June 18, 2018—Enthusiasm and energy will be your allies today, Leo. Something different is in the air and inciting you to move forward. You will make decisions and go in new directions for your owngood and for the good of the people aroundnd you. Your dynamism will have a beneficial impact on your family. This newfound strength will give you a great boost.
My first day of the Cannes Lions Festival started with the session called Technology is at the Heart of Beauty, hosted by L’Oréal at 11:00 am. The session discussed how L’Oréal acquired its first ever tech company Modiface, which they are utilizing to create an artificial intelligence experience that allows consumers to view certain makeup look and trends on their face through their smartphone and smart mirrors. L’Oréal actually gave an exclusive look of their new technology coming out of a facetime-like tool that will allow consumers to consult with L’Oréal makeup consultants to figure out what looks look best on them as well as what products to use. The biggest idea that came out of this session was the movement towards transformation and acceleration, with digitalization at the core of everything; although L’Oréal was created 110 years ago, they still continue to be a leading innovator not only in the beauty industry, but also the overall e-commerce network. I appreciated how L’Oréal emphasized the continued idea of personalization, which leads to diversification and inclusion which is the biggest social movement in advertising at the moment. The only talking point I wished L’Oréal had expanded on is how this usage of AI creates a seamless way of native advertising that, to the consumer, does not seem like advertising at all.
The next session I went to, Unbreakable Entertainment: A New Way of Storytelling, hosted by TBWA, gave insight into the usage of brand storytelling in a new and “disruptive” way. Theodor Arhio, the representative from TBWA, described his partnership with FOX and how instead of commercials, they were doing these stories called “Unbreakables” which tell of stories of fighters dealing with copious types of hardships to inspire viewers, instead of regular advertisements. The whole goal of these “Unbreakables” are to create branded entertainment pieces which will lead to brand affinity for FOX. I found it interesting how the whole origin of the “Unbreakables” stories started with TBWA’s interest in data and how they found that stories about triumph and hope made viewers come back; they found three reasons viewers turn to media: to learn quickly, to be motivated, and to be inspired. Something I would have liked to see from this session is to see more tangible content from the series from the developmental process of analytics into the actual creative process of the series. After this session, I explored the world of Facebook beach and became enamored with the larger than life and almost Truman Show-Like reality that the cabana had.
After my Facebook Beach break, I went to The (not-so) Secret Lives of Creatives, hosted by Pinterest which explored the importance of creativity in personal lives. “The hidden cost of connection to the world is the disconnection of self,” said Evan Sharp, CEO of Pinterest, which left an interesting thought that social media needs to get back to the connection of self, rather than the connection of self to others. However, the conversation got more tangible and interesting when the Chief Creative Officer of Wieden + Kennedy was interviewed by Sharp in the second half of the talk, and she discussed about what creativity is to her. “Creativity is connecting dots that have not been connected before,” which I find interesting, especially with the rise of usage of “big data” to create specified content because it allows creatives to find certain untapped markets or subjects and connects them to the relevant marketing world. Something I wish she had gone further into is her statement that you need to be relevant with distinction because many companies, according to her, stay relevant without distinction. With this, I would have loved for her to expand on this topic.
My final discussion that I went to was Joanna Coles in Conversation with Whitney Wolfe Herd, which I was incredibly excited about because Coles served as Editor-and-Chief of Cosmopolitan and now works for Hearst as the Chief Content Creator who interviewed Herd, the CEO of Bumble. I found this session not as interesting from an advertising perspective, but more interesting from the perspective of what it is like to be a female entrepreneur and continue to expand as the times continue. One of the most beneficial ideas I took away from this session is Herd’s emphasis on building a product or a brand on what you hate, makes you frustrated, and breaks your heart because, from that, you will stay truly passionate and focused on whatever product or brand affinity you are trying to create. I also found it interesting that she said that Bumble does not pair with 95% of companies that approaches them because of the companies’ missions and actions which do not line up with Bumble. Something I wish Herd had gotten more into is how she has used pairing with companies to further her business model and expanded her company.
good sessions. thanks.
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