Cannes daily blog day 4: And we're still standing (mainly)
Cannes is entering the home stretch, with some attendees already checking in with airlines for their flights home. But it's still very, very busy. Today Ad Age Executive Editor Nat Ives will moderate a panel about Breaking2, Nike's attempt to break the two-hour mark in a marathon. FCB Global Chief Creative Officer Susan Credle and 72andSunny Executive Creative Director Keith Cartwright are taking questions in different sessions on the way they think and work. And, amid what feels like growing tension between creativity and data, BBDO President and CEO Andrew Robertson will provide "a whistle stop tour of the chemistry of communications, the wonderful secrets of dopamine and oxytocin, and the scientific reasons why creativity and emotional content will always be king."
4:47 PM ET (US) / 10:47 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
The first Social & Influencer Grand Prix goes to ...
An AI-fueled rendition of a never-delivered John F. Kennedy speech won the Grand Prix for Creative Data as Cannes Lions continued awarding hardware. The project, created by Irish agency Rothco for the Times of London, used artificial intelligence to stitch Kennedy's voice into the speech he had been set to deliver on the day he was killed in Dallas. Other Lions handed out on Thursday included the Innovation Grand Prix, which went to MyLine, a project by MullenLowe SSP3 in Bogota that gave people in remote areas access to online services using a landline; the Grand Prix for PR to The Trash Isles, which encouraged young people to lobby the United Nations to recognize ocean plastic as its own country; and the first Social & Influencer Grand Prix, to Nike, for its "Nothing Beats a Londoner" short. Check out all the Grand Prix winners here.
3:30 PM ET (US) / 9:30 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
There's a bot for that!*
3:14 PM ET (US) / 9:14 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
P&G's new job titles: Hipster, hustler, huckster and hacker
People just got used to calling marketing directors "brand directors." Now Procter & Gamble Co. has tossed new titles into the mix.
"We're now starting to organize more as a startup, so really starting to break down the names of what we call people," said P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard at a Thursday panel with members of the first Cannes CMO Growth Council. "SK-II, one of our fastest-growing brands by the way, has a brand manager at the center. Then there's a hipster, a hustler and a huckster. And there's a hacker, too." Unfortunately, he didn't get into job descriptions.
Pritchard did focus on getting bigger and better. When Association of National Advertisers CEO Bob Liodice asked panelists what they'd like to see next year when the council reconvenes, Pritchard drew laughs by saying: "Well, I'd like to see growth."
HP Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Antonio Lucio as well as Pritchard felt that marketers have gotten "blindsided by technology and shiny objects." Lucio would like "for the swagger to come back to the marketing function," and to see Cannes Lions awards tied more closely to, well, growth.
CMOs should be "recognized more as business leaders, recognizing the strategic role of marketing," said Deloitte Digital CMO Alicia Hatch.
Mathilde Delhoume, global brand officer of LVMH, cited research that "80 percent of the world population would not care if brands disappeared." She suggested marketers go back and think about "one thing you can do for one of the human beings to want this brand to still be around not just in 10 years but 20 or 30."
After assembling 25 global CMOs this year, Liodice said they'll be reaching out "just about every company that's out there" to come next year.
Add in tracks for hipsters, hustlers, hucksters and hackers, and the prospects may be unlimited.
-- Jack Neff
1:15 PM ET (US) / 7:15 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
MediaLink's TV lunch
MediaLink hosted a lunch on Monday in Cannes with the heads of ad sales for the top TV companies, according to people familiar with the situation. It's the latest gathering of rival TV bigwigs as former enemies look to find ways to solve the issues plaguing the business, from inadequate measurement to heavy commercial loads that annoy viewers.
While several individual TV networks have brought together rival companies in the past, MediaLink's efforts as a third party are an interesting proposition.
MediaLink CEO Michael Kassan declined to comment.
The agenda for the lunch, which was obtained by Ad Age, states that the industry needs to cooperate in a new effort. "The time is now for one independent, high-level group to commit to and galvanize a collaborative action plan to ensure a healthy future for TV," it said.
The discussions centered around measurement, automation, the consumer experience and the ad experience, the people familiar with the situation say.
Those in attendance included Linda Yaccarino, NBC Universal chairman of advertising and client partnerships; Joe Marchese, president of ad revenue at Fox Networks Group; Jo Ann Ross, president and chief advertising revenue officer at CBS; Rita Ferro, president of ad sales at Disney-ABC TV Group; Sean Moran, head of ad sales at Viacom; and Donna Speciale, president of ad sales at Turner, as well as a handful of media buyers, according to people familiar with the situation.
The get together is not being pegged as a new trade association, but a group of leaders looking to arrive at principles, roadmaps and solutions: to "be the overall sounding board for a fragmented set of constituents who in the end all want the same thing – a thriving TV advertising ecosystem," as the agenda put it.
The meeting comes after NBCU hosted a gathering of some of the biggest names in media, marketing and digital in November to discuss similar issues. Fox brought together industry thought leaders in Los Angeles in March.
-- Jeanine Poggi
12:32 PM ET (US) / 6:32 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
Keith Weed: You're a rock star
"How creativity can save our oceans" was the name of the Cannes panel. We still don't know the full answer, though it may include a startup backed by Evian that aims to make recycled plastic usable for water bottles. We do know what Unilever Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Keith Weed really wanted to be when he grew up.
When co-panelist Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran said that his five-year-old self wanted to be an ocean diver like Jacques Cousteau, Weed piped in: "I wanted to be a pop star." Le Bon replied: "Good luck with that."
Weed is, of course, a rock-star CMO, which is the next best thing, right? And everyone is hungry like a wolf for less plastic and more fish in the sea. To that end, the panel also spawned the next item on the Cannes reform agenda for next year. Moderator Gail Gallie, co-founder of Project Everywhere, noted the lack of recycling receptacles in Cannes, and urged attendees to not buy passes next year until the oversight is addressed.
Cannes already has created a pricing model to reflect the growing world shortage of water, which costs 9 euros a bottle at the Carlton lobby bar.
-- Jack Neff
10:30 AM ET/ (US) / 4:30 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
Dessert optimized for social media
8:34 AM ET (US) / 2:34 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
One more day…
8:00 AM ET (US) / 2:00 PM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
David Schwimmer on the fight against harassment
David Schwimmer speaking at a Girls' Lounge event about changing the equation behind sexual harassment.
The audience gasped when it watched a cut-down of one of the short films that David Schwimmer recently helped make to illustrate what sexual harassment looks like.
"What's interesting is that one of the actors in a short said he's realizing that when he's on set and goes to hugs an assistant or a wardrobe person, they don't have a choice," Schwimmer said during the Thursday event, a Girls' Lounge panel with Advertising Council CEO Lisa Sherman and Shelley Zalis, CEO at The Female Quotient. "When you're an assistant and here comes the star of the show for a hug, the power dynamic doesn't allow the assistant to do anything else. And so that actor said he was going to modify that behavior. It just isn't fair."
-- Erik Basil Spooner
2:00 AM ET (US) / 8:00 AM Cannes (France), June 21, 2018
The Ad Age lawn party
(From l.) Ad Age's cover contest winner Dany Alberto Sosa Gálvez, Ad Age Publisher Josh Golden, Associate Publisher Heidi Waldusky and Creativity Editor Ann-Christine Diaz. Credits: Sean Smith
A big crowd turned out Wednesday afternoon for Ad Age's annual Cannes lawn party, where we honored our cover contest winner, Dany Alberto Sosa Gálvez. Guests were ready to start teasing out the through lines of this year's ad festival, like the apparent commitment to do more to promote inclusiveness in the industry. Attendees also agree that it's a more relaxed Cannes than the last few years, with smaller crowds on the Croisette.
-- Nat Ives
Photos of the Day
NatGeo took home a Gold Lion in the entertainment category for a sports film, series and audio for its "Breaking2" film it created with Nike about the quest to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon. Credit: Jeanine Poggi
Ad Age Cannes Lawn Party. Credit: Sean Smith
Design and web production by Chen Wu/Ad Age.