The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the crème de la crème of advertising industry events, bringing together top brands to showcase and discuss new trends, products, and innovation. This year’s festival was no exception, catalyzing key industry conversations for the rest of 2024.
The festival was a hotbed of excitement and anticipation, unveiling intriguing trends and brands to watch. As the industry and event evolve, so too must communications strategies. Here are our top takeaways for comms pros from the event.
AI shows its use case
AI was the biggest topic of conversation at Cannes. While discussing AI’s integral role in advertising, CMOs also expressed cautious optimism and understood the need for a balanced approach to its integration. This underscores the urgency and importance of these trends in shaping brand marketing strategies, which also needs to be reflected in communications priorities.
Despite some leaders' cautious views of AI, brands continued to showcase their proactive and forward-thinking approach to incorporating AI into brand plans and products. Agencies were even more aggressive in announcing their focus on AI. For example, Havas announced that it would invest $428 million in the technology over the next four years.
Communications pros will need a forward-thinking position on AI to keep their brands at the front of the pack.
Cups running over, leaving seats empty (unless you’ve got a stand-out)
As the event has become more popular, the sheer volume of activations and events has dramatically increased. Because of this, stale stalwart event tactics have gone from standing room only to empty chairs over the years. The good news is, there’s still a way you can make your brand stand out.
The biggest draw was celebrities. Stars like Elon Musk and Travis Kelce drove the lion's share of event headlines and chatter on-site. But a smart communication program can also yield results beyond big names on the call sheet.
Brands that invested in bold positions that spoke directly to the CMO or had eye-catching innovation filled their rooms. It’s key to ensure the value prop of content aligns with CMO and marketer concerns, while also saying something they haven’t heard yet.
To rise above the roar, brands need to understand the comms landscape and lead with incisive positioning.
The rise of pay-to-pay
Pay-to-play opportunities have become de rigueur at the event, particularly for the major advertising trade media brands. It’s much more difficult to break through with solely earned communications strategies.
While an integrated strategy is beneficial on-site, a sharp earned perspective can still make noise. If you’ve got news you can save for the event, you’ll be more likely to grab headlines. However, you can’t just publish a release and hope for the best. Comms pros need sophisticated media strategies for announcements.
The same is true for thought leadership platforms. While launches and announcements were the bulk of coverage, views on the CMO perspective and buzzing industry topics still moved the needle for earned coverage. Understanding what’s top of mind for marketers and media is a key component to elevating your executives.
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