On the ground in Cannes: Editor's Diary Day 3

Newest diary entries from Cannes Lions 2019 will appear at the top of the page. If you're looking for recent awards information, see our separate hub here. Also, see our diary from Day 1 and Day 2.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19

Catch-up with MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki, 3.30pm

Stopped by the MediaMath for a wide-ranging interview with MediaMath CEO Joe Zawadzki, fresh off recently announced partnerships with White Ops and Rubicon Projects to fight ad fraud and improve media supply chain transparency.

We also talked about the likelihood of going public one day or merging with a larger industry player.  Watch Campaign Asia for that article in the days ahead. 

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Protesters forcibly removed from the steps, 3.30pm

Police reinforcements arrived, forcefully separating the protesters and carrying them, one-by-one, down the steps. 

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Extinction Rebellion begins a sit-in protest on the Cannes red carpet, 3.15pm

12 members of Extinction Rebellion, the climate activists, are sitting cross-legged on the steps of the Palais, with a line of security guards standing shoulder-to-shoulder in front of them. 

Extinction Rebellion staging a sit in at #CannesLions2019 “We don’t want to be arrested but we have no choice. We want to be heard”. “We are here to fight for our future. Join us to tell the truth” #extinctionrebellion pic.twitter.com/K6oa2StpQ7

— Olivia Parker (@OliveClare) June 19, 2019

They are chanting: "Please spread the word inside the festival", "we must act now", "This is a real emergency", over and over in English and French. 

Supporters on the opposite side of the fence, outside the festival, are chanting back in support. 

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Everybody loves Burger King, 12.30pm

Fernando Machado, global CMO, and Marcelo Pascoa, head of global marketing, gave a characteristially dynamic presentation to a full theatre just before lunchtime, to get everyone drooling over flame-grilled burgers. (Fact: 1 in 3 people in America don't know Burger King does flame-grilled burgers.)

They discussed the sometimes idiosyncratic nature of creative campaigns: when they offered free burgers for people who downloaded their app, no one did it, but when they charged one penny for Whoppers — and sold them at McDonald's stores — app downloads went up.  

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McCann Health winners on their success, 11am

We caught up with global CCO Matt Eastwood and Wendy Chan, ECD of McCann Health Shanghai, to find out what their Grand Prix in Pharma and two other major awards will mean for the Shanghai agency and the network at large. Read the interview here. 

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Using product innovation instead of advertising, 11.45am

Had a wonderful conversation with the soft-spoken and highly intelligent and confident founders of creative agency The Womb following their session. 

While the stock of creative effectiveness work has been on the rise at this Festival, last year Shoor and Talreja struck out, not even making a shortlist for their Carvaan music player innovation that won countless awards in India and went on to be lauded as the world’s most effective campaign in WARC’s Effective 100.  Yet here they were Cannes, not bitter, but ready to share their learnings. Bravo!

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IPG women's breakfast, 9am

Michael Roth of @ipgmediabrands at the packed, 9th women’s breakfast. He sees a welcome return to focus on the work this year but says: “It’s not just how people are portrayed in the work that we, do it’s that certain people are left out in the work that we do.” #CannesLions2019 pic.twitter.com/FAzLsfju7D

— Olivia Parker (@OliveClare) June 19, 2019

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Overthrowing brands... but not into the pool, 8:30am

Who wants to enter the Contagious Villa? We do! It was actually the lovely setting for the official launch of PHD and Eatbigfish's new book Overthrow II. 

It's about the marketing strategies of challenger brands, and as we found out in the session, most of these disruptive brands really don't feel the love for marketing, so they're doing it differently. Probably one of the best sessions one editor has been to so far. 

Watch for upcoming videos from PHD's Malcolm Devoy and Oatly chief creative John Schoolcroft, coming soon.

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Day 2 top stories, 8am

First, a couple of stories we finished up late yesterday. 

Here's Festival chairman Philip Thomas, "hoping for a really good showing from Asia this year" and making the bold claim that Cannes 2019 sees agencies "much more at ease" with themselves. 

And here's the global CEO of Havas Creative, Chris Hirst, giving his message about "no bullshit leadership.