Coming to the Cannes Lion Festival is like going to the Disneyworld for Marketers. This is truly a marketer’s dream come true. Walking through the gallery of shortlisted creative work and realizing that the insightful and creative minds that created this brilliant work are actually minds of people with whom I am brushing shoulders in the Palais or are those I am standing behind in line to attend the awards shows. That, simply blows my mind.
It is such a privilege to be here and be inspired by industry leaders, such as Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook; Author of Lean In), Wendy Clark (President of Marketing, Coca-Cola), TED special guest speakers, and the list just goes on. One of my favorite parts of the week, as I would imagine it would be for many as well, is the awards ceremony. There is probably nothing more exciting than walking the red carpet into the Oscar-equivalent award show of the creative industry than maybe, and just maybe, the Oscars itself. I can also safely say that I have yet to sit through an awards show with dry eyes. And with that, here are my 2 personal favourites (and apparently the jury’s too!):
The Social Swipe
As fewer and fewer people carry cash on them in this generation of plastic swiping, it has become increasingly difficult for charities to generate donations off the streets. Watch the clip above to see for yourself why “The Social Swipe” was incredibly deserving of a Gold Lion. As a marketer, I believe what made this campaign so successful was that it was based off of a very true human insight—people often don’t donate to charities because they don’t feel like they know where their money is going, how much of an impact it actually has for the cause, and that they simply do not have the time to research into causes that are worth their while. By simply swiping your credit card, the digital billboard reveals the direct impact that your $2 donation could make. Brilliant? I think so.
Perfect Match
Thank goodness I brought tissue. If this one doesn’t give you the goosebumps, then I guess I’ll need to try harder with my next post! 😉 I can’t help but wonder how this idea came about as it is just so incredibly ingenious. I can just picture the FCB team having a brainstorm session in a boardroom, wondering just HOW they could connect these language school students to native English speakers in an economical/sustainable way. I imagine someone on the team scribbling a list of potential candidates on a whiteboard, then suddenly, one person says, “What about lonely elderly people in an English speaking country who actually want to talk to someone?” BOOM. Mind you, it was probably a lot more complicated than that, but wow. Pure Genius. People often throw the term ‘Perfect Match” loosely, but this is truly, madly, The Perfect Match.
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