by César Vacchiano (@cvacchiano) CANNES, FRANCE: The theme for this year’s Cannes Lions is Transformation. In 2016, it was Experience. In 2017, it was Disruption. David Shingi, the digital prophet we met in New York at the AdForum Worldwide Summit, is here at Cannes and he’s predicting that the theme in 2019 will be Analogue — quite ironic.
Gender equality
There’s a lot of talk about gender equality. Yesterday, on Day 1, Monday 18 Jun 2018, they also talked about equality for men: the US is one of the four countries in the world with no parental leave (the other three being Papua New Guinea, Lesotho and Swaziland!).
Digital transformation in business
There’ve been lots of examples of business transformation and how business should move to digital. L’Oréal recognised that 8% of its global sales is through ecommerce, and an astonishing 40% in China!
Innovation
MullenLowe Colombia was recognised for its idea to access Google through first-generation phones (not smart phones) and voice messages. This is very useful for poor people who live in communities with no wifi access and basic phones; they can now access Google through a platform called mylife.
There was an interesting case shared by IBM on the blockchain possibilities, apart from investing in bitcoins. Maersk and the immense possibilities of transparent world trade. We can all think about our own businesses and the potential that blockchain offers.
New countries at Cannes
New countries are investing in having a presence at Cannes and we haven’t seen countries such as Peru, Denmark and Israel here before now. They’re promoting how innovative they are, and the talent of people and companies working in those countries.
And a shift in media companies
Apart from all the new-age companies (tech) that’ve been investing in the last years in having a visible presence at the main Cannes beach and cabanas ( such as Facebook, Google, Adobe, Pinterest, Spotify, Accenture Interactive), we’re now seeing some traditional media companies that have been able to shift into digital (WSJ, CBS) and we’re seeing lots of new ones (Teads, Rubicom, Braze, Feverr, Comcast…).
From seven to five days
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been shortened from seven days to five days this year and this has meant that the large volume of people, which normally increases as the week goes on, has already started to be present from Day 1. The level of intensity of the programme and momentum is therefore as intense at it would normally be by Day Four of the event. It should be interesting to see how the rest of the week goes.
Awards
Awards last night were for the healthcare and pharma sector. Notable awards went to:
- Project 84: adam&eveDDB London
- Sip Safe: Y&R Melbourne
- Black Supermarket — Carrefour: Marcel Paris
- Corazon — Give your Heart — Montefiore Organ Donation: John X Hannes NY (Grand Prix)
- Health Agency of the Year: FCB
Johanna McDowell also contributed to this report.
César Vacchiano (@cvacchiano) is president and CEO of SCOPEN, an independent research company headquartered in Spain. Trained in economics and business with postgraduate degrees in American universities, he is an international speaker and contributor to various publications, specialist in image studies and positioning agencies, advertisers and media. César has been at SCOPEN since 1993 and today is the company’s top executive worldwide.
“Motive” is a by-invitation-only column on MarkLives.com. Contributors are picked by the editors but generally don’t form part of our regular columnist lineup, unless the topic is off-column.
— One subscription form, three newsletters: sign up now for the MarkLives newsletter, including Ramify headlines; The Interlocker, our new monthly comms-focused mailer; and Brands & Branding, launching soon!