The State of Creativity

Cannes takeaways and where all this is going

Photo by Fran Jacquier

🤖 AI is hype. For now.

In 2023, those of us in marketing, creative, and tech couldn’t stop talking about AI, including at Cannes Lions. A year later, there still were some talks about AI hosted by tech firms, i.e. Microsoft or Adobe, with desperate displays on their cabanas like “AI Is Not Creative. You Are.” Was it written by AI? Probably. Talking about AI suits their needs and revenues. But overall, the presence of AI at this year’s Cannes was significantly less. There are three reasons for this.

For one, marketers and advertisers realized that it’s still early and AI—specifically, generative AI—is not reliable enough to deploy it for their organizations and activities. The legalities are in the gray zones and many large corporations cannot risk that kind of uncertainty.

The other reason is quality. I meet with AI startups to see how we, as a firm, can evolve and potentially transform the way we work. We also want to see how it can benefit our clients. But we often run into the same situation: Many of the startups over-promise their potential and under-deliver in the quality of their output. The resulting work from most generative AI companies is not ready to be bought by brands. If you need proof, look no further than the recent Toys ‘R’ Us AI-generated video and the backlash it’s created. 

The third is the process. Many AI tools are still quite cumbersome to use. It’s yet another tool in your technology stack. There was one AI-powered design platform that we tried to incorporate into our process. The setup process was laborious and its output was unpredictable, not saving us time or making our work better.

However, change happens slowly, until it doesn’t. We saw it with the Internet, with digitalization, and with mobile. In William Gibson’s words, the future is here but it isn’t evenly distributed. Yet.

AI, particularly generative AI, is now heading towards the Trough of Disillusionment in the hype cycle for marketers.

In about 12 to 18 months, I predict, this will have changed.

✊ So was DEI.

“Where are all the young people?”

One LinkedIn post I spotted from Angus Macadam decried. He argued that when he was in the early part of his career in the late 1990s, agencies were able to send young people to Cannes on the cheap. That’s not the case anymore.

This year, my wife who doesn’t work in the industry, joined me on the trip and made another observation. 

“Where are all the Asian people? It’s all white. It wasn’t like this.”

The last time she was at Cannes Lions was five years ago in 2019. I was a Jury President for one of the categories. The organizer, to its credit, had made good progress in selecting diverse juries across categories. During the press conference, among the four presenters, I was next to Philip Thomas, the chairman of Cannes Lions, along with Trevor Robinson OBE (Black), and Rebecca Skinner (female). Before that, I would often find myself being the only non-white person on such a stage.

This, however, changed on the award night when winning teams would come on stage to receive and collect their metal pieces. While presenters like Trever, Rebecca, and I were diverse, all the teams weren’t. They were largely men and white.

Cannes Lions has changed drastically. The industry barely has, especially at the top. 

Now that the event has become so expensive, people who can afford to come are CEOs, CMOs, CCOs, and other executives for whom companies are willing to pay business-class tickets at the expense of others. 

Another factor is the invasion of tech firms, pushing out creatives. Software has eaten the world including marketing and advertising. The software industry isn’t very diverse. When I worked in San Francisco, I would often recruit people from other cities like New York. A Black, female designer I had recruited from New York, on her first day, said to me this: “This town is so white.” 

On the positive side, there are starting to be more people of color in creative jobs at entry levels. It’s not enough but the industry is making a slightly more conscious effort in giving opportunities to people of color. What needs to happen is that they need to keep representing as they become more senior at various firms. 

Creatives, DEI may depend on us, people of color, and young people.

Let’s keep fighting the good fight.

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📺 Advertising is still advertising.

Looking at the work at Cannes Lions is a useful barometer for seeing where the industry is at the moment and where it is headed in the next several years. 

Traditional categories like Film or aforementioned Print & Publishing are an indicator of the current state while other categories like Titanium, Innovation, Business Transformation, or Commerce also indicate where we could go.

The most awarded work this year was ‘WoMen’s Football’ for Orange by Marcel, Paris, France. 

“Orange’s clever bait-and-switch campaign showcased what first appears to be the skill of the national men’s French football team but is then revealed to be the prowess of the women’s national side disguised as the men through deepfake technology.”

This work represents the best of creativity: original thought and skillful action. It’s also an ad, in its form, format, and intention. 

The Grand Prix in Titanium, “honoring provocative, boundary-busting, envy-inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry,” went to “DoorDash-All-The-Ads” for DoorDash by Wieden+Kennedy and Superette.

Nothing should be taken away from the brilliance of both pieces of work. They are as creative as advertising can be. It’s also as advertising as it has always been. 

Having said this, we also need to look at the reality of the industry.

According to a recent Adweek article, “Cannes Lions Award Entries Are Down 38% Compared to All-Time High in 2016.”

For instance, Print & Publishing, for instance, has fallen from 3,777 entries to 734. 

However, the decline in submissions hasn't hurt attendance or overall revenue for Cannes Lions. 

The article says:

Last year, Cannes Lions partnered with 110 sponsors, who paid an average of $329,147 (£260,000), according to an annual report from parent company Ascential. The number of attendees also grew 9% to more than 12,000. In total, the festival generated $129 million (£101.8 million) in 2023, up 30% compared to 2022. It’s just that the ad world isn’t submitting as much work to this Award Show as in the past.

Whether it is a matter of time, cost, or a combination of other factors, the ad world isn’t submitting as much work to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as in the past.

This means several things:

One, there just isn’t as much creative advertising work as there used to be to enter into award shows like Cannes. 

Two, what works for business and what gets awarded are two different things. 

For instance, the type of work we do at the firm has more business growth implications for our clients than the work I used to do at previous agencies. But the work is less sexy or shiny and it isn’t something that would seduce the advertising juries. 

Third, advertising doesn’t work as well as it used to (doh). 

Stanley, a 110-year-old manufacturer of mug cups saw a 750% sales growth because of a TikTok video that showed a burned car and an intact mug cup. Uniqlo’s $20 shoulder bag was crowned the “Millennial Birkin” as it’s become a global phenomenon among them. That happened also because of a couple of TikTok videos praising the bag’s utility. 

Neither of them were ads by the brands themselves. Were they entered into the award show? No. Would they have won even if they were entered? No.

So where does this point us? 

We are in a new era now. We need Brand New Rules. 

🎨 Technology removes friction. Creativity adds texture.

The epicenter of action Cannes Lions used to be the Palais, the main event space in Cannes where judging takes place, seminars are held, and awards are presented at the ceremony each night. It was the cathedral of creativity. We all admired the Work on the altar.

That center of gravity is no longer singular. It has spread to the beach, hotel suites and rooftops, and private villas up in the hills. Countless talks are held at the cabanas hosted by tech, media, and publishing companies. A few agencies are still trying to hold down the fort in spots. Most of these are sparsely attended. CMOs, VPs, and other C-suites talk in front of a dozen people in attendance. Don’t let that bruise your ego. 

Like the seminars in the Palais, those sessions are real hit or miss. But you could run into gems by luck. One such talk was the panel with Sir John Hegarty (the co-founder of BBH), Nick Law (my former boss from R/GA, and now at Accenture Song), and Judy John (CCO of Edelman) hosted by Whalar, an influencer agency.

I don’t remember the topic of the panel or questions asked by the 21-year-old influencer moderator who did relatively well against the Titans of the creative advertising industry. 

The wisdom shared by the Titans did show and resonate. This particular piece of wisdom—“Technology removes friction. Creativity adds texture.”—was mentioned by Nick when the three were talking about the influence of technology companies at places like Cannes Lions and on the industry. 

Removing friction is great but if that was all we did, we might as well live like machines and robots.

Texture makes life more interesting.

Judy John (CCO/Edelman), Sir John Hegarty (Co-founder/The Garage), Nick Law (Creative Chairperson/Accenture Song) at Cannes Lions 2024

🧑🏻‍🎨 Don’t be a cynic.

I was lucky in that I found joy in making things at a very young age around 14 years old and that became my vocation. Over the course of my 25-year career, I have to admit I’d become cynical at times. Cannes doesn’t help in that regard. Between 2006—the first year I went to Cannes—and 2024, the industry has morphed in ways many of us didn’t expect. The event also has gone from a festival celebrating the Work to one displaying the best (or the worst) of capitalism. 

But this is where I needed a piece of wisdom from an 80-year-old man: “Don’t be a cynic.”

I met Sir John Hegarty, yes, at Cannes years ago when he was still active at BBH as its Creative Chairman. He wanted to recruit me. It was in my early years at another agency AKQA and I told him I wasn’t quite ready to make a move. 

At the same panel mentioned above, I saw Sir John again and I was reminded how important it is to remain an optimist and not be a cynic. At this stage in his life with the kind of success he’s had, he could have easily retired and cruise-controlled to the sunset. Yet, he keeps on making by helping creatives with this Business of Creativity venture and by writing daily doses of wisdom on LinkedIn. 

Don’t be a cynic. Keep making.

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