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We’re going strong after Cannes LIONS 2023 – even after hosting more than 5,000 people at SPORT BEACH. The emerging themes still on our minds:
- The consensus at Cannes was that generative AI is no passing fad. But brands and marketers need to understand how to use (and not use) AI to truly realize its potential.
- Brands need to understand the risks of embracing polarizing issues. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t stand for something.
- Fandom is even more valuable than you think. How else could a dish soap company like Dawn have more fans than tech and entertainment giants?
Get ready, because we’re diving deep into all three …
1. AI CAN’T DO EVERYTHING. YOU STILL CAN’T IGNORE IT.
The message at Cannes LIONS from OpenAI, Google, and other tech companies was the same: AI won’t replace creatives, it will make them more creative.
- BIG TECH SHOWCASE: Meta positioned AI chatbots as a way for brands to interact with fans, and stressed that AI could help generate and target hundreds of versions of ads. Expedia touted its new ChatGPT app integration. And on the sand, Microsoft Beach dazzled visitors with otherworldly sea creatures made by artists using AI tools. (Check them out in this gallery, created in partnership with Instrument.)
- DON’T SET IT AND FORGET IT: Generative AI is a useful tool. But Google’s Robert Wong stressed at the Palais that humans with taste still need to be in charge, comparing AI to “raw clay” that will take people with “curiosity, creativity and compassion to harness.”
- BRIGHT FUTURE: Overall, people at Cannes LIONS thought AI will change marketing for the better. Code and Theory’s co-founder and executive chairman Dan Gardner envisioned the rise of “true creativity,” where innovative people can create whatever they can imagine, regardless of their technical skills.
READ MORE: 3 Quick Things from Cannes 2023: AI will lead to an ‘explosion of creativity’
How AI and AR Will Transform Sports
2. STAND OUT BY STANDING UP
There was plenty of debate over purpose-driven ads at Cannes LIONS this year. But that doesn’t mean brands can’t embrace causes – as long as they’re consistent with their politics.
- REPRESENTATION PAYS: At a SPORT BEACH panel hosted by the ANA CMO Growth Council and SeeHer, the message was clear: accurately representing people with disabilities isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a smart business move.
Robyn Freye, Chief Growth Officer at Stagwell, shared this stat: only 1% of prime TV ads include topics, visuals, or themes related to people with disabilities. That’s despite the fact that more than a quarter of the U.S. population lives with a disability. Ultimately, brands have a huge opportunity to reach people who don’t feel seen in ads.
- BOLDEST MOVE AT CANNES: On the sustainability front at Cannes LIONS, per Adweek, Stagwell’s GALE stood out by becoming the largest agency to sign the Clean Creatives pledge not to work with fossil fuel companies.
READ MORE: 3 Quick Things from Cannes 2023: Making the World a Better Place
The Intersection of Sport and Sustainability
3. BRANDS ARE THE NEW ROCK STARS
There were plenty of Spike Lee fans at SPORT BEACH. But it’s not just filmmakers, athletes, and musicians who have fans. It’s also brands.
- WHY FANS MATTER: Fotoulla Damaskos, EVP, Brand Strategy and Innovation at Stagwell’s National Research Group, used Cannes LIONS to reveal the Fandex, based on a study of 12,500 people who were asked about 250 brands. It found that fans are…
3.5x more likely to advocate for a brand than the average consumer.
3x more likely to stick with a brand even if it does something they don’t like.
- BIG SURPRISE: Dawn had the fifth highest brand fandom score in the Fandex, topping buzzy entertainment, tech, and sports brands. The lesson? Any brand can attract fans if it creates community and connect with consumers’ values (think #Cleantok and clean baby ducks, respectively), as well as innovate new products that people love. “It’s a purposeful journey that brands need to take,” said Damaskos. “And while there isn’t any one formula to create and build fandom, there is a playbook.
- THE FUTURE OF FANDOM: Personalization at scale, fueled by AI, predicted GALE’s Brad Simms.
READ MORE: 3 Quick Things from Cannes 2023: Fans, fans, fans for your brands, brands, brands
What Turns Customers Into Fans
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How Spike Lee Helped Make Air Jordan One of the Coolest Sneaker Brands on Earth
The one and only Spike Lee talked about his relationship with Nike and Michael Jordan, what Denzel Washington taught him about creativity, and his biggest regret as an investor. (Hint: It involves Crocs.) Watch the clip.
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Future Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony broke down how he chooses business opportunities, the importance of travel, and how went from a wine novice to launching his own wine brand. Watch the clip.
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We finally had a chance to recoup after Cannes LIONS and we can’t stop thinking about fandom. Aside from AI, fandom was the hot topic in the Palais, along the Croisette, and at SPORT BEACH. Today in 3 Quick Things: Let’s talk about fandom: How to build it and why it matters. (Miss anything at Cannes? Catch up on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.)
- WAIT, THE DISHWASHING LIQUID COMPANY? At SPORT BEACH, NRG’s Fotoulla Damaskos revealed a major surprise. In a survey of 12,500 people about 250 brands, Dawn had the 5th highest brand fandom score, topping major entertainment, tech, and sports brands. What’s going on? People say Dawn connects with their values. (think of clean baby ducks); innovates by releasing products they use and love; and creates community. Seriously, spend a few minutes on #CleanTok. THE LESSON: Yes, Nike, Marvel, and other buzzy brands made NRG’s Fandom 50. But any type of brand can attract fans with the right strategy.
- IT TAKES TWO Delta’s Tim Mapes put it nicely at the Palais: “Are we loyal to you when you need us?” Translation: When loyalty program members are stuck overnight at O’Hare, they expect Delta to show loyalty to them – through the empathy and actions of its employees. That’s how you build a sense of community. WHY IT MATTERS: Building a community is a huge part of attracting fans, who are 3x more likely to stick with a brand during a crisis.
- ALWAYS LEAVE THEM WANTING MORE A boring website isn’t enough. Expedia’s Jon Gieselman, speaking at the Palais, talked about attracting fans by creating a “subscription-like business.” Expedia isn’t literally selling subscriptions. The idea is to use technology (like Expedia’s ChatGPT tool) in inventive products and features that will keep customers coming back — “managing the business for lifetime value rather than a one-time transaction.”
INNOVATE OR ELSE: The key to building fandom is to keep innovating and evolving in ways that surprise and delight consumers.
Beyond the Stage
Stagwell talked to C-suite marketers, sports luminaries, and other innovators at SPORT BEACH and the Palais. You’ll find fresh, insightful videos on our YouTube page from every day of Cannes LIONS.
JPMorgan Chase’s Leanne Fremar talked with Code and Theory’s Brent Buntin about everything from purpose to Chase Sapphire’s new airport lounges.
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Bonjour! We were at Cannes LIONS, hitting the Palais, fringe stages, and SPORT BEACH to bring you fresh insights every day of the festival. Today in 3 Quick Things: Brands and agencies at Cannes LIONS get creative trying to make the world a better place. (Miss anything at Cannes? Catch up on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.)
- IT CAN BE PROFITABLE BEING GREEN Is carbon-free advertising a possibility? Felipe Thomaz, deputy director of the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, thinks so. At his Ad Net Zero panel in the Palais, he claimed as clients start factoring in carbon as an operating cost, agencies will follow. “Once I win your business away from you by being greener … you will be under tremendous pressure to match me.” SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS: GALE becomes largest agency to cut ties with fossil fuels
- WOMEN DESERVE BETTER Companies can’t “just pink it and shrink it,” said Wilson Brand’s Amanda Lamb at SPORT BEACH. In the same panel, Olympic champion Allyson Felix said she started her shoe company, Saysh, because other women’s sneakers were built on molds of men’s feet. The message: Brands can’t just pander to women, they have to meet their specific needs in products and marketing. Hopefully, more women in top marketing positions will help. At The Female Quotient’s Equality Lounge, Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Beauty, shared a stat: Women now make up a majority of CMOs for companies in AdAge’s list of top 100 advertisers. WATCH: Building for the Female Athlete
- MORE AI, MORE PROBLEMS? Forget the robot apocalypse. Will AI lead to rampant copyright abuse? Lost jobs? Boring content? Those were the big questions on the Croisette. Two big takeaways from Cannes LIONS: 1) AI tools that create video and images will need to be trained on copyright-free material to be useful for (responsible) agencies. 2)
Relying solely on generative AI for creative tasks is a bad idea. As Google’s Robert Wong said at the Palais, “You always need someone with taste to choose the best line. AI does not have taste.” DIVE DEEPER: Embracing Generative AI: A Responsible Approach
Beyond the Stage
Stagwell talked to C-suite marketers, sports luminaries, and other innovators at SPORT BEACH and the Palais. You’ll find fresh, insightful videos on our YouTube page from every day of Cannes LIONS.
On the sand at SPORT BEACH, Anton Vincent, President, Mars Wrigley, North America, talked to the NFL’s Mack Hollins and Damaune Journey, Global Chief Growth Officer, 72andSunny, about treating business like sports, sustainable growth, and the importance of the Black Executive CMO Alliance (BECA).
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Bonjour! We were at Cannes LIONS, hitting the Palais, fringe stages, and SPORT BEACH to bring you fresh insights every day of the festival. Today in 3 Quick Things: Plug in friends. We’re exploring all things tech at Cannes LIONS 2023. (Miss anything at Cannes? Catch up on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.)
- THE AI REVOLUTION IS REAL OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL·E would lead to an “explosion of creativity” in the marketing industry. His key points: Creatives will use it to generate and enhance ideas more quickly, e.g. easy-to-create storyboards that let agencies explore lots of possibilities. Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the Carlton, Code and Theory’s co-founder and executive chairman Dan Gardner stressed that companies need to embed AI across their entire ecosystems – not just in one-off use cases. DIVE DEEPER: Mark Penn sees AR and AI as the industry’s biggest disruptors
- YOU HAVE THE POW(AR) What’s holding back brands on AR? The perception that it’s difficult to create and activate at meaningful scale, said CPB president, North America, Maggie Malek at Hôtel Martinez. But Snap’s AR tools and companies like Stagwell’s ARound are making it easier to target passionate new customers in unique ways.
Speaking of Snap, it teamed up with Disney to build an immersive AR exhibit at Cannes LIONS. And AR developer Niantic announced Rewarded AR, an ad platform that will allow for branded content in mixed-reality games like Pokémon GO. THE APPLE EFFECT: What Apple’s new $3,499 Vision Pro headset means for brands - DON’T SLEEP ON THE METAVERSE With all the attention on AI, brands may have neglected opportunities in the metaverse. At the Palais, Roblox’s Christina Wootton said that’s a huge mistake: brands (especially fashion labels) have a great opportunity to connect with Gen Z in the metaverse. Plus, she doesn’t see AI and the metaverse as in conflict, noting that brands could use generative AI to populate the metaverse with a ton of enticing content. NEW RESEARCH: NRG’s Fandex says innovation creates fans, and fans are 3.5x more likely to advocate for brands.
Beyond the Stage
Stagwell talked to C-suite marketers, sports luminaries, and other innovators at SPORT BEACH and the Palais. You’ll find fresh, insightful videos on our YouTube page from every day of Cannes LIONS.
At SPORT BEACH, Olympian Allyson Felix talked to Evin Shutt, Global Chief Executive Officer and Partner, 72andSunny, about founding her footwear company Saysh and women’s sports.
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Bonjour! We were at Cannes LIONS, hitting the Palais and fringe stages, working hard to bring you fresh insights every day of the festival. On the first day of Cannes, Maria Sharapova, Alan Shearer, and other sports and business legends spoke at Stagwell’s Sport Beach. Catch up on the action on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.
Let’s talk creativity at Cannes LIONS, from how creativity was rewarded to how tech can help creatives do their jobs.
- WHAT MATTERS TO JURIES NOW Hot topic on day one: How would purpose be rewarded? This year, award juries could weigh the emotional impact of ads with their financial impact, thanks to new submission rules. Some creatives told Adweek they were hoping for “more scrutiny” on whether “purpose-based work actually drove real results for brands.” Creativity + results could be the new formula for success. DIVE DEEPER: Political Season Is in Full Swing. Brands Beware.
- BARBIE HAS A STORY TO TELL Like Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in spandex, creative branded entertainment is hot. Richard Dickson, president and COO of Mattel, spoke at the Palais about reinvigorating the Barbie brand ahead of the buzzy movie release in July. In an interview with WWD, he stressed “we are storytellers” who “create narratives out of our brands” and want to be “where our consumer is.” DON’T BE BORING: What an ‘MBA in Entertainment’ Can Teach Us About Brand Content
- EVERYONE IS OBSESSED WITH AI. SERIOUSLY. If ChatGPT was a real person, they’d be shmoozing at the Hotel Du-Cap, Sport Beach, and every other Cannes hot spot. What we’re obsessed with? The ocean-inspired work artists created with the help of generative AI at Microsoft Beach, done in partnership with Instrument. THE POWER OF AI: How A.I. Could Help You Craft the Perfect Media Pitch
On the Main Stage
Stagwell talked to C-suite marketers, sports luminaries, and other innovators at SPORT BEACH and the Palais. You’ll find fresh, insightful videos on our YouTube page from every day of Cannes LIONS.
Carmelo Anthony spoke at SPORT BEACH about how he approaches business opportunities, his love of wine, and the current state of the NBA.
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