Cannes Lions CEO on the importance of creativity and its power to drive business progress

Q: The Cannes Lions Glob­al Growth Coun­cils for Progress are aim­ing to tack­le some major soci­etal issues at this year’s event. Why does the ad indus­try need to step up?

Set against the back­drop of an increas­ing­ly tur­bu­lent world, the glob­al ad indus­try is fac­ing a num­ber of big chal­lenges that need to be tack­led at a faster rate than any of us ever pre­dict­ed. We know that cre­ativ­i­ty has the pow­er to dri­ve progress for peo­ple, for busi­ness and for pos­i­tive change in the world. This means that the cre­ative mar­ket­ing com­mu­ni­ty is in an incred­i­bly for­tu­nate posi­tion in that they can har­ness cre­ativ­i­ty to enter and cre­ate change in cul­ture, busi­ness and the world. 

Our five Glob­al Growth Coun­cils for Progress are an expan­sion of the CMO Growth Coun­cil, which we launched with the Asso­ci­a­tion of Nation­al Adver­tis­ers (ANA), the indus­try body that rep­re­sents US adver­tis­ers, in 2018. They will con­vene for the first time dur­ing the Fes­ti­val in Cannes to find glob­al solu­tions, set the agen­da and define their com­mit­ments on the glob­al stage. For the first time, this ini­tia­tive will include rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the com­mu­ni­ty — includ­ing cre­ative agen­cies, brands and media own­ers — uni­fy­ing the indus­try behind one col­lec­tive and urgent agen­da.

We are delight­ed that Marc Pritchard, chief brand offi­cer at Proc­ter & Gam­ble, will head up this ini­tia­tive. With each Coun­cil com­pris­ing between 25 and 30 core mem­bers, we want them to be a plat­form for a range of voic­es who can bring new per­spec­tives, insights and cul­tur­al con­text to accel­er­ate the pace of progress at a much greater scale and cre­ate a tru­ly glob­al com­mu­ni­ty. Our open call for Coun­cil mem­bers saw 25 spaces made avail­able for any vision­ary cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als able to demon­strate entre­pre­neur­ship, regard­less of spe­cial­ism or loca­tion.

Q: What are the key issues that need address­ing?

Ear­li­er this year we launched the LIONS State of Cre­ativ­i­ty Study. Com­plet­ed by thou­sands of peo­ple from 100 coun­tries, it was our largest sur­vey to date, col­lat­ing views and insights from a diverse set of voic­es across the cre­ative ecosys­tem. The five Coun­cil themes were formed in response to the glob­al issues iden­ti­fied by the indus­try through this study as being most impor­tant and press­ing to the progress and growth of their busi­ness and the impact on the plan­et: sus­tain­abil­i­ty; diver­si­ty, equi­ty and inclu­sion; tal­ent; data and tech­nol­o­gy; and brand cre­ativ­i­ty and effec­tive­ness.

Q: How will Cannes Lions track progress and ensure action is tak­en to move the indus­try for­ward?

In a cou­ple of weeks’ time, we will be reunit­ing the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty in Cannes and we couldn’t be more excit­ed to con­vene our com­mu­ni­ty and the Coun­cils in real life.   

We invite every Fes­ti­val attendee and LIONS mem­ber to con­tribute to the con­ver­sa­tion by join­ing a cor­re­spond­ing com­mu­ni­ty to debate, pledge, cre­ate or lead an ini­tia­tive that sup­ports our col­lec­tive move for­ward. On Fri­day, 24 June at 11am, the Coun­cil chairs will come togeth­er on the Lumiere stage in Cannes to define the agen­da and their com­mit­ments for the year ahead. 

LIONS and the ANA will pro­vide the year-round plat­form for the indus­try to con­vene and track progress. The Coun­cil work­ing groups will work through­out the year on the task in hand to ensure that they are fur­ther­ing progress. They will then return to Cannes Lions in 2023 to give an update on the industry’s col­lec­tive progress. LIONS is in a posi­tion to pro­vide the glob­al plat­form for the industry’s agen­da and we’re delight­ed to be able to com­mit to this as an ongo­ing, col­lec­tive move­ment.

Cannes Lions takes place from 20 to 24 June in Cannes, France.