Talks
List of talks attended and my own thoughts.
LinkedIn: Back to the Creative Future- the Fight for Great Talent
"New tech has to make a promise to be easy to understand."
LinkedIn's CEO, Ryan Roslanksy dived deep into statistics and what his brand has been doing to keep up with the world's fast moving technology. Although seeing the CEO of LinkedIn was very cool for my first talk, I was honestly bored. I felt like he was kinda flexing on everyone for a little but I did pick up a few things I took with me. Ryan talked about the Great Reshuffle, so he calls it and how so many jobs in the advertising industry are changing. Something else that I found interesting was his discussion of how the advertising industry must change. "The Industry must make a much bigger promise." Ryan talked about how the job industry is reshuffling and more people are looking for jobs in tech so advertising must change to allow for more tech into the industry. Overall this talk was a bit overwhelming for my first talk but I would it a 4.8/10.
Warner Bros: Africa Rising
A few other students and myself just randomly walked into the Warner Bros tent to of course get free iced coffee and snacks and ended up walking into a very interesting small conversation happening. We walked in a bit late and did not get to hear the introductions. But the talk was about advertising to different communities specifically in Africa. They talked about how so often Africa is advertised as one continent instead of taking the time to understand the people from the different countries within Africa and advertise to them. In summary, the best advice I got from the talk was to put people first. I give this talk a 7.6/10.
Disney Advertising and Hyundai: Question Everything
I was most definitely and still currently am a Disney kid so I was so excited to listen to anything and everything Disney. But with this talk I was disappointed. The talk was called "Question Everything" and I think they repeated that line over 1000+ times. I felt like having the lead people of Disney and Hyundai talk was just for show. I felt like they didn't actually know what they were talking about and just almost reading off a script. Then when Elizabeth Olsen came out, she spoke maybe one sentence and having her there was definitely so more people would come to the talk. I was a little disappointed with this talk especially because I admire Disney as a brand so much. All of my take-aways were just the most generic take-aways and cliches of the advertising industry specially, "Be Bold, Take Risks". I give this talk a 3.2/10.
Advertising Association and Cannes Lions: By 2030 Every Ad Will Be a Green Ad
I am extremely interested in seeing what brands are doing to be more sustainable so this was one of the first talks I added to my itinerary the month before the festival. The beginning of the talk I found it very interesting about how we need to unite together in order to actually be sustainable, it is not just an individual brand thing. But as the talk when on it was really just to highlight the Ad Net Zero Global program and show all of the different companies that have pledged to be sustainable and join this cause. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see what brands were doing to be more sustainable and how I can take that with me. Ad Net Zero to me seemed like just one of those things that people say they are apart of but them don't actually do anything. I give this talk a 4.6/10.
Twitter: Let's Talk Shop
"Be where everyone is."
This talk automatically gets a 10/10. Sitting on the beach with a glass of rose in hand, I was in heaven. But the talk itself was actually quite interesting as well (or maybe it was just the rose brain thought so). The discussion of e-commerce is very interesting because there is so much abundance of it. One of the speakers talked about how you have to make ads that people want to watch and go seamlessly that people don't even think they are ads. With the ability to do no ads or just skip through ads now they have to have an experience that doesn't feel forced. Another note I took was that when it comes to AR/Metaverse and for future technology advertising has to be where everyone is. I give this talk 8.0/10.
MNTN/ Maximum Effort: Ryan Reynolds on Next Generation Storytelling
"Necessity is the mother of invention."
Ryan Reynolds like ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I could listen to that man talk about dirt and find it the most fascinating speech in the world. But he actually was very good. I took the most notes from this talk than any of the others. Starting out he pointed out how ads should be fun and that they shouldn't contribute to the weight people are already carrying. Specifically he brought up COVID ads and how annoying they were for all people to watch them. Ryan also discussed his main three ways of marketing and advertising: humor, authorship and product first, Coming from the Hollywood, I think he added a very interesting perspective to his discussion of marketing and advertising. I was genuinely surprised by his knowledge on the topic. I give this talk a 12/10.
CMOs in the Spotlight- The Lego Group, L'Oreal and Marriott International
After listening to the Disney and Hyundai CMO's the day prior I was expecting to be disappointed to listen to more because I do feel like they tend to be disconnected to the work of the businesses. But I was honestly shocked by how engaged the CMO's were with their own brands. They talked about a variety of different things from the major changes of their industry, to the metaverse and to how they are marketing to underrepresented communities. One of the more noteworthy comment I wrote down was from the CMO of Lego Group when discussing the Metaverse. She talked about how being a children's brand they want to make sure they protect children's right to play specifically when it comes to safety on the internet. I think this was my favorite talks of the entire trip. I give this talk a 10/10.
Elite World Group Influence 3.0- A New Wave of Influencers Have Entered the Chat
Alexis Ren was one of the speakers during this talk which was of course one of my reasonings for attending. Although I knew her from her Instagram, I was interested to see her take on influencing 3.0 especially because she is coined to be the first influencer. The talk began with discussing what influencing 2,0 is which they described as how social media used to be viewed with the materialistic aspects of it. Moving into 3.0, many brands are contacting more genuine influencers and having people who like their products talk about it. Also one of the most noteworthy comment I wrote down was the the discussion of the trust lost between brands an influencers and how before it was about the transaction and not the partnership. With influencing 3.0, they hope to rebuild the trust between brans and influencers to became more beneficial for both parties. Overall, I give this talk a 8.8/10.
Mastercard: Mastercard's First Ever Music Album Premiere with Special Musical Guests
"Change the perception of marketing."
Mastercard's CMO discussed marketing in a multisensory world. They title of the talk was definitely misleading for this one. But the actual talk itself was very fascinating, I do wish that they would have changed the title because it was a little clickbait like. The talk focused on how technology is always changing so we should continue to change advertising with it. Mastercard decided to take it's marketing multisensory. Starting with sight, Mastercard changed their logo to just include their staple red and yellow colors. For taste, they created restaurants in places that everyone wishes to dine, like on the stage of Carnegie Hall, with a Michelin star chef. For scent, they released fragrances created by a world renowned scent expert. For touch, they added notches into their card for blind individuals to known which cards are which. Lastly, Mastercard is releasing their own music album. They have reinventing marketing and made their way into every avenue and they are a card brand. I give this talk a 9.6/10.
Meta: Breaking Barriers and Building Community with Lupita Nyong'o
Meta discussed how to tell stories in a digital world. They talked about how social media has given everyone a way to tell their stories and voices are now being made unignorable. The beginning of the talk started good but then it didn't really make much sense. Again, having Lupita Nyong'o there I felt was just to have her there. The talk was a little chaotic and was not very together. Especially at the end they just discussed Lupita's new book coming out which has nothing to do with the conversation before. Every question asked just felt very abrupt and nothing really flowed together. I had a little higher expectations for Meta especially coming into the Cannes Lion newly as Meta. I give this talk a 3.2/10.
Saatchi & Saatchi: The New Creators' Showcase
"Be where everyone is."
Thank goodness the woman talking at the beginning did not speak for that long. I think before letting her on stage someone should have given her some public speaking classes because listening to her talk was a little cringe worthy. But the New Creator's Showcase was the weirdest and most fascinating of the talks I have been to. I don't know if there is anyway to describe it anymore because it made me feel all emotions simultaneously. See my favorite one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q02dUbyxlzc). I give this talk/experience 9.2/10.
Cannes Lions School: Master your Mindpower
Whoop Whoop!! I had a proud student moment to see Blau speaking to the Cannes Lions School. Obviously, I like that she took a different approach in the talks and discussed how we can't be creatives and be at our full potential without caring for ourselves first. I took note of the need to have a balance because I use this in my daily life and it is always nice to see others especially in the same industry applying the same tactics. I also took note of the idea of retraining your brain to cross out negative emotions and start to focus on the positive ones. I feel myself falling into the same process of always looking at the negative and this is something I too need to work on. Of course this talk gets a 10/10.
Chief Creatives on the Terrace: Grey, Havas, The Walt Disney Company
"Change perceptions, change culture, change the world."
To be honest, I really do not remember this talk very well which must of meant it wasn't all that great. But looking at my notes I wrote a few key points I heard. Purposeful and powerful work is engrained in storytelling. Stories connect us in a deep way and we find ourselves in these stories. Stories allow us to be more open to people from other places with different experiences. Lastly, one key statement was to find brands that resonate with you. My notes usually jog my memory of the talk but for this one I remember nothing. So I give this talk a 2.0/10 for being not great since I obviously can't remember it.,
Paramount: Long-term Creative Effectiveness- Building Fandoms With the Star Trek Franchise
I was originally super excited to hear this talk growing up knowing my parent's obsessing with Star Trek. The title with the focus on the fandom is what really drew me in because Star Trek has such a large and loyal fandom. But I was honestly disappointed. Of course seeing Patrick Stewart while sitting front row was super cool (my dad thought so too). But I was really confused about what the whole point of the talk was. I felt like each of the speakers were talking over one another and there wasn't any fluidity to the talk. I also felt like it was just a promo for the Star Trek new series. I give this talk 2.8/10.
Goodby Silverstein & Partners: If You're Not First, You're Last with Megan Thee Stallion
So couple of students and I tried to find a tent to eat lunch at after the Paramount talk. But I guess Thursday was for the entire festival to have private events leading us to eat lunch at a restaurant outside of the festival. By the time we got back to see Megan the line was so long and they had already cut it off saying the theatre was already full. So the talk for me was 0/10.
IKEA and Accenture Song Nordic: IKEA's Instruction Manual on How to Assemble a Global Circularity Movement
"Creativity solves real world issues."
I have always found IKEA a very interesting company because they have a synchronized brand throughout everything they do and the talk was the same written out in an instruction guide. I was also automatically attracted to this talk. The talk focused on the circular transformation that IKEA has taken. They have focused on sustainability in a way that is different than I have seen from most brands. My favorite part of the talk is when they showed their Buy Back print ads that featured empty ads with words of IKEA classics (so simple yet so amazing). They also gave a manual on how to assemble a global circularity movement. Step 1: Think Long Term,. Step 2.:Take Action. Step 3: Be Bold Together, Step 4: Be on Brand. Step 5: Be Flexible. Overall, this talk was one of my favorites because it talked about what the title said it would. I give this talk a 9.6/10.
VIRTUE Worldwide and Logitech: Unleashing the New Logic of Creativity
Bretman Rock is one of my influencer idols so of course this was one of the talks that was a must go. The influencer world is a every changing marketplace and seeing how VIRTUE and Logitech are working together to create a partnership was super interesting. The talk focuses on a creator first economy and making sure that creators feel invited into the community of the bran and now just used a promotional tool. Also putting creators at the forefront always for people to engage authentically, I have never really understood how brands and influencers work together and it was definitely very educational to understand more about the process. This talk as well as the Elite World Group educated me about how the influencer world is evolving and working currently,
Highsnobiety: Luxury 3.0-Building Brands in Partnership With the Customer
We got in line for the talk 30 minutes before and the line circled around and went down the stairs. We waited anyway hoping that we would be able to get in but we were out of luck. This talk definitely should have been held in a larger auditorium. After, we went to Female Quotient to try and listen to one of the talks there. And of course once again they were having a private event and we were rejected.
LADbible Group: Platform Power-Lifting the Lid on How to Make Authentic Social Content
I do have to admit that after the week during this talk I may have nodded off for almost the entire thing. I do have a few notes from the talk and it is not that the talk was boring at all it was quite fascinating for the time I was awake during. I have always seen LADbible as a meme account and seeing what goes on behind the scenes was very interesting. A few notes I have from when I was awake was to know your audience. I also noted that LADbible does a great job of knowing and understanding different social media platforms. With each platform they structure the stories for each. Despite falling asleep during this I did still enjoy it. I give this talk 8.6/10.
