Day Two

Mobile and Media day at Cannes. Attending: App Promo workshop, Starcom & TED, Mindshare, Facebook

Day two kicked off with my first workshop about marketing and promoting apps. A more hands on session where we were split up into groups to come up with a mini marketing strategy for a game based on Plant's vs. Zombies- They pitched that right! 

The workshop was lead by App Promo and they highlighted the importance in "getting the math right" before embarking on any marketing activity and also spoke about getting robust data in place to support an accurate CPA. This seems to be a common theme in Cannes this year- using strong data as a foundation for a motivating creative platform. 

Then it was onto a more Media focused day. We checked out Starcom & TED's presentation where we were reminded once again that creativity is inherent throughout all industries and that inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere. Whether it’s from an Ethiopian folk singer, or a designer at MIT the more we take the trouble to look around us and engage with the wider world the more brilliant our ideas will be. - This idea has been a feature of Cannes and resonates with me because I think that this is right at the heart of the "Know More" culture we're cultivating at Rocket. 

More media insight came in the form of the presentation Mindshare gave us in conjunction with Fredrik Haren talking to us about Global brand. Fredrik was one of my favourite speakers of the conference so far and shared examples of brands beyond the digital arena who are now becoming global. He spoke not just abut brands who are moving away from nationalistic identity but also about having a Global mind-set to allow yourself to be creative on a Global scale. This tied in with what I saw yesterday at TBWA and Visa who encouraged us to search for global truths that are core to these brands to enable us to tell stories, which are just as palpable to an audience in South Korea as they are in France. I managed to grab a couple of copies of the beta version of his book on the subject so these will be on loan in the Rocket Library very soon.

On to the hot ticket – Facebook: Paul Adams, Global head of design at Facebook- his presentation was themed around the idea that as we are inherently social beings, that what we do becomes inherently social. He advocates, as one would expect, the importance of integrating social in all aspects of advertising. He also talked to us about how the incomprehensible amounts of data that we currently have at our disposal is being socially arrogated – by that I mean moving towards a model of consumption is based in large part on personalised experience and content that is recommended to you based on stated interests and friend suggestions.

I personally can see the value of this in some respects but I find that in some ways it could also limit my access to the new, something beyond my own experience. While its great that I could discover a new band because my friend is listening to them on spotify and I know we have similar tastes I wouldn’t want to experience that at the expense of experiencing something that I could stumble upon. The potential possibilities beyond the technology are still fascinating and its exciting to be part of that unfolding.

After our Facebook finale we headed to the OMG toast to Cannes. Nouvelle Vague was playing – my personal highlight was this guitarist who was sporting a fetching pair of tiger trousers and an impressive hairstyle!

It was then on to the Young Lions party. Apparently what happens in Cannes stays in Cannes I will tell you that we did see a Conga line and our party was a lot more rowdy than the grown up lions party which was going on further down the beach....

On the awards front it was a great night for OMG as a group - Grand Prix went to MGOMD UK for Google voice search, and in PHD UK McCain won a silver lion for best use of outdoor. - Big Congratulations to all.