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The second day of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity moved at a brisk pace, with a number of interesting sessions covering areas as diverse as ageism, creativity, marketing effectiveness, and case studies from successful brands which had done something different.
Not to forget the multiple talks and discussions on Artificial Intelligence, which is fast becoming a central theme of this year’s festival.
Shortlists for awards were declared, and, in a few categories, the awards themselves were announced. 70 entries from India have been shortlisted until now, and we hope this will lead to a large number of lions.
In the meanwhile, I came away impressed with one of the first Grand Prix winners of this year – a humorous outdoor advertising campaign developed by Uncommon Creative Studio for British Airways with as many as 512 different executions!
Welcoming a poet
The poet Amanda Gorman in conversation with Jane Lauder and Anna Klein (PIC: Harish Bhat)
The first session which I watched for the day involved the young American poet, Amanda Gorman, who had famously read out her poetry at President Joe Biden’s inaugural ceremony. She is now the face of the global beauty brand Estee Lauder.
This was the first ever time that I have seen a beauty brand choose a poet as its icon, rather than go the conventional route of choosing a model. This shift away from traditional depictions of beauty to contemporary themes such as bold and deep self-expression is a lesson in itself.
I am now waiting for the day when Indian brands move beyond Bollywood, cricket, and models to choose their own new-age icons from other spheres of endeavour.
Session on AI
Jensen Huang of Nvidia in conversation with Mark Read of WPP (PIC: Harish Bhat)
An interesting session on General Artificial Intelligence featured Jensen Huang, the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia Corporation, the chip maker whose products (called GPUs) power Artificial Intelligence across the world today. Nvidia dominates this market and is already being talked about as the most valuable company of the future.
Huang explained the concept of generative AI in very simple terms, and spoke about how this development has put us in the midst of a huge computing revolution. He highlighted how every advertising agency would become, at its core, an AI company.
Having said that, he also pointed out that while generative AI will democratise content generation, it is unlikely to supplant human creativity. Instead, it will supercharge creativity, enabling the creative folk to be far more prolific in everything they do.
The red carpet leading to the Cannes Lions awards event
Interesting case studies
Global brands such as American Express, Delta Airlines, Expedia, Bentley and General Mills presented some interesting case studies in marketing, in separate sessions during the day.
For instance, the longstanding partnership between Amex and Delta, which has helped both Companies immensely, is an excellent example of a long-term partnership that has been constantly nurtured by both parties.
The best advice of the day came from a discussion themed on some marketing innovations at General Mills, which featured Doug Martin and Melissa Wildermuth from the company, and also Professor Scott Galloway.
Asked what his advice to young marketers would be, Prof. Galloway said, “Express active interest in whatever you wish to do. Express emotion. Take risks every day. Make friends. Take chances”. For good measure, he added one last point — “Tell your parents that you love them.”
On that positive note, I will leave you for now, but will return tomorrow with a snapshot of Day 3.
(Harish Bhat is Brand Custodian, Tata Sons. These are his personal views)
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