On the ground in Cannes: Editor's Diary Day 5

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 diaries from Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4. 

No room for this inn?

Fred & Farid Shanghai and Cannes Lions juries are both getting a bit of backlash over the shortlsting of F&F's Great XXXX campaign for Airbnb in the Brand Activation category. The campaign offered a chance to book an Airbnb for a special night in a room housed within the Great Wall of China.

But Airbnb  was forced to pull the plug just days into the activation. Chinese netizens slammed Airbnb for commercialising a source of national heritage and Chinese authorities seemingly agreed, ordering it stopped.

So why would a campaign that angered the public, was banned by government, and shut down not long after it began be entered for a Cannes Lion?  And why would a jury shortlist it? That's what some are asking on social media. We're reaching out to jury members for perspective on what happened. 

AR we there yet? 3:30pm 

Stopped by the new Cannes Lions CLX center to for a workshop led by Adobe's AR marketing lead Elizabeth Barelli.  AR isn't yet so widely used by creatives yet, but Adobe is banking that it will be. It estimates there are 1.2 million content creators for AR globally right now, which will more than double in 2 years to 3.2 miilion, then rise to 6 million by 2023.  As you might guess, Adobe has an AR product it wants them to use. 

Apple: keep marketing simple, 2:00pm

My goodness were there a lot of creatives, many full of Kool-Aid eager to hear what Apple VP of Marketing and Communication Tor Myhren had to say.  “I feel like a bit of a charlatan here,” he said.  So much of our marketing is our product,” he laughed, later adding “Everytime I walk into a Starbucks it’s an ad for Mac.”

The message: keep your marketing simple.  It’s not easy though. Apple does it, he said, by being picky about product, not doing testing, sticking to one ad agency, treating media as art (hello OOH!), using music effectively and obsessing over craft. They sweat the details.

Hakuhodo unboxes "human truths", 2pm

L-r: Hakuhodo’s Ayami Nakao Pelata, Alexander Schill of Serviceplan Group, Cristina Balanzó of Walnut Unlimited and Kentaro Kimura of Hakuhodo Inc

This seminar discussed the human need to be connected, reminding their Cannes audience that connectivity is the strongest currency. Both positive and negative emotions can be very effective at driving behaviour — and emotion always overrides information, they said. 

Head for the hills, 9pm Thursday

It was time to get out of Cannes in the evening.  So it was off to the hills for a wonderful dinner with the good people of Saatchi & Saatchi.  At this festival, it's often either feast or famine. This was definitely the feasting part leaving us quite full this morning! (Above: Campaign India managing editor Prasad Sangameshwaran and Campaign Asia deputy editor Olivia Parker)

Soaking it all in with Dick van Motman, 4pm Thursday

Sitdown with the global CEO of DAN Creative Agencies & Dentsu Brand Agencies Dick van Motman for a wide-ranging interview in a lovely setting on the lawn of the Grand Hotel. Lovely that is until we sat up from our chairs and realised the cushions had soaked our backsides!

Data x Creativity session @ DAN Beach House, 2.30pm Thursday

We're sick of the either/or debate. We get it that both data and creativity are needed, so this panel showed us how it's done. Creative Data Lions jury president Yasu Sasaki led us through some of the best campaigns this year, while Dentsu APAC CCO Ted Lim and BWM Dentsu ECD Asheen Naidu talked abut how they put it into practice.

Dynamo Brand Launch, 2pm Thursday

Some unfinished business from yesterday, where Campaign was happy to help Dentsu Aegis Network launch its inaugural Dynamo Brand Index, tracking which brands have the best combination of energy and direction, creating forward momentum. Yes, internet brands like YouTube, Google and Netflix were at the top but older established brands like Toyota and Visa also made the top ten. In Asia, India had two of the top 3 brands, which were Swiggy, Xiaomi and Flipkart.