Predicting the Way forward for Goal, AI, and M&A on the Cannes Lions
If the Cannes Lions competition is something, it’s a stage-setter for the remainder of the yr.
In ADWEEK’s third and ultimate episode of The Cannes Dispatch, the editorial workforce who labored the Croisette dig into the artistic that gained this yr and what it means for the way forward for promoting.
Whereas DoorDash’s Tremendous Bowl sweepstakes took house the highest prize — don’t neglect to learn ADWEEK’s inside look on the way it all got here collectively — different winners weren’t with out controversy.
Coca-Cola’s award-winning marketing campaign “Recycle Me” depicted the corporate’s crushed emblem to advertise recycling. However the marketing campaign had its fair proportion of detractors on the competition, who felt that the advert was an instance of greenwashing, as a result of crushing cans isn’t really helpful by recyclers, and since the beverage large has lengthy had a repute as a significant polluter.
If something, the controversy underscores that manufacturers that infuse their advertising and marketing with some form of function additionally open their enterprise practices as much as scrutiny.
Goal with amusing
The massive pattern on the Cannes Lions, and one which appears prone to stick, is that after years of self-serious purposeful adverts, manufacturers no less than need to make you snigger. The competition launched for the primary time a humor class.
It’s fortuitous timing as a result of, as ADWEEK’s model editor Rebecca Stewart identified, many people are nonetheless reeling from a price of residing disaster and a tanking financial system. Customers may not have the abdomen for a heavy-handed message as of late, which even probably the most purposeful manufacturers have fortunately acknowledged.
“Typically we neglect that humor may also be purpose-driven,” mentioned ADWEEK government editor Jameson Fleming.
AI or AIn’t?
Generative AI entries this yr confronted a chilly reception from the Cannes Lions jury.
“By way of how businesses and types are utilizing it, it’s nonetheless in its infancy,” mentioned Stewart. However that appears poised to vary. Accenture Music CEO David Droga showcased his experiments with OpenAI’s Sora when he shared the stage with OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.
And Toys “R” Us simply launched the first-ever Sora-powered advert to a decidedly combined public reception.
Cannes jury be damned, generative AI as a artistic instrument could be about to leap from infancy to puberty.
All of the enterprise away from the Palais
Lots of the Cannes Lions attendees aren’t there to take a look at an awards present; they’re there to strike offers and make financial institution. Adtech has drowned out creativity over the previous decade, and whereas the heyday of blackbox startups has waned, the competition nonetheless serves as a significant platform for dealmaking.
And whereas 2023 was a dealmaking deadzone — the funding financial institution LUMA companions famous deal quantity was down 10% in comparison with 2022 — there’s much more optimism for 2024. LUMA founder and CEO Terry Kawaja had his annual “white get together” at Cannes, the place adtech execs and dealmakers dressed all in white mingle.
Michael Kassan, who made a defiant look at (or extra particularly above) the MediaLink bash this yr, had beforehand instructed ADWEEK that he’s diving into M&A, with a give attention to discovering small adtech corporations to mix into bigger options. And a spate of small corporations like Claritas, Sonobi, and 33across have all employed banks to pursue gross sales.
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