On the Ground at Cannes: Learning to Challenge Yourself
It was just a few weeks ago when I logged onto Facebook and clicked on a video that had been shared by six friends that morning, one of whom captioned it, “And now, some good news…” How could I resist? Florida-based Saltwater Brewery was beginning production on biodegradable, 6-pack rings that would feed marine life — versus injuring or killing them — should the rings end up in the ocean. Many of you probably saw this video, too, considering it gained over 2 million views across various media outlets in fewer than 60 days.
So it was a treat that a presentation by Saltwater Brewery on this very project was how I kicked off my Cannes Lions experience this morning. Getting to peek behind famous work — the insight, the methodology, the inevitable process of trial and error that brings you to a simple, beautiful execution — is always inspiring and was a terrific immersion into the culture of this particular festival. Throughout the morning, I saw presentations by the Innovation short list nominees (shout out to Jordan Atlas and Robb Hittner who did a killer job presenting our own famous work, Hack In Black for Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III, in this very category) and collectively those presentations
reminded me of why I love the challenge of what we do. At its best, our work is not only creative, it’s not only rooted in insights and measurables, it’s not only interesting to earned media outlets, it is an idea that changes culture for the better. That is hardly to say that those opportunities are readily available to us as marketers, but it’s a reminder that the work we do can and should be powerful. And the answer may not always be found in a brief. The answers are sometimes found by truly living with your client’s business, sometimes asking questions that go beyond the responsibilities of the Digital, Social, or PR departments, and pushing our clients to help find the answers to those questions.
There are very few jobs where you’ll feel inspired every day, but today was a reminder that inspiration shouldn’t be a passive activity. Challenge yourself to dig deeper — even for the smallest, most tactical idea — because you never know how ground-breaking it might actually be.
Lauren Curtis is an account supervisor with Edelman Digital in Los Angeles.
Originally published at www.edelman.com on June 21, 2016.
