Cannes Musings: Embrace the future collectively

Thursday, Day 4 of Cannes 2018, the excitement and energy levels are palpable. Some are too much drained by all the gyaan over these four days, some are looking forward to absorbing some more gyaan before the festival comes to an end.

By all means, this year’s festival is subdued to say the least. While I am a first-time observant of Cannes, by all means when I speak to people who have been coming every year to Cannes, the excitement and participation levels have definitely gone down and really subdued this year at Cannes 2018.

Back to the gyaan and inspiration guys. I have always been a fan of Scott Galloway and was looking forward to his session on innovation. It was a very sharp and great observation of how new and future trends and innovations will be making waves in the future. He spelt out how and what marketers should be doing next to win in the new digital economy. The talk was really hard-hitting and inspiring to put it mildly.

Another interesting session was how one does marketing to deeply polarised societies. Chaired by Chuck Porter, it was a humorous take on how the chasms in many societies have increased to epic proportions. It was fascinating to hear how deeply polarised as a society we have become. While most of the references were from US, it did resonate with audiences universally and I can reflect back and create analogies with respect to an Indian environment. The talk delved deeper into the US govt, Brexit and how polarisation has deep implications on society and brands at large.

‘Embracing the future’ hosted by WPP was another interesting session where questions about future and how brands, agencies, media owners, tech firms will come together for a shared objective and how all of them will have to work together and not against each other in a digital economy were debated at length.

Last but not the least the ‘Who will be your next boss’ presentation was the most sought after, packed to full audience at Lumiere theatre. It was a great banter between CCO of Publicis and Accenture Interactive, Senior Managing Director Anatoly Roytman, which kept the energy of the talk. The discussion moved from the agency model and new structure, to the talent pool and why agency holding companies are best suited for future vis a vis consulting group. All the panel members had an interesting perspective for both. Also the discussion ranged again to a rallying cry that creative should be at centre of the business and should be the one who is leading the business. One thing that clearly resonated with me and true as well is that creative department over the years has been infantilised. This is true world over and very much true in India as well.

As the day ends, one is drowned by the talks and information overload. Time to head to the beach and grab a glass of beer and relax. After all, relaxation has always done no harm.

Looking forward to Mr Sorell on Friday and closing day of Festival of Creativity-Cannes 2018.

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