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. 

Lions assemble

Cheesy I know, but it really does feel like yesterday since I got the email saying I'd been selected to come here to the Cannes Lions festival of creativity and  now I'm actually here looking at this poster:

Top 3 three things I already love about Cannes:
1. Spotting fellow festival goers (easily identifiable by their thick rimmed spectacles)
2. The biggest # I've ever seen (#Canneslions) - picture will follow.
3. Palm trees

3 things I wasn't expecting:
1. The sheer number of fellow festival goers in thick rimmed spectacles
2. Realising that there simply won't be enough hours in the day to do and see and drink everything that I want to!
3. Having to use Blogger when its auto translated into French :-( je suis une imbecile!

Have to be up early for registration. Will update tomorrow.

Keep it Cannes.

"Do you want to work in advertising because of Mad Men?"

The answer, quite simply is “yes, yes I do”. Not for the hard liquor and the fabulous frocks but for the way the industry reacts the television events that shows like Mad Men create. In honour of the new series airing now, on a network that carries commercials, Sky Atlantic’s special “double bill Season Premiere” a couple of weeks ago was accompanied by specially supplied retro commercials. Amazing to think that 50 years on Have a Break, Have a KitKat is still at the heart of it’s communication strategy.

A cynic might say, with an average audience of 72,000 (BARB) across the two launch episodes, that it’s a lot of effort to reach a fraction of the number people that a show like Corrie gets on a regular basis. It also raises questions as to why Sky, who’s revenue comes predominately from subscribers rather than advertising revenue, would go to lengths to source the ads. As a planner this is exactly the kind of creative thinking that makes a brand come to life, even the most iconic brands can’t help but benefit from the additional standout that a stunt like this affords. 

            

I’m not sure if this is the first time sky have adopted it but I also noticed that they are now putting the Man Men title screen before the Blackberry sponsorship bumpers.

I wondered if this might have something to do with the way that viewers are using sponsorship bumpers as navigation points when they fast-forward through the commercial breaks (why would anyone want to do such a thing?). Thinkbox have done some quite interesting work on Digital TV Recorder (DTR’s) users using on screen visuals as markers for when to restart watching and I thought that this might be an attempt at a new navigation point- a little nudge to get viewers to pause before the sponsorship bumper so that they watch all of it.  

Right, now I’m off for an Old Fashioned and a power lunch. 

Cannes, A Rocketeer’s Guide

On a wintery Tuesday afternoon my day was brightened when I saw an email from our Head of Planning at PHD who congratulated me on being selected as one of the agency’s four delegates chosen to attend the Young Lions festival at Cannes this year. I can’t deny that when I submitted my application to be chosen to attend that the thought of the South of France in June wasn’t a factor but, truthfully, attending The Cannes festival has definitely been on my advertising bucket list for a few years. Graduating from Manchester in the post credit crunch recruitment freeze of 2009, I worked for a TV production company looking at YouTube clips of the festival during my lunch break (I’m a big advertising geek!). Now, to be heading out to Cannes in a few months is a really exciting prospect and the thought of a week surrounded by sun, sea and the most exciting group of creative talent in the world is definitely something I’m very much looking forward to.

One of my objectives for going to Cannes is to represent my agency, Rocket. For those who haven’t really come across us yet, Rocket is a planning and communications agency comprising of a very creative group of planners, buyers, strategists and thinkers who are funny, clever, loud, eccentric, proud, and very passionate about the work they do. We are part of Omnicom media group and a sister agency of PHD.

Our agency position is to “Know More” and it is very much in the spirit of knowing more that I head towards glamorous Cannes. I started my career in planning as a grad who didn’t really know that much about media and its role in the communications mix. After 18 months and some very steep learning curves, I now know the crucial role that planning plays in a brand’s relationship with its consumers. 

What I’m keen to use Cannes for is to discover how we can develop this role and to pass on knowledge gained to help Rocket to apply this knowledge gained to further our clients businesses.

Stay tuned as I plan my way to Cannes and hopefully share some interesting insights and thoughts picked up along the way.

A x