“I don’t want to cry, I want to smile and jump with joy at the brilliant work that is going to inspire us all"

From left to right: Cristina Diezhandino (Diageo), Grant Mckenzie (Asahi), Jane Wakely (PepsiCo) and Asmita Dubey (L'Oréal Groupe).

Collaboration with all stakeholders is key

Cristina Diezhandino, Chief Marketing Officer at Diageo

As marketers, we have an immense opportunity to keep driving change. I believe that culturally relevant brands have the power to be a force for good and I’ll be asking the industry to join me in that quest in Cannes.

Marketing leaders know that consumers increasingly expect brands to act and lead on driving sustainability and broadening representation. Consumers express a preference to engage with brands that are a ‘force for good’. There are many ways in which marketers can deliver. At Diageo, we do this through our Society 2030: Spirit of Progress action plan, and specifically its I&D and sustainability targets.

We actively work with many diverse publishers: we ensure broad representation in who is in front and behind the camera when creating content for our brands. And we partner with organisations that are creating a more inclusive marketing and creative talent cohort, such as Creative Equals. We have trained more than 2,000 people to improve our marketers’ understanding of DEI and sustainability. Our team has said that it “inspires them to lead the change”.

 A more inclusive and sustainable world is a shared endeavour that requires joint action. None of us can drive the change we need alone. For me, collaboration with all stakeholders – our teams, our creative partners, the wider supplier base, and our customers – is the key to change.

Smile and jump with joy at the brilliant work that is going to inspire us all

Grant Mckenzie, Chief Marketing Officer at Asahi Europe & International

I would love to hear stories from Cannes how the talents in advertising, working with brands owners, are producing amazing work provoking us all to choose a sustainable way of running a business and consuming.

We all want to see our industries thrive in parallel with the world and society in the best interests of their future. We sometimes struggle with the confidence of how to engage consumers without alienating or patronising. What I want to see is real scale work that impacts. That inspires a change in consumption and in marketing.

I want a lot less small scale PR stunts and please, don’t show me any more emotional videos for my own “benefit”. I don’t want to cry, I want to smile and jump with joy at the brilliant work that is going to inspire us all.

I want to have the work to showcase in my business. To encourage our teams to be bold. Show us that as an industry we are not only part of the solution, we are driving the solution. By using our skills at understanding people and our business acumen to prove sustainable marketing is the most effective.

Value authenticity and impact as an industry

Jane Wakely, Chief Consumer & Marketing Officer at PepsiCo 

The opportunity to accelerate our collective impact on People and Planet is to harness the power of the billions of consumers we serve — to enable consumer movements of change that allow our brands businesses to grow in sustainable ways now and into the future. As an industry, our connection with consumers is key. If we collectively tap into the power of our iconic brands in combination with our industry’s creativity and innovation, we can leverage our scale and reach to make an even more meaningful and measurable difference.

At PepsiCo, we’re harnessing the power of our iconic brands to create cultural fame and positive impact for people and the planet. We call this the Power of Positive Brands. ​We approach creativity as a growth and impact multiplier and believe that brands can be a positive force for growth and good.

As an industry, let’s use our creativity and craft as storytellers to make sustainable growth THE choice for future growth. Growth that drives impact for performance, people, and planet. Creativity that open’s people’s hearts as well as their minds to what’s possible is key.   

As an industry, let’s bring our superpower of human centricity to enable the people we serve to navigate the complexity of sustainability offerings through the clarity of our brand propositions, our transparent labelling and provide innovations that directly address consumers pain points, to amplify our collective impact.

Let’s become a “Voice of One” in establishing standards for tracking and measurement and reinforcing industry-wide commitments focusing on the impact of purpose-led initiatives. Making our collective progress or pain points more transparent.

Key is that as an industry we value authenticity and impact, and I am looking forward to inspiration and action on these critical foundations at Cannes this year.

The industry should come together begetting creativity-tech

Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal Groupe

Three things first:

1. Technology is moving at lightening pace: just in the last 18 months, we have seen adoption of AR, VR, spatial computing, block chain, AI and now Generative AI;
2. Consumers are choosing joy-conomy: post-covid, they are finding moments of joyful distraction, ageless play and space for self-care;
3. Brands are responding with unbounded creativity: whether it is Coca-Cola on multi-versal and generative AI-based experiences, Nike on virtual creations, Patagonia on commitment to sustainability, or Nyx Professional Makeup amplifying diverse creators and apparel brands adopting mass inclusivity.

At Cannes, the industry should come together begetting creativity-tech to leverage this vibrant moment and to build the next era of augmented marketing. They should come together to:

• Generate ideas, efficiency and impact with the onset of generative AI with guardrails and governance;
• Measure and reduce carbon footprint of digital & offline advertising;
• Measure and improve diversity, equity and inclusion in advertising; and
• To build new skills for tomorrow, be it creative technologists, prompt engineers, data scientists, climate optimists or tomorrow’s brand builders.

Because only in coming together with responsibility, agility and speed shall we protect and create value.