Sovrn’s Post

The Croisette is calling, and soon the creative world will descend on the Riviera for the annual pilgrimage that is the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. But with all the buzzwords, sponsored beaches and rosé-fueled networking, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters: standout creative work that delivers results and inspires. Whether you're attending the festival this year or, like me, back home watching the action from the virtual sidelines, I believe it's important to approach Cannes with intentionality. The week is noisy, and it's easy to get distracted. (IYKYK.) But this event is still about spotlighting the best creative output of the past year. At the end of the day, we ought to rise above the racket and focus on the work—work that pushes boundaries, sparks dialogue and connects with people on an emotional level. Of course, the top minds in the business will be there, and as always, I look forward to hearing what they've got to say. With all the conferences that have sprung up in our business, Cannes remains an unparalleled platform for addressing the most urgent issues facing marketing, media, tech and the culture. For one week every June, you can bet all eyes and ears are trained on this town. Cannes is ultimately what you take away from it. As for me, I plan to follow all the coverage I can devour and come away a little smarter and a whole lot more inspired. #CannesLions #Creativity #Innovation #Marketing #Advertising #Media #Tech #Inspiration #Impact

Creativity is our common language. Creativity is a force for change. People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them 'feel'. Is my work driving 'me'. If you're creating alone, you're creating wrong. So many good messages in this clip for #canneslions2024. What brand has made you feel something through their story-telling? It most likely was memorable - whether it was a feeling of enlightenment, joy, sadness, pride, admiration, inspiration, motivation, maybe even anger (hopefully not confusion) - then it probably worked to build an impression, make you think, act, or feel something that you'll remember when you go to purchase, or alleviate tension if service was poor one day. #makeemotionalconnections #creativemarketing #takerisks #followyourexperience #followyourgut #insightsdrivecreativity #culturaldifferences #loyaltystillmatters

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, we need to talk… Year after year you have challenged me to be bold, be creative, be effective, be efficient. Immerse myself in the business, build strong agency partnerships, and fuel my strategic thinking. For a long time, I believed that self-improvement was the key to joining the elite conversations at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. After years of learning from industry giants like Peter Field, Mark Ritson Byron Sharp Orlando Wood James Hurman I felt ready to be part of that dialogue. But Cannes, we seriously need to talk. The reality is that attending to the “Athens of marketing and creative effectiveness” remains a distant dream for many of us as the cost of participation is prohibitively expensive. To my fellow marketers who feel the same: I HEAR YOU! We are expected to push the boundaries of creativity and effectiveness, yet we are often left out when it matters most. And to Cannes, you are truly an inspiration for many of us, but when talking about consumer centricity, you need to revisit your business model to give us some entry level. Common, be creative 😊! Until we can meet physically, I will continue to advocate from the distance the spirit of Cannes Lions—effectiveness’s, boldness, creativity—as a state of mind. Looking forward to meet in the upcoming years, Gaby #MarketingLife #CannesLions #CreativeExcellence #IndustryChallenges #StayConnected #MarketingCommunity

The ShowHeroes team is currently at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and CEO Ilhan Zengin has thoughts on this year’s atmosphere. This year’s Cannes Lions is very different from last year’s, where caution was the dominant feeling. But is it roaring excitement this year, or something more nuanced? Read his thoughts alongside other industry leaders in Digiday. 👇 https://lnkd.in/edYn9KD9 #Cannes2024 #CannesLions #digitaladvertising #digitalmarketing

A Carrot named Cannes ! First of all, Congratulations to every winner, every shortlist and every entrant at Cannes 2024. The festival of creativity is not what is celebrated at The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. It starts the moment you get that one thought that sprouts as a potential idea which you want to share and wait for it to be accepted. And then when you take efforts to sell the idea to your client. Making sure the idea is executed, refined and crafted to perfection. When you spend days and nights perfecting the case presentation. Then eagerly wait for the competition to be thrown open for entry. Finally looking for the right category to be entered in and then looking forward to the shortlist announcement. From the day you get the idea to the day you get the results, every moment is a celebration of creativity. From ideation to appreciation to acceptance to approvals to execution to submission, every milestone is a celebration. And just after the festival, the race will start. To hunt the Lion next June. No matter how many Lions you bring to your shelf, the Lions never cease to attract you. Every Lion home is a reason for bringing the other Lion home. It’s not about why you didn’t get the Lion this year, It’s about how long can you feed the Lion in you and keep it alive. Because the blood you tasted will keep on feeding the Lion of your dreams. It will never dry. The Lion will chase the ideas in your veins and get it out without waiting for any brief. The Lion will roar and get the approvals. The Lion will not let you sleep. As long as the Lion is looking for it’s prey inside, you’ll continue to hunt. It takes a Lion to hunt a Lion. So keep the Lion on its paws and be ready to rule the jungle. #canneslions2024 #cannes #canneslions #cannes #advertising #AdvertisingAwards

Five days until kick off for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This will be my 12th consecutive Festival and each year there are more and more ‘Top Tips’ from the Jurors, team, and repeat festival attendees on how to “do Cannes”. Of course it would be remiss of me to offer anything other than the most #Effective tips - so here are my Top Tips on how to have an Effective #CannesLions. 1. Plan your diary - arrange breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffees, afternoon cocktails, post dinner drinks, early morning swims, parties, Festival sessions (and of course don’t forget to diarise 15.15-15.45 Thursday 20 June https://lnkd.in/eBthy4yb) - its not everyday you will get to see me taking on the role of an Inglorious B***ard CEO (seriously), whilst we unpack brand new findings from a comprehensive study into levels of alignment across the CEO/CFO/CMO trifecta… 2. Get ready for your diary to not go at all to plan. 3. Carry portable phone charges - see point above - everybody's day becomes fluid (some fluidity more down to rose consumption than others) - get ready to reschedule, rebook and reset. 4. Plan at least two days post #CannesLions to do your follow up, not just resetting your liver, but your reaching out to those new and old contacts you bumped into on the Croisette and nailing those potential new business opportunities. 5. Flat comfortable shoes are a must - its been said before, but that doesn’t make it any less effective. The Croissette is just under 1.5miles long, and whilst you won’t need to head to the end of it, and back, every time.. you will be making multiple trips up and down throughout the day. Day in day out. Comfortable shoes, trust me… 6. And as a corollary to the above, a bike is even bigger win…. 7. Check out the work in the basement - when else do you get time to see the BEST creativity from all over the world in the one place. Take it - and question it, what worked, how do you think it worked, review and learn. 8. Check out the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity #CreativeEffectiveness Awards show - I’m honoured to be a Cannes Lions Effectiveness master, and to have helped pull the criteria together for its launch back in 2011. Fast forward to 2024 and its an effective way of seeing at a glance commercial creativity at work. 9. Talk to everyone, The Effectiveness Partnership is a UK-based business and we have built our worldwide client base through sometimes serendipitous conversations on the Croisette. 🌍 10. Talk to me. We have helped deliver hundreds actually frankly 1000's of effectiveness cases across #CannesLions, #Effies, WARC, IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and more. And we do this by upskilling your team and embedding cultures of effectiveness in clients and agency teams. Message me - it will be the most effective thing you do across the 5 days of the Festival.

' Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is still the only truly global celebration of the absolute best work that our industry is capable of, and in my view it’s a must-attend for everybody. I coach and advise a number of leaders of small to midsize agencies and holding companies, and for their business development and agency growth goals, I always recommend attending Cannes, even (and especially) if they’ve never been. It’s the one week of the year where you can find pretty much everybody in our industry and everybody on the client side all in the one place, so for biz-dev goals, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Plus, you don’t have to rent a beach to get noticed. Demonstrate precisely what Cannes celebrates -- extremely ingenious strategy + highly creative execution -- and you can impose yourself on the landscape of Cannes to generate buzz, chatter and media coverage to further those goals.' I talk to Barbara Lippert for MediaPost: https://lnkd.in/eBHPavim

Exactly 5 weeks left until Cannes Lions. Let's book some time in person - https://lnkd.in/ejUCcJ5d I will be roaming the Croisette, helping brands discover innovative technologies and making those 1:1 connections. #CannesLions #BrandInnovators #StrategyMeeting #BrandGrowth #Innovation.

Cannes Lions markets itself as the ‘International Festival of Creativity’, but I don’t understand how you can celebrate true creativity if creativity = the size of your wallet. I’ve never entered the Cannes Lions awards before, but this year I thought I’d give it a go. That is until I saw the extortionate entry fees and debated if the kudos of winning this so called ‘prestigious award’ was worth me selling a kidney. There are lots of small independent agencies that are creating ground-breaking campaigns, but they will never be able to financially compete with the larger more established beasts. As a result you have brilliant creative that deserves awards but isn't recognised due to the creation of these elitist and exclusive environments. Organisations like D&AD and The Gerety Awards recognise this, and they offer a 30% discount to small indies which proves that a more equal playing field can be created - you just have to want to do it. But when I asked Cannes Lions if they have a similar incentive, their response was: ‘As a completely neutral party when it comes to awarding, we are unable to provide any discounts or waive fees for any entrants.’ I’m sorry but offering discounts to small indies doesn't sacrifice your neutrality – and it should have no bearing on the judging process itself – what it can offer is a wider, more diverse selection of creative for judges to consider. Which can only be a good thing for the industry and for Cannes Lions itself. How will we ever celebrate fresh perspectives and underrepresented voices if these systemic barriers remain? And the award entry fee is just the tip of the iceberg – throw in the entry to the Palais on top and the extortionate travel and accommodation fees for the South of France in June, and there’s no point even considering it. And then there’s the judging itself. Apparently, you can only judge Cannes Lions if you have won a Cannes Lions. And that my friends is the vicious cycle of elitism at its finest. What should be the high watermark for creative excellence in our industry becomes a wealthy mutual back-slapping exercise between past winners and rich agencies. Maybe I’m alone on this, but I personally think Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity really needs to take a long, hard look at what its current structure is saying to the industry – because all I can see is the perpetuation of inequalities that already exist and the promotion of the same work by the same big agencies, judged by the same people every year. Thus closing the door on diversity. If you really believe in creating a more inclusive landscape that genuinely celebrates the best work that our industry has to offer, you need to put your money where your mouth is. Not ours. #canneslions #equality #diversityandinclusion #awardsandrecognition