What Inspired Us at Cannes Lions 2023
By: peter simek
During June, the Social Revolt Team headed over to southern France to participate in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the most prestigious awards program and conference in our industry. Like last year, we helped celebrate the ongoing success of the United Nations Development Programme’s Don’t Choose Extinction campaign by bringing Frankie the Dino back to the La Promenade for a reception we co-hosted with the UNDP and The PVBLIC Foundation. Our Don’t Choose Extinction activation campaign was also in competition at Cannes this year—you can check out our submission here.
Unsurprisingly, AI dominated much of the conversation across the rosé-soaked yacht parties and branded beach venues. From deploying ads to generating creative and copy, it is clear that the entire industry is pivoting in anticipation to how AI will continue to disrupt and reinvent what we do.
We also spent much of our time at Cannes focused on the conversations around a new Hispanic Sentiment Study survey released by Nielson, We Are All Human, Toluna, and TelevisaUnivision. The study was a follow up to a survey completed five years ago that measured how Hispanic and Latino consumers feel their culture and values are reflected in mass media and advertising. You can learn more about that study in our conversation with We Are All Human’s Claudio Romo Edelman.
There was a ton of incredible work on display at Cannes Lions this year. Here are three of our favorites:
The First Digital Nation:
Turning the typical narrative of the potential of metaverse on its head, the pacific Island nation of Tuvalu worked with The Monkeys, Part of Accenture Song to launch a campaign to turn Tuvalu into the first digital nation in an effort to retain its culture, political rights, and identity in the face of rising sea levels that threaten to wipe its territory off the map.
LA NACIÓN 200%:
The Hispanic Sentiment Study placed the shifting attitudes of Hispanic American centerstage at Cannes. The LA NACIÓN 200% by CPB, New York for Buchannan’s Scotch Whiskey demonstrated the power of embracing Latino cultural identity head-on. For the World Cup, they created a campaign that celebrated the strength of being both 100 percent Hispanic and 100 percent American, creating a viral Spanglish twist on a US Men’s National Team cheer.
The Last Photo:
We admire campaigns that elevate out of home advertising into the realm of public art. Adam&EveDDB’s The Last Photo campaign for CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) and ITV (UK’s largest commercial TV station) delivered a powerful campaign to raise awareness around suicide prevention by combining a simple, if emotionally impactful creative idea with an expertly executed viral publicity role out.
