Day four: Cannes Lions 2022
Thursday was a pivotal day at Cannes Lions for me. I was invited to participate in the Global CMO Growth Council sessions with industry leaders from the Marketing, Advertising and Creative industries. I attended both the 'Brand, Creativity and Media' and Talent working groups.
I was humbled to be in the room with the leaders of our industry. As a group of 24 leaders, we discussed the actions the CMO Growth Council are taking to resolve real problems facing our industry. We reviewed the steps taken to date and where there are still improvements we can make. This initiative has been four years in the making already, and I believe it will offer sustainable solutions for our industries.
Before those sessions, I was fortunate to hear David Droga from Accenture Song. David is the most-awarded creative at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, and he's Australian!
David spoke about the importance of creative leadership and that it's essential not to be constrained by the rigour or process of your industry. You can't create new solutions or new art if you limit yourself in this way. Everything we do has to have an impact, and we should include all the 'thinkers, tinkers, makers, and shakers' and allow them to showcase their ideas across a bigger canvas.
He also said that we should embrace the things we're scared of, which for creatives are often things like technology and data. If we embrace these things and seek insight, we can solve problems we've never solved before.
“The only thing worse than not having a great idea is having one and not making it happen”
I then attended a session on the 'Do'conomy. The founder, Mathias Wikstrom, opened with a statistic for context.
“Every year, 23 billion pairs of shoes are made. Our innovation has accelerated human consumption.”
Mathias, based on data from 5,000 brands and a billion transactions in 32 markets, argued about the need for sustainability and what brand owners can do to future-proof their brands.
“Impact is the new language”
One of the six big changes he proposed is to have carbon labels on products. In an example of the purchase of a pair of jeans (8.98 kpCO2e and 21.45 kgCO2e) consumer behaviour changed. 32% of eco-consious consumers reduced their footprint and 12% of non-eco conscious consumers did the same. This change was achieved through labelling. Mathias also showed that consumers are willing to pay up to 10% more for products from companies that provide greater supply transparency and data around environmental and social governance.
Removing environmental waste and friction is an improvement. As creatives, as designers, as decision makers we should work to be change-makers rather than change-takers.
