. Smartwatches mean screens are getting smaller, and search is migrating increasingly to voice, so keyboards will become less relevant. How do brands negotiate the new terrain?

Cue the power and importance of sonic branding. And here in Cannes, smart brands like Mastercard are taking early notice.

Raja Rajamannar, the Chief marketing and communications officer of Mastercard, understood the need for the brand to find its sonic identity. His approach was to start with a melody. His brief to his agency was a challenge. The melody needed to be simple and neutral with flex. He wanted it to be memorable enough that it was hummable. It had to be as global as the brand itself, so that no matter where in the world you were, it felt native to you. It also had to be able to be interpreted to all musical genres from jazz and EDM to country and western.

Two thousand melodies later, they had their answer.

Next in the journey was a sonic signature, an identifiable edited version of the melody. This signature is deployed as a ringtone, and for on-hold messaging as well as to signal a brand transaction. So the brand has sonic consistency at all consumer touchpoints. Mindful of the frequency of the use of a credit swipe for cashiers in stores like Walmart, part of his brief was to ensure this signature did not have a fatigue factor.

On mobile phones, when a purchase is accepted, a version of the sonic signature had the added sound of coins. Other versions were created that ranged from ten seconds to six minutes, for 20 different geographies so that the brand’s touchpoints could be truly localized.

Finally, the melody was stripped back to its essential DNA to create a sonic watermark so the brand could live in different worlds. Many Mastercard users travel a great deal and culinary experiences are one of the top card uses. As a result, the sonic watermark was vocalized and then woven into unique user experiences, like one-of-a kind pop-up dining experiences.

Virtually every interaction with Mastercard is a touchpoint that is branded sonically with enough connective tissue to hold it together.

Sound is such a powerful way to connect, it’s interesting that so few brands know how to tap into it. It creates a far more immersive and unforgettable interaction. But you must plot a thoughtful course to create a powerful audio identity.

Speaking with Tom Eymundson, CEO of Pirate Toronto, he advises that effective sonic branding must start with a strategy, one that is fundamentally unique to that brand. He’s worked with such clients as Koodo, McCafé and Porter to develop their sonic DNA.

These days every marketer wants an edge, an advantage in a very tough marketplace. The smartest, sharpest brands are finding their sonic soul.

There’s good learning here for us all. Instead of just looking for brand identity, maybe it’s time we started listening for it.

This article originally appeared on Strategy Online.

Cannes Day Two

Creativity is tackling big issues this year: the single-use plastics choking our oceans, protecting our kids from online pedophiles, deforestation, species extinction and animal cruelty.

Sonic branding is on trend. The key to success is finding a brand’s sonic DNA as demonstrated by Mastercard with the help of piano virtuoso Lang Lang.

Laura Dern (who I am mad about) talked about the extraordinary female power team behind HBO’s Big Little Lies, and how she longs for a day when that will no longer be an anomaly.

The global muzzling of the press and the falsity of fake news is a big topic. Also, talk on the Croisette includes how companies like Pinterest are dealing with challenges like misinformation and hate speech on their platforms.

Alarming Stat of the Day: 84% don’t trust advertisers. We scored lower than politicians.

The evening closed out with a lovely dinner hosted by Strategy and The Globe and Mail, and a nightcap on the FCB yacht to help them celebrate their many Cannes wins this year

A bientot.

Cannes Kick-Off

Wake Up with The Economist

Cannes’ entry numbers may be slightly down but it has been balanced by a rise in the number of CMOs attending. In 2017 there were 57, this year there are 100. I attended Wake Up with The Economist first thing today. Data mistrust, the continuing need for conversation about diversity and the CMO glass ceiling were key themes. Diego Scotti of Verizon was refreshingly candid in his belief that we are over reliant on data. Clients also need to understand that “big creative talent costs money” and to stop putting the squeeze on agencies. We are in grave times, “advertising has become pollution”. Referencing streaming’s opting-out option he said, “As advertisers we’ve become lazy, it’s become a game of tonnage. And our audience is now paying to NOT see us.”

Creatives in Control with Nick Law

Nick Law of Groupe Publicis lamented the loss of the global CCO in his Creatives in Control session. Law cautioned against spreadsheets running an agency when the product is, in fact, creativity. He argued for the need for media and creative to reunite, which is a recurring theme this year for a number of speakers. 

Less stuff. More Joy. with Marie Kondo

Marie Kondo has gone from closet organizer to cult. Her books have sold 11 million copies in 42 countries. How fascinating that Kondo’s Less stuff. More Joy. session has positioned her as the anti-consumerist icon hoping to reverse our addiction to stuff at a festival committed to selling more. Thoughtful stat to share: Each home has on average 10 to 20 thousand items.

That’s a lot of “joy sparking”.

Gayle King, Marc Pritchard and Bozama Saint John talking shop.

Jargon Alert of the Day:
Apparently we need to “habit stack” and take “micro steps” to “fuel healthy habits” according to Gayle King, P&G’s Marc Pritchard and my favourite bad ass and her dessert-dish sized earrings: Bozama Saint John. Overwork has become our default position to validate ourselves. This involves “shower mantras” and “sink/sync time” brushing our teeth and connecting with our kids. Jargon aside, it was a thoughtful session.

Fave ad of the Day: KFC’s spicy campaign gets full marks for invoking the Game of Thrones dragon.

 A demain!

Hell yes. Awards matter.

I was sitting in a meeting, the lone creative at the table, when I heard these words uttered by a colleague: “Why don’t we talk about what clients really care about? Results, not creative awards.”

I wanted to slit my wrists with the nearest dry marker.

How can anyone who professes to know anything about our business not understand the symbiotic relationship between stellar creativity and results?

Creativity is that rare alchemy that transforms a problem into an opportunity. The numerous studies that show award-winning work’s role in building the bottom line should be mandatory reading for all.

McKinsey, for example, has shown that Cannes Lions-winning creative outperforms work that fails to grace the podium. And it does so by a significant margin (54% in one case). It cited examples from big global brands in fiercely competitive categories, such as McDonald’s in QSR.

Studies aside, great work being effective is simply common sense. The currency of our trade is consumer attention. Think of the barriers marketers now face. Ours is the ADD generation, with attention spans fragmented by endless toggling between Instagram, texts, and e-mails, all while watching Netflix. Add to that stew the thousands of ads that bombard us throughout the day, wherever we are.

You can have the best media plan in the world and a breathtaking digital strategy, but it won’t matter if your idea is dreck. Phenomenal creative is the only way to climb out of the morass.

If your idea is the same, safe, predictable beige concept that nestles gently among other safe ideas, you might as well hit the snooze button.

That is why creative boldness, bravery and courage deserves to be rewarded. It sets the bar for the rest of us. Ideas that are a burr under the saddle are unforgettable. Our fingers pause on the keyboard and our heads turn to acknowledge them.

You need an insight, yes. But you also need a brilliantly fresh way to communicate it. Creativity is the ultimate magic needed to pierce the cynical and weary armour every consumer now wears.

And that is very, very tough to do.

That’s why in our field, as in many others, we must recognize and honour that work. Is it the shoelaces that make Nike unforgettable? No. Think about Apple or any of our best-loved brands. It’s the creative that defines them and what they stand for, that gives them voice. And brilliant creative is what lifts them all above the maddening chatter out there.

Big ideas are big business. These are not mutually exclusive. Never were.

There’s a winner in every race. A nod to those who perform beyond the norm.

We celebrate them. Why not us?

~ Karen