MMA Germany Members Highlight Hottest Topics At Cannes Lions 2023
Creativity and communication converged at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival last month. The crème de la crème of PR and marketing gathered for the 70th year to honour and recognise 2022’s examples of advertising excellence.
Brands came in with a boom this June. Notably, Pinterest announced the Inspired Internet Pledge, a call to action and commitment for tech companies to make the Internet safer, healthier, and more positive for all. Some companies pledged to keep our planet safer as well. International ad agency GALE announced its signage of the Clean Creatives Pledge on the second day of the festival, making it the largest agency yet to decline future collaboration with fossil fuel companies.
Omnicom Group and Google also made a splash. The two tech giants’ latest endeavour, publicised on June 20, 2023, gives Omnicom access to Google Cloud’s generative AI tools through the Vertex AI program. Alongside this access, Omnicom is integrating two of Google Cloud’s AI models into its adtech: image generator, Imagen, and large language model, PaLM2. This collaboration brings copyright-free generative text and image capabilities to Omnicom clients and opens another door to AI in advertising.
Those are just a few festival highlights, though. We asked our MMA Germany members for their unique perspectives. Here’s what they had to say about Cannes Lions 2023’s most memorable moments:
Maren Seitz, Senior Director, Head of DACH, Analytic Partners
Maren Seitz says sustainability and DEI turned heads at this year’s festival. Brands brought back a community and customer-first approach, prioritising people over profit. Several Creative Awards submissions emerged from this choice, notably, “a mouthpiece that paraplegic consumers can use to navigate devices with their tongues.”
Götz Trillhaas, Managing Director DACH, Snap
Cannes Lions 2023 was “bigger, louder, and busier,” according to Götz Trillhaas. Major US tech companies dominated the conversation in the French Riviera resort town, attracting attention from media agencies and direct advertisers alike. Despite the current economic crisis, Götz says, “It [felt] like there [were] no budget cuts and that the US tech companies want to win in the creative field.”
Jan Heumüller, Managing Director Central Europe, Ogury
Brands have chewed on the consequences of the looming App-oclypse for well over a year. It was no different at the Festival of Creativity, where cookieless targeting and ID-free tracking “kept agencies as well as advertisers up at night,” says Jan Heumüller. Echoing Götz, Jan notes the commanding presence of Adtech throughout the week, stating, “The UK and US had even a bigger share in terms of participants than before.”
Clearly, Cannes Lions was an event where brands and marketers could connect and push their creative boundaries. Fortunately, another upcoming event offers marketers quality content and an abundance of networking opportunities. Pull out your calendars to mark next year’s festival and to save the date for DMEXCO, Europe’s leading digital marketing & tech event, hosted in Cologne September 20–21, 2023.
