P&G's Marc Pritchard on pushing growth, Cannes judging and controversial ads

Procter & Gamble Co. Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, who last year during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity pushed for a focus on brand growth amid inflationary uncertainty, returned to the main stage to show off the work P&G has done to deliver on that promise. Nearly half of Pritchard's 30-minute talk was focused on what he dubbed P&G's “Creative MVPs.” These most valuable creative partners included not just agencies but Kevin Hart's LOL Studios for its work for Old Spice and Queen Collective. Last year, marketers including Pritchard also pushed Cannes Lions management to ensure that brand growth—or at least potential for it—would be a much bigger factor for juries in deciding all awards, according to people familiar with the matter. Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook told the Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing attendees in October that growth would become part of the judging criteria in all categories. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here Pritchard sat down with Ad Age to discuss whether he thinks judging this year will better reflect growth. He also addressed the impact of the recent backlash against brands over marketing that takes political or social stands, saying that it’s a time when people more than ever are mainly concerned about how brands perform for them. And when it comes to his willingness to loosen the purse strings given the fact the recession everyone has been waiting a year for still hasn't materialized, the short answer is “no.” Ad Age: So after last year, and with the new judging criteria, will Cannes Lions awards better recognize work that grows brands? Pritchard: I hope so. I think it's important. I think that's why I'm speaking about creativity for market growth, because I think that's ultimately what we need to do in the industry. Creativity for market growth is hard. It's a higher ambition, but it’s good for consumers. It’s good for the other constituents we work with. All boats rise. We’re still waiting for that recession we were expecting last year. As this goes on, do you think you and other marketers will shift gears and say maybe everything isn’t going in the tank and we should get back to more like business as usual? Well, I don't think we’re ever sure. There are so many factors happening. For us, we’re really staying very laser-focused on our strategy of superiority, no matter what the conditions. Is the product superior? Does it provide a superior value? Are we reaching as many people as possible for each of their needs? With the best communication in the best in-store execution. If you do that, then it will be worth it. Ultimately, regardless of whether it's a recessionary environment, inflationary environment or whatever the environment is, particularly with our brands, cleaning health and hygiene brands, performance drives brand choice. There have been cases of late, mostly in the beer industry, where individual marketers got called out over controversies about their ads. What kind of impact does that have, and are there any changes that need to be made? The way we look at it is that we need to convey performance or benefits. And if you do that, and do it in a way that is inclusive and also sustainable, if we stay in that territory we’ll be fine. That just reinforces again getting back to the fundamentals. I think in today’s world, moving into areas of advocacy that are outside of your brand’s wheelhouse, that’s where things can get undone. P&G has done some work in the past that got blowback: “The Talk,” some work for Gillette a few years back. But ultimately that didn’t hurt the brands, did it? I would say the environment was such that there was a high degree of interest in some of points of view. The good news is they were brand specific, had something to do with the brands. You have to look at the context. That’s the simplest way to put it. Probably the simplest way to think about it is to look at where are people now. In times of inflation, and probably other times, people want to know about brand performance. Is it a good value? Are you speaking to me? Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here

P&G's Marc Pritchard on pushing growth, Cannes judging and controversial ads

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