Life lessons beyond marketing: Insights from Cannes Lions speakers

New Delhi: While the Cannes Festival of Creativity set ablaze lessons in marketing and promotion, it shed light on various life lessons to build oneself as a personal brand. 

BestMediaInfo.com has curated some of the lessons from various sessions of Day 1, spanning various themes including work, fame, personal promotion, and more.  

The battle to be the better and best 

Starting with his session on creativity, Nick Law, Global Creative Chairperson, Accenture Song, talked about establishing an ecosystem that nurtures oneself. In his talk, he shed light on the universal fear that people experience when getting into something good, about the often unnoticed tangent that converts passion into ‘hectic’ work.  

Addressing the so-famous cries of workload trouble, he said, “Work with freaks. Make scary stuff. All this good stuff makes you scared. For god's sake, have fun.”  

Oftentimes, people feel overwhelmed when surrounded by a workforce that knows what they are good at. But knowing what one’s bad at is not exactly as bad as it sounds.  

Talking in tandem, Koji Yanai, senior executive officer of the Fast Retailing Group, added his wisdom as he said, “My own talents have limits. But if I know my limits, I can ask people to help me bridge them.” 

Chasing the end line  

Personal branding sounds like the journey one takes to attain his or her ultimate best. In a population that exceeds millions, being one’s own best often takes the back burner when there is overwhelming competition suffocating every corner.  

But is being the best all that defines a brand? 

David Droga, the founder of Droga5, in his session with Mira Murti, said, with a knowing chuckle, “When everybody's doing their best practices, nobody's doing their best practice.”
 
This quote hammers home the belief that chasing the single goal of being the best boxes oneself into something synthetic.  

Having said that, it is oftentimes confusing to fixate on a goal. The pressure of attaining the ‘ultimate goal’ often causes big personal brands to fall into a crowd.  

Takuma Takasaki, a high-ranking executive at Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, talking about the Tokyo Toilet project, narrated how it all began with the simple desire to make Tokyo more disabled-friendly.  

A talk with his father changed his perspective from his initial goal of functionality to focusing more on inclusivity.  

Talking further, he highlighted the beauty of not being stubborn with one’s goals and said, “When you don't fixate on a goal, miracles that exceed the goal can happen.” 

Staying relevant and relatable 

The world is a dynamic, burgeoning place that demands one constantly race to be relevant and not get lost in the waves of time.  
As a personal brand, there is always a war between being ‘in-demand’ and being 'real.’ 

Kara Swisher, in her session with John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, said it right when she said, “Relatability can also affect your brand.” 

This means that to cater to all can often mean one ends up losing their integrity and the reality of who they are and what they, as a brand, stand for. 

Spotlights and struggles 

The segment of “On Air with Kara Swisher,” featuring John Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen, shed light on building a successful D2C brand but also opened the audience’s eyes to dealing with both the spotlight and one’s struggles.  

Teigen talked about her children and her personal life and enshrined that “growing in the spotlight is a responsibility.”  

This applies to all the people growing themselves as brands that are subject to both criticism and praise in the common eye. 
While being in the spotlight may often seem like a short-lived phase, the weight of one’s everyday struggles in growing oneself, marketing oneself, and being oneself is a longer-lived one. 

Addressing such struggles, Teigen recommended, “It's important to see those hardships to know you aren't going through it alone.” 

Marketing oneself as a personal brand 

The major game changer of being a brand is its promotional aspect. While there are gazillions of ways to share one’s story, in the race to be liked and loved, people lose their integral value.  

Commenting from the perspective of an artist, Legend said, “Make sure your promotions reflect your voice.” 

He added, “As a singer and songwriter, much of my creativity comes from within. I spend 80–90% of my time making music and being on the road. Recently, I’ve been focused on singing rather than brand activities,” highlighting the importance of authenticity and consistency.