Out and About in Adland - Cannes Recap: Day 6

On our final day in Cannes I spent the whole day going to workshops rather than attending seminars.

My favorite workshop was Planning, by People who aren't "Planners," presented by Wieden + Kennedy.

awesome poster 

It was a packed room and quickly filled up and locked out the rest of the people trying to get inside. 

First up was Kat Clark the head of campaign communication for Greenpeace International. She told all about the planning that goes into the covert operations that Greenpeace performs. 

Next up is Jennifer Lyon Bell, an erotic filmmaker based out of Amsterdam and she spoke about planning and casting for chemistry between actors in her Blue Artichoke productions. She was very funny, edgy, and honest. The room was tense and nervous laughter scattered from time to time; but that is common when sex is bluntly the topic in one of these workshop-type settings. Bell was spectacular in her presentation and actually is quite careful in how she prepares for a film shoot and is very mindful of her actor's emotions. She is an amazing woman. 

Finally Chris Paton, Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marines  spoke about planning in a wartime environment. Very intense! His ending line sums up his presentation best: "Business, Advertising, and Communication planning is like Royal Marine planning except the Royal Marines do it better."

Out and About in Adland - Cannes Recap: Day 5

Thursday was pretty cool. We met with the author of Adland Mark Tungate.

He gave us his perspective on what was happening in Cannes and now that we were a good ways in to the festival we were able to weigh his perspective with ours.

Some cool things he mentioned were that right now is a great time to be a writer. There are so many distribution platforms that everyone is in need of great content. So writers are needed.

Also a shift to printed content rather than online hosted content has been an interesting trend. Before at Cannes advertising agencies put content online in blogs but this year almost every agency has brought a printed magazine or newspaper to display their news, content, and example advertising.

LSU in Paris Class w/ Tungate in his sweet hat

Tungate things this trend will echo a near future where as more and more content shifts to being hosted online due to increased efficiency, cheaper costs, eco-friendliness, and ability to edit and ad in more content; a resurgence in printed media will re-surge in response as a sort of old-school cool with a luxury feel. It will be antiquated and become a printing art from typesetting to printing - just as film and film developing is to photography.


The book's a good read check it out here: (http://amzn.to/o7kYHU)

Out and About in Adland - Cannes Recap: Day 4

The Highlight of day 4 was definitely Leo Burnett. Their seminar entitled Wildfire was all about what makes an effective brand today.

For Leo Burnett, not only are they an extremely creative advertising agency, but for them what defines an effective brand is 'speaking human.'

Speaking human is all about a brand identifying with its audience. It is all about the human purpose of the brand. Basically if a brand can connect personally with its audience it is that much more effective and powerful.

Leo Burnett's best example of this - it received a standing ovation - was the font they created out of Gandhi's glasses in ten different alphabet sets to promote Gandhi's ideals of peace and love throughout India.

Did they spell his name wrong??

It was Leo Burnett's gift to all of the Indian people. It was moving and beautiful. The font looks spectacular. 

Truly inspirational. Truly incredible. This shows what can be created when the power of human creativity is coupled with human passion and when the human perspective is channeled and someone actually speaks human. 

Check it out and download it at: http://www.gandhijifont.com/downloadthefont.htm

Out and About in Adland - Cannes Recap: Day 3

The highlight of Day 3 is definitely the seminar presented by Yahoo!. They brought Robert Redford to speak in their Content as Conversation Catalyst seminar.

Robert Redford gave an inspirational speech on how he made his career after traveling Europe studying painting. He discussed his fortitude in founding an artists safe haven with the Sundance Film festival and the Sundance Lab.

Redford told the secret to a great story is that it hits the guts and the heart and has sex. Basically an emotional core and has authenticity. And SEX. He was hilarious.

Redford said the future is making is in making content. Not only does this reiterate a theme throughout the Cannes festival that content is king but it aligns with Redford's entire career. With Sundance and everything he has supported developing new voices in content in many different forms.