Paul Yole’s Cannes Lions Diary: Day 1 – 4
The Brand Agency’s Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Cannes blog for the last eight years. He’s at it again this year.
DAY 1
Roughly $30m has been spent on entry fees this year. Of that, about $27m will be wasted on work that fails to make the short list.
The biggest amount of cash was burnt on press and outdoor entries where, unless the ad is a work of art for a toothpaste or a bicycle shop, the chances are it will miss out.
Each delegate will also shell out close to $5,000 for registration and the same again for accommodation and flights.
So our agency owners will be hoping we bring something back. And I don’t just mean a dodgy tee shirt, a pair of bright colored sunglasses from the Shots party and another conference bag.
At the very least we’d better meet some interesting new people and learn something useful from some of the 250 speakers.
Cannes is what you make of it. And for what it costs you’d better make a big effort. Hopefully this year it will be back to its inspirational and entertaining best.
DAY 2
There’s a cartoon showing a young girl tucked up in bed. Her father is at her side, with a book in his hand. The little girl says, “Daddy, instead of reading me a story can you share some branded content?”
I fear that the irony of that cartoon may be lost on some of the presenters this week because Cannes loves jargon. So it’s refreshing when somebody shares their approach to modern day marketing using simple language and relevant examples. Kevin Burke, Chief Marketing Officer of Visa Inc, did just that.
Keith told us about the four principles that shape Visa’s approach to storytelling.
1. Have a meaningful purpose.
The story must communicate the brand’s core promise, which in Visa’s case is that wherever you want to be, Visa can help you get there. This promise is encapsulated in Visa’s brand platform “Everywhere you want to be.”
2. Reveal universal human truths.
Communicating with other people is always likely to be more successful if you take the trouble to understand them. The latest World Cup campaign for Visa out of AKQA, The Samba of the World, looks at how people from the countries of the 32 participants celebrate the beautiful game.
3. Be unexpectedly delightful.
You need to earn people’s interest.
4. The idea should be inherently social.
Visa’s campaign for the Sochi Olympics used social data to determine media placement in real time.
Each of the sessions I attended today used the word storytelling. It’s going to be a long week.
DAY 3
At The Brand Agency we’ve been interested for some time in what the agency might look like ten years from now. How do we compete? How do we make revenue? How do we use our skills to add more value and make an impact on our clients’ businesses?
So it was good to hear from Yves Behare, founder of The Fuse Project, about how design is now core to business and how his company is applying its talents in all sorts of new areas and actually creating business ideas.
Hakuhodo talked about their vision for agencies in 2024. Indeed their agency today is already vastly different to what may be considered the norm for Western agency networks. Morihiko Hasebe and Kentaro Kimura described three themes they see emerging.
1 What expertise will be needed?
The future is not something you wait for, it’s something you create. This reminded me of a quote from Leonardo da Vinci, “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
So Hakuhodo is developing ‘market design’ skills that take them outside advertising. They’ve designed a new people’s hospital, Hito, and a business hotel called Remm. Effectively they are using their people skills to move from image branding to tangible branding by combining multiple skills to deliver what they call “Hybrid Expertise”.
2. What organizational structure will we need?
Hahuhodo has encouraged start ups from within their organisation, to create united ventures with their creative people. Initiatives include a new bookstore called B&B (books and beer – seriously) and Data Stadium.
3. What will be our mission?
Hakuhodo believes they will be in the life design business, playing a role that will upgrade people’s lives. So far they have embarked on some amazing projects such as ‘Rice Code‘, its own rice field and the Rice Art project, as well as the creation of an off-grid house that’s entirely energy self sufficient and integrated with the Nissan Leaf electric car.
By applying our creative skills to a much wider range of business problems it’s clear that the agency of the future can generate much-needed new revenue streams.
Hakuhodo seems to be one step ahead already.
DAY 85
Is it really only Wednesday? The Cannes schedule is so hectic it seems like we pack about 12 weeks into one.
Breakfast meetings, lunch meetings and dinner meetings, or watching the World Cup in some authentic French Irish pub, all place a great strain on mind and body.
Unfortunately the seminar sessions over the first three days have been a bit disappointing. There have been too many celebrities who have nothing much to say that is relevant, and others who seem to think it’s cool to swear on stage or make sweeping statements about nothing much.
I’m getting a bit fed up of people turning up unprepared and with no real insight to add and couch conversations that just ramble. For close on A$5,000 for a full registration I expect more.
To be fair, today’s fare looked a lot more promising but I missed a lot of it because I was at the legendary Campaign Brief lunch at La Colombe d’Or. But time spent talking to some of the top people in our business is a pretty good investment of my time.
I’ll be at the Palais tomorrow hoping for something better than the first few days.