After an 11-year break, it was with a mix of excitement and trepidation that I returned to Cannes during the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival.
Is the hype still justified? How many meetings and content sessions can I squeeze in each day without incurring too many blisters from the inevitable 20-30k steps per day? And could I manage to avoid the infamous ‘Gutter bar’ for the duration of my stay?
The Cannes experience is what you make it. There is so much content on offer, both to official pass holders and those without, that it’s best to be organised and plan in advance what you want to see and hear before you get to Cannes, as it feels overwhelming otherwise.
To some extent, the content themes you attend at Cannes are already self-curated, but here were my three key takeaways from Cannes 2024:
- AI is alive and here to stay, but still needs human guidance to maximise its value. One of my favourite quotes came in a session at the Microsoft Beach from Shelby Saville, Chief Investment Officer, Publicis Media US, who said ‘Just because you have a large hammer, doesn’t mean you should hit every nail’, so understanding where AI can help you scale at speed and where you need human expertise is critical (and if you need more helpful hints from Publicis, I recommend you watch their BSbot helping you understand what’s BS on AI!). In the same session Stephen Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer at WPP, cautioned that every time a new AI capability is released, decision and software design may have to change; so keeping in mind your long term objective is crucial.
- Omni-channel measurement, or more accurately “multi-channel” measurement, still has some way to go, due to the manual stitching needed to evaluate across channels and data sets, in particular outside of the web. Attention as a metric was hotly discussed at the Campaign panel on Thursday, given audience attention time has reduced to three seconds or less; although all the panellists felt attention is best achieved through deep audience insights to generate effective storytelling. Media mix modelling (MMM) remains a nice to have (due to the cost and complexity) as opposed to a standard, and Rich Astley, Chief Product Officer at Choreograph felt that sustainability is likely to become a standard campaign metric measurement in the future, alongside impact and action metrics on the path to purchase.
- Talking about sustainability, this is growing in terms of how much time and attention it is receiving. For brands, this can mean adopting a different distribution or marketing strategy (such as for Kruger’s Bonterra paper products or canned water/iced tea company Liquid Death) to reach the niche audience who will purchase your product at a higher price point until sustainability becomes mainstream. From a media perspective, the launch at Cannes of the new GARM framework to establish transparency, consistency, and accuracy in terms of carbon emissions measurement will finally allow for different media channels to be fairly evaluated against each other, giving more power and confidence to brands who want to include sustainability within their channel mix strategy. Optimising the purchasing pathway by minimising header bidding, looking at CO2e per impression across media channels and selecting platforms and publishers who adopt these frameworks are the first steps brands can take to build a sustainable media industry.
As an aside, one thing that was great to see was a vastly increased level of diversity — both in terms of who was speaking on a panel or at a session (personally, I didn’t see a single ‘manel’), and also amongst the crowds attending the sessions and parties. What hasn’t changed is the rumour mill that goes into overdrive on potential surprise sets by artists at the beach parties — this year’s rumour was of an appearance by Taylor Swift, primarily because her boyfriend Travis Kelce was speaking one day, and she is in Europe for her Eras tour, but alas for Swifties, she did not appear in Cannes.
Attending Cannes during the Lions, even if you aren’t on the creative side of things, is still so valuable in terms of networking, meeting partners and clients from across the globe in a centralised location and short space of time, as well as getting out of your comfort zone/echo chamber to debate, be inspired and celebrate. Yes, the parties are still oversubscribed and/or passes can be hard to come by.
But at least this time, unlike a decade ago, Uber and Bolt were available to whisk you across town after a day and night on your feet!
In summary, is the expense and hassle of finding accommodation and getting to Cannes worthwhile? It’s a yes from me! And as to whether I found myself at the Gutter bar at the end of a night… can you still call it the ‘gutter’ bar if you’re sitting at a table and not standing in the gutter?
Featured image: Mike Kit / Pexels