It is often said and believed that advertising is an ever-evolving space and this year at Cannes Lions’ 71st edition was a testament to this statement as technological innovations, animated films and ‘weird works’ apart from the age-old traditional craft techniques came to the forefront.
That being said, the MECCA of Advertising, has partnered with Google, to release an Official Wrap Up Report for Cannes Lions 2024.
Having obtained early access to the same, Marketing Mind has curated some of the key trends and takeaways from the report for advertising and marketing enthusiasts across five structured Content Streams- The Creativity Toolbox, Insights and Trends, Talent and Culture, Creative Impact and Innovation Unlocked.
Here are some of the extracts from the report:
1. The Creativity Toolbox
Cannes Lions 2024 witnessed the return of traditional craft techniques such as illustration, stop-motion animation and even embroidery to approach storytelling, as creatives embraced constraints and invested in robust research.
Taking the centre stage at Cannes Lions 2024, Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s VP and General Manager of Advertising, said, “Even when you have AI in the mix, the heart of the creative process is still people.”
The Festival also highlighted the need for thorough research before execution comes through loud and clear and keeping it simple as simplicity in creative work isn’t only about how one executes his/her ideas, but also approaches them.
In his advice to fellow creatives from across the world, Alexander Schill, Global Chief Creative Officer and Partner at Serviceplan Group, stated, “Go really deep into what you want to tell before crafting the shit out of it.”
Adding onto the same was Mie-Leng Wong, SVP Global Brands at Mondelēz, who said, “Emotional brands get under the skin of their consumers, understanding local cultures and nuance.”
So, far from being usurped by tech, Cannes Lions 2024 showed how craft’s ability to tell stories and build brands is stronger than ever.
2. Insights and Trends
This year’s Lion winners and stage talks revealed big shifts in creative strategy, with relatability, heart and humour taking centre stage. In fact the Lion-winning work precisely showed how- with new-look celebrity partnerships, absurdist comedy and relaxed co-creation as 4% of all entries in the new Use of Humour category across the Lions went on to win, higher than the global average of 3.1%.
“Humour is effective and global,” said Noel Bunting, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis London, who shared some surprising figures- If a brand uses humour, 80% of people are more likely to buy from the brand again; 72% of people are more likely to choose the brand over competition and 63% of people will spend more with the brand. He also pointed out that with all of this in context, 95% of business leaders still fear using humour in their communications.
Another trend that dominated the game at Cannes Lions was ‘weird’ works and the same was rightly emphasised upon by Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO, Liquid Death, who said, “Marketers can be too literal about making sense – there is a tremendous value in confusion. If you can confuse people, you can stop them.” He also mentioned that entertainment was the solution to Liquid Death’s marketing brief to ‘win the internet every day’.Picking from here, Creator Noah Miller also advised marketers to keep in touch with Gen Z’s humour and said, “The rabbit hole will get deeper and deeper. Trends build upon themselves, especially in absurdism.”
Apart from humour and weird, what also worked at Cannes Lions 2024 was the glorification of messiness as Lion-winning work showed brands embracing imperfection. Pointing out to the same was Shona Heath, Production Designer and Set Designer of the Oscar-winning film Poor Things who stated, “Often in perfecting something, you can take away its soul.”
Adding to the advises that were given away at the advertising festival was Aaron Starkman, Rethink’s Global Chief Creative Officer who mentioned, “Tap into something that’s really hot in culture… It needs to represent values of the brand, a strategy and link to a product benefit,” and Print & Publishing Lions Juror Caroline Riis, Senior Creative at TRY, who stated, “I hope the future of advertising is less about famous faces…and that creativity can be the start.”
3. Talent and Culture
As per Cannes Lions Homogeneity is a creativity killer and the antidote to it is embracing diversity of thought, leading with empathy and building new spaces for connection and collaboration. In fact, there were multiple calls across Cannes Lions stages to mix it up and avoid dull work. That could mean building more diverse teams and cultures, hitting refresh on casting or switching mindsets.
Nick Law, Creative Chairperson at Accenture Song, emphasised that creativity “requires more than just one way of thinking” and offered three pieces of advice for building a strong creative culture: work with freaks, make scary stuff and “have some bloody fun”.
Adding to Law’s POV was Nick Pringle, Chief Creative Officer of R/GA EMEA, who said, “Having empathy for who you are selling to is important to make us sell in a more sophisticated and more interesting way,” and Kika Douglas Castroviejo, Chief Creative Officer of 180 Global, who advocated for “creating without ego” for she believes that it is crucial to widen one’s aperture of understanding.
Highlighting the big problems that creativity is being called on to address, Andrés Ordóñez, FCB’s Global Chief Creative Officer, called for strong collaboration when he said, “Creativity fuels change, and the planet and society need that more than ever. We need each other [to] get involved in our communities and push for better on everything. Creativity can do that.” And if one doesn’t have the answers, don’t worry, for a little ignorance can go a long way in the creative process, according to Javier Campopiano, Global Chief Creative Officer, McCann Worldgroup and McCann.”
4. Creative Impact
The case for brand building in a digital economy and new routes to effectiveness dominated this year’s Creative Impact stream, co-curated by LIONS and WARC as only 6% of the $750bn spent annually on advertising is truly effective, according to System1’s Chief Innovation Officer, Orlando Wood.
“A golden age of advertising technology has not been a golden age for advertising effectiveness. We’ve almost forgotten that we have to interest people in the first place,” Wood said. To this, Writer, Academic and Consultant Mark Ritson added “Creativity is great, but it’s not enough.” Talking the audience through why econometrician Paul Dyson’s estimate that creativity contributes an impact score of 40% is overblown and actually closer to 3%, he said, “Our biggest job as a marketer is salience, it’s making your brand come to mind in buying situations.”
With this, the Festival’s Official Report also highlighted that 50% of B2C and 60% of B2B ads are boring, evoke no emotion and have little likelihood of having an effect. In short, dull ads cost more money than creatively interesting ads: £10m in additional media spend, according to System1 and eatbigfish. This opens up creative opportunities for brands. “The biggest challenge to overcome is the exceptional amount of nothing that people feel when they see advertising,” said System1’s Chief Customer Officer, Jon Evans.
Furthermore, Luana Bumachar, Chief Marketing Officer at Solo Brands also said, “Tell your chief financial officer: the investment is worth it. We invested enough that the results paid off four times,” and Dr Grace Kite, economist and founder of econometrics consultancy magic numbers, also said, “Building pricing power is like going to the gym: you’ve got to keep at it. If your advertising allows you to put your price up by just 1%, McKinsey has estimated that this translates to an 8% increase in profit… It’s the secret superpower we don’t talk about in advertising.”
5. Innovation Unwrapped
Technology is both friend and foe, said Sir John Hegarty, Creative Founder, The Garage Entertainment, at Cannes Lions, and despite some reservations about AI and what it might entail, innovation was in plentiful supply.
Being one of the speakers at this year’s Cannes Lions, Elon Musk, Chief Technology Officer of X, said, “This is the most interesting time in all of history. So enjoy the ride.” He even predicted that next year will be pivotal for AI– but also warned that there’s a one-in-five chance of AI going rogue and “something going terribly wrong”.
AI is already playing a bigger role in creativity: it was used in 12% of all entries submitted this year as per the Report, but while some of the innovation showcased at the Festival was based on AI, it was still human-inspired.
Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer, OpenAI, spoke about how AI is becoming more accessible: intuitively designed tools don’t require specialised skills and said, “the technology comes to you.”
That being said, while there’s concern, the democratisation of tech tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney will lead to what Jeriad Zoghby, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Interpublic Group, called “enhanced mediocrity” as “Without differentiation, the competitive middle is starting to swell.”
