#12tweets from our CMO FORUM @Cannes_Lions

More than twenty Global CMOs and VPs of marketing came together in Cannes on 24th June for our latest CMOFORUM to share on two key topics: building brands in a connected age and digital transformation.

Key take-outs from the meeting, which brought together brands such as Abbott, Daimler, Danone, GlaxoSmithKline, Groupe Bel, Heineken, Hershey Company, Luxottica, Mars, McDonald's, Nissan, PepsiCo, Samsung Mobile, Shell, TATA, Turkcell, Vestel and Yildiz, were:

• "Clients are increasingly bought into the power of creativity. The fastest growing area of #CannesLions in terms of entries is clients entering directly without agency support." @philthomas, CEO, Cannes Lions


• Brands still see themselves as products rather than services or solutions. People do not search for your brand online. They search for inspiration or solutions to their problems.


• "We pushed the consumer out and put deliverables at the centre %u2013 creating complexity where it needn't exist". CMOs need to bring simplicity back. "Go far upstream and see what people really want. Then go downstream and clear up the rubbish we created."


• "Most people will never want a relationship with your brand". Be realistic about your brands' potential. For most brands reach remains a necessity for many multinationals and this typically still requires a mass media approach.


• Instead of purely reaching out, focus on reaching in. Do you communicate as well internally as you do externally? If you believe in 'people inc.' then you need to start the process with your own colleagues...


• #Experience is more than a buzzword. "Genuinely understand the decision-making process during specific occasions and respond to that". To deliver against this, one member shared that they are merging their head of digital and trade marketing roles.


• It's easy to criticise agencies for fragmented approaches & lack of #integration %u2013 but clients pushed for specialists in the first place... CMOs need to 'join the dots' to overcome agency, local market, brand and internal silos #Leadership


• "When did a consumer-centric approach [e.g. Uber/Amazon/Google] become disruption?" Brands need to apply more than just lip-service to insights driving a people-centric approach.


• Beware aping the approaches of these tech-based companies. Even 100 year-old multinationals can successfully transform. But it takes years and the process will never truly end...


• The need to succeed has not changed. But the need for speed has. Separating marketing and digital will likely not help this. Most in the room felt that the #CDO role is not a long-term one.


• Digital transformation is not just about technology. It's about becoming "comfortably uncomfortable", i.e. more nimble/agile. There will be other revolutions. This change should apply to any department in your company.


• Stephen King as quoted by @Contagious: "Real Marketing cannot be thought of as a department activity. It is a matter of harnessing all of the company's resources to satisfy customers, and of linking what the customer wants with what the company is (or can become)."

The next CMOFORUM will take place at Spikes in Singapore on September 10th.

For more information, please contact Rob, r.dreblow@wfanet.org