Over the past two years, the World Advertising Research Centre and The Times of India Group have collaborated to facilitate industry-wide dialogues in the marketing and advertising ecosystem. This year’s series saw Cannes Lions joining hands, further promoting the cause of creative effectiveness, encapsulated in an evening full of insights on September 24 in Mumbai.
Playful and purposeful
Ed Pank, SVP Lions Division, APAC, dissected some of the notable campaigns and key themes from this year’s festival, and how humour and humanity are crucial in effectively connecting with consumers.
Pank added that one of the learnings from Cannes was to be a bit more playful in terms of how we tackle sensitive issues and rebalance the use of humour and humanity. He noted how India had showed it has been doing well with these themes.
He also observed that award-winning work is increasingly being done by diverse teams. “You create homogeneous teams, you create homogenous work, and it doesn’t cut through. It’s all about the heterogeneity of teams and bringing in diverse culture,” he added.
Pank also shared that there were many different forms of film craft leveraged this year. Discussing winning campaigns such as ‘The Square Meter’ by Heimat TBWA in Berlin, which tackled the subject of the rising cost-of-living crisis in Germany, Pank stressed that craft was wonderful for rejuvenating brands.
Touching upon AI and the sub-theme of ‘analogue innovation’ within that, Pank highlighted campaigns that had imaginatively used them, saying it was important for brands to identify and enhance the human elements of their brand alongside embracing more AI innovation, and also make sure that the AI and the tech don’t overshadow it.
The era of brand is not over
In the session ‘Creative Impact Unpacked’, research and fresh perspectives were shared on not just why creativity matters, but also how winning campaigns apply it.
The session also took a deeper look at misconceptions about what makes creativity effective. Last year at Cannes, marketing professor Scott Galloway famously declared that “the era of brand is over”. Disagreeing with this view, strong case studies were shared — both Indian and global — evidencing the power of creative brand building.
Marketers in the boardroom
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director designate, Pidilite Industries, also took the stage in a fireside chat on ‘The Influence of Marketing in the Boardroom’. Through several “provocations”, the chat examined the role of marketing today and how the CMO and marketing professionals can have an increased share of influence in boardrooms.
Do shareholders see value in marketing? When you build brands, you get better margins, better profit, Vats stresses. “Brands is not only about creative — although it’s very important — it starts with insight, strategy and then brand building,” adding that segmentation is critical and will remain so in the future. Vats also added that today, when it comes to data, it was important for marketers to “unlearn and relearn”.
link