Cannes You Imagine?

As I have conveniently avoided writing on this blog, I will have to start off describing my adventures in France with the first day of the festival. Our study abroad program has the privilege of attending the 58^th Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. I have been looking forward to this week ever since I submitted my application for the program. After picking up our badges on Saturday afternoon and pouring over our schedules for the week, I was all set for today. This morning felt like the first day of school with butterflies of nervous excitement floating around in my stomach. As I boarded the train with my fellow Young Lions, I could not wait to arrive. I was feeling very official with my badge and could not believe my eyes when we walked into the colorful and beautiful Palais (the venue where the festival is being held). We were greeted in the very special “Young Lions Zone” with a complimentary YouTube smoothie and an hp “white space” area to draw imaginative characters and designs on all types of surfaces, including Red Bull cans- yum. 

 

The first seminar I attended was the goviral seminar in the grand Debussy theater. The discussion focused on making effective “long ideas” for brands. Martin Lindstrom, an extremely engaging speaker, even used the 10 pillars of religion to relate to brands around the world. Grandeur, vision, enemy, story telling, power, mystery, symbols, sensory, rituals, belonging, and evangelism are the pillars he used to connect brands like Apple as keys to being good story tellers. The other speaker, Jimmy Maymann, spoke of how we live in a “world of on demand” and how word of mouth can be just as powerful and effective (sometimes even more) as other forms of advertising.

We then made our way back to the Young Lions Zone for a sit-down talk with Susan Lilley of USA Today. They call her the “Cannes Lady” because she is constantly working on stuff for the festival year-round. From coordinating hotels to getting in touch with everyone, she does it all. USA Today has been the exclusive representative of the festival for the past 10 years. It was interesting to hear all of her responsibilities and also her suggestions of what we should see while we’re here. 

 

And after a much-needed delicious sandwich from the stand by the beach, a group of us were given VERY fashionable hats to wear and were directed to the Act Responsible exhibition going on at the back of the Palais. It was an entire exhibition of public service announcements from different countries. The topics ranged from cancer and disease to domestic violence. There was even an entire area dedicated to remembering the tsunami in Japan. It was very moving and I’m excited for their seminar later in the week.

The next seminar I attended was UM, L’Oreal and BMW. I was really excited for the panel, but was extremely disappointed after the seminar concluded. The entire presentation was in a monotone and barely any visual aides were provided. I thought a lot more could have been done with the opportunity to present entrepreneurial impact. The seats in the seminar room were comfortable and I found myself dozing off more than once. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from thenetworkone seminar, but it ended up being my favorite seminar of the day.  Three representatives from different independent advertising agencies spoke about the importance of independents and the benefits from a small advertising agency. One of the ideas that stuck with me from Ali Ali of Elephant was the big agency are focused on pleasing the client and the two-man agency is focused on making great ads. This mentality combined with the numerous examples of all three agencies (Special Group, Muh-tay-zik I Hof-fer, and Elephant) has inspired me to strive for experience in an independent agency. 

The last and final seminar that everyone was QUITE excited about was imc2, where Nick Jonas was a speaker. Besides seeing Nick Jonas’ adorable face, “Friends with Benefits” was a complete disappointment. The moderator, Bob Garfield, tried much too hard to be humorous and I was very confused as to what the purpose of the seminar was. The entire discussion was extremely unorganized and very difficult to follow. Thank the lord Nick Jonas was there or else I would have been staring off into space.