Bonjour Cannes - pssst... SAMMERy June 20/ 23

Bonjour Cannes - If Corona was good for one thing, it's the fact that many festivals and conferences are hybrid now. So, you can attend the Cannes Lions festival in an environmentally friendly way – comfortable from home. Therefore I stocked my fridge with a nice selection of French Rosé - watching the keynotes and lectures from my sofa. Yes, of course - in a yacht on site it would be nicer - but at least this week will bring sun and 30 degrees in Munich as well. Voila, everything is perfect for a week full of inspiration from Cannes.

#When a campaign is skipped 48 hours before execution

A wonderful start was made by Marcel Marcondes, Chief Marketing Officer of AB InBev, the beer company which is honored this year by Cannes Lions as Most Creative Marketer of the Year.

And the award is well deserved. After all, Budweiser demonstrated the greatest flexibility – with their “World Cup Campaign for Qatar”. Because they turned a disaster into success. Budweiser's brand marketeers and their agencies developed the World Cup campaign 2022 for more than four years. But 48 hours before kick-off shocking news came: no beer in Qatar. Budweiser's first reaction, as Marcel Marcondes expressed it on stage: "WHAT???". Then they went back to work and turned everything – came up with a new campaign giving an answer to a burning question: Where to put all the beer that was supposed to be served to soccer fans in Qatar? How they did it? Read more here.

And how far-sighted AB InBev really is can be seen in the World Soccer TV spot for Quilmes that aired before the World Cup. Marcondes is Brazilian and it hurts him deeply that in 2022 Argentina took home the pot. But the Quilmes commercial is a triumph for him, because he could say ... AB InBev had known it … before. Wonderful storytelling – have a look!

#Creativity is about growth

"High performing creative work is 16x more likely to bring major profitability growth” – that´s what the Cannes Lions say. And that´s also what Marce Marcondes from AB InBev said on stage. Creative Communication and Marketing helped to AB InBev to growth and even to grow their category and industry. You need more proof than just quotes? Then have a look into James Hurman´s Book “The Case for Creativity” (published 2016 by the Cannes Lions … so ups it´s a PR piece for the awards, but the facts are true). Or have a look into the “Creative Effectiveness Ladder”, published 2019 by Cannes Lions together with WARC. Here you learn about Creativity and Efficiency plus you get a feeling what really counts at the Cannes Lions.

#How to judge creativity

What you can learn from Cannes Lions is how to judge creativity. Or at least be inspired by the Cannes Lions how to value an idea. For all who don´t know how the juries at the Cannes Lions Awards work, have a look into this link to find out more – and see how much work it´s for the jury members. True. I can confirm, I was on a Cannes Lions jury twice. It´s massive work to review thousands of entries – and be fair to every single on. And to debate in the jury itself. As there are many views, many opinions, many POV. To bring some objectivity to this discussion, it helps to agree on a scoring system. Sure, the Cannes Lions have their own system. But even beside the awards it may help everyone of us – even in our daily business – to have a scoring system to judge on our own ideas, or on others and to be clear about the scouring criteria. Svetlana Stotskaya was a jury member 2020 and she also fell in love with the Creativity Ladder (read her great blog post with wonderful examples here). At least you may use this 10 categories when judging creativity:

10 – is legendary, most inspiring in the world

9 – sets new standards in communications

8 – sets new standards in category

7 – is able to breakthrough

6 – gives fresh ideas

5 – it´s an innovative strategy

4 – it´s a cliché

3 – it´s non competitive

2 – it´s destructive

1 – it´s no idea

#Small is the new Big

There are massive investments into experiential storytelling in the gaming and entertainment industry – but Adam J. Bzark from the Bezark Company, an event and entertainment agency, believes in a future for “Small things”. “In the past, I think our industry – some of us, anyway – may have been guilty of a little creative snobbery. We’ve joked that the work we do requires ‘a hundred acres and a billion dollars’. But if you’ve talked to any of our team in the past few years, we’ve probably raved most passionately about the smaller attractions we’ve seen … “ Is he right? Is Small the new Big? Read more here.

#How cute

And here comes something very small – but cute: Scout Editions is a design studio based in London, with a passion for colour and illustration. Their mini-books show the back stories of products and things that surrounds us like “synthesiser”, “polaroid camera” or just “home”. With a sense of design and humor, these little books are a pleasure to read: have sneak preview here! And see more or buy them here.

Text: pure human | by Petra Sammer / Photo: profilepicture.ai / Unsplash