CARAT CURATES CANNES 2016 TEN THEMES

Cannes 2016 was incredibly stimulating. Spread out over several official and unofficial venues, it was a week of talks, presentations, meetings, awards and moments of wonder. Here are ten themes that we noticed, from Diversity to Virtual Reality, from Ad Tech to Artificial Intelligence.

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In the second year of the Glass Lion award for diversity, this subject was a very hot topic this year.

• Madonna Badger gave one of the most talked-about presentations of the week with her #WomenNotObjects campaign, fighting against the negative images of women in ads.

• Brooke Bond won the Glass Lion Grand Prix for the 6 Pack Band campaign in India, which created a transgender pop group.

Meanwhile we should be very proud of hosting an all-women panel (that wasn’t talking about diversity).

THEME 1: DIVERSITY

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THEME 2: VIRTUAL REALITY

The rise in Virtual Reality shows how experience has become part of brand communication – people no longer trust what brands say, they trust experiences.

VR was the subject of many talks, with the participation of Google, Facebook, Vice and others, and there were demos everywhere including most venues (our own Dentsu Aegis Network Beach House contained a VR windsurfer).

• Samsung had their own ‘Maison Samsung’ space for people to try out VR experiences

• The New York Times and Lockheed Martin won Lions (Grand Prix in Mobile & Cyber Gold respectively) for their VR work.

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THEME 3: CREATIVITY BEYOND PLATFORMS

Cannes is always a place to see innovative use of new media platforms, and this year was no different:

• Paint brand Comex turned Google Streetview into a colour palate in Mexico by hijacking roads named after colours (‘Violet Street’) and painting houses different shades.

• Verizon built a cell tower in Minecraft, and was able to offer real connectivity.

• Donate The Bars capitalised on vertical videos uploaded to YouTube by putting ads for good causes on the resulting black spaces.

• In Cannes itself, Pinterest created a real world example of its boards, offering inspiration on where to eat and where to go.

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THEME 4: THE POWER OF PURPOSEFUL BRANDS

Several award-winning campaigns showed brands creating movements for their users, redefining the role of the brand.

• Outdoor retailer REI asked its staff and customers to #OptOutside and discover the country instead of hitting the shops on Black Friday.

• The Swedish Number recruited an army of Swedes willing to accept calls from curious foreigners and evangelise about their country.

• Toyota enabled their drivers in Australia to act as a network of beacons to spread distress messages in remote areas.

• On stage, adidas told us about what it took to build a creator brand for its staff and customers.

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THEME 5: MAKING THINGS FOR A BETTER WORLD

Brands weren’t just starting movements – they were making products away from their core markets to make the world a better place.

• Tata Trucks produced a range of condoms in India called Dipper, named after the slogan ‘Use dipper at night’ (dip your lights), to cut sexual disease among truck drivers.

• DB Export produced Brewtroleum, a biofuel made from the by-products of brewing their beer.

• Possibly less helpfully, Lexus produced a Hoverboard…

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THEME 6: PROXIMITY

Ideas based on location and proximity featured in lots of categories, not just relating people to where they were in the world, but where they were in relation to other people.

• Samsung created caps for visually impaired swimmers that would warn them of obstacles.

• Pimms’ Grab a Seat streamed information about empty seats in local pub gardens into digital posters in real time.

• Cornetto made rings for couples to wear; both of them would have to be in the same room for Netflix to play shows like Game of Thrones (to stop either of them cheating by watching on their own).

• xAd tracked the most popular spots around Cannes, and the times people went there.

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THEME 7: AD TECH

Ad tech companies like Sizmek and ataXu were hardly represented in the Palais, or in the awards themselves – where generally the focus was on the idea rather than the marketing technology that made it happen – but were there in force and an unmissable part of the week in Cannes. LUMA even tweeted this tongue in cheek aerial pic of the harbour, showing which ad tech companies had yachts. It would be great to see marketing technology recognised for its critical role in unlocking the power of data more by the festival and in the awards – maybe next year!

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THEME 8: AUGMENTED ART

A major theme from Lions winners was the re-invention of classic art.

• ING created Rembrandt’s lost work, with the help of data analysis of existing works.

• Dali was re-imagined in VR.

• Van Gogh’s The Bedroom was made into a real life Airbnb apartment that you could stay in.

• Samsung re-imagined Shakespeare as an app to introduce the beauty of the language to a younger generation.

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THEME 9: BRILLIANT SIMPLICITY

Among the timeless and brilliant ideas winning this year were:

• The McWhopper – Burger King’s offer to McDonalds to create a collaborative burger to sell for World Peace Day,

• LEGOLAND Dollars - the first theme park to have its official money listed on a currency exchange board. The currency builds on the immersive experience for kids

• Life Saving Stickers - stickers with life-sized pictures of kids to put onto wheelie bins to get drivers to slow down.

Ideas like this make us look at the world differently, and wonder why they took so long to happen.

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Last year was the first year for VR; this year it was everywhere. Next year we’d expect to see lots of:

• Live Video – notwithstanding Target’s Gwen Stefani live ad, live video wasn’t really in evidence. However, as one media partner put it to us ‘We’d expect someone to create the ‘House of Cards’ of Facebook Live in the next 6 months. Next year we will see lots of examples of the unique elements ‘Live’ can bring.

• AI – Machines get even smarter. Google won an Innovation Lion with Deepmind’s victories at Go, but this was probably the last year without ubiquitous chatbots and AI. As Wired’s David Rowan said at Isobar’s Innovation session ‘Chatbots can probably replace about 80% of apps’. This could be where ad technology finally gets the kudos it deserves.

THEME 10: TEASERS FOR NEXT YEAR

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Contact

DAN CALLADINE GLOBAL HEAD OF MEDIA FUTURES

www.Carat.com @CaratGlobal

www.linkedin.com/company/carat