Global marketers share what's on their Cannes to-do list

Leading marketers have a range of questions that they want answered at Cannes Lions, stretching from the need to better identify the future role of humans in the creative process, to improved measurement of creative impact and smarter ways to use creators.

The biggest group were those wanting to explore the new balance between tech and the humans that use it.

“I think there is a lot of advantages on productivity and fastness and speed to AI, but I don't think the brilliant work is going to come there, so continue to celebrate human approach to creativity, leveraging the tools that can make us even smarter or even better, but I think we're not going to go away from the human touch on the final assets.” Patrik Hansson, CMO at Arla Foods.

Brands needed to think about how they build humans into the systems they create. “At Cannes, I would absolutely encourage us to pause, take a step back, and think about how can we maximise the potential of everything available to us to ensure that we design not just your operating model and integrate AI stack, but also, how do we integrate our human system to ensure that the way we create value and capture value is most effective and efficient,” argued Veronika Kryuchkova, Global Head of Capability Building at The Reckitt Marketing Academy.

For Dmytro Pylypenko, Global Head of Marketing Excellence and Transformation at Carlsberg Group, the current obsession with technology is part of a trend and trends change. “I have intuition that in a couple of years this will move back to the human craft to value something that is made by a person, not by AI, and I think that it would be the good moment to recognise when this will start,” he said.

Role of creators

Outside the issue of humans, another group were looking at the interaction of brands, technology and content creators.

Part of that nexus is also about finding a way for creativity to thrive, not just at Cannes but 365 days a year. “How do we protect artists and creators who are creating that unique content. Obviously, AI tools need to be trained on things all the time, that's why they get keep getting better. So we need to find a resolution for how it still makes business sense for a creative person, a musician, an artist, to keep being creative. If that business case disappears, we actually kill our own future and our ability to stay distinct and different,” argued Cecilia Weckstrom, Director, DCE Transformation Initiatives at the LEGO Group.

Brands can play their part in making creating more sustainable but only if they learn to use them right added Andrew Tindall Andrew Tindall, Chief Growth Officer at System1. “I have a lot of optimism around creators, I think they're the way we can bring brand building, emotion, human advertising back into digital,” he said. “I go to Cannes trying to leave understanding on how do you actually use creators to grow brands, because it's a huge opportunity.”

Measuring the impact

Finally, a third group were looking for inspiration about the best way to measure the power of creativity.

For Leyal Eskin Yilmaz, CMO at The Magnum Ice Cream Company, that means rewarding the campaigns that are creative but also make a difference to the bottom line. “Cannes should marry spectacle with effectiveness and celebrate good work that will drive business impacts, not just attention,” she said.

For others it’s about finding better ways to evaluate the power of that creativity. “When you're talking about a creativity conference, why would you talk about measurement? Because creative used to be a job title for the few, and we knew how to evaluate that. Now it's a verb for everyone, we're harnessing the creativity of millions of people, our fans and communities who interact with our brands.

How to measure this fragmented brilliance of creativity and connect it and link it to real business outcomes? Once we solve that at scale, then we would have solved and liberated creativity,” concluded Gülen Bengi, Lead CMO Mars & Chief Growth Officer, Mars Snacking.