Cannes...meet your nemesis

Two festivals,  980 miles apart. In southern France a Róse saturated celebration of creativity. In Somerset, a cider laden celebration of creativity.

Common purpose, but commercially they’re chalk and cheese (or Brie even…)

Cannes week is wrapping up. The  bars along La Croisette are beginning to run dry, and the advertising industries boldest and brightest have one (shaky) foot on the plane. A celebrity tinged agenda this year, from Pharrell Williams and Ryan Seacrest debating whether creativity is a catalyst for evolution and collaboration (paraphrasing their words here…), to Kim Kardashian West’s monologue dedication to female empowerment. Cannes is clearly not just about the advertising moguls anymore. Technology has now becoming the fulcrum to innovative marketing, and consequently a new audience wants in. Celebrity followers in their millions now command an authoritive voice in the social space, giving brands a new platform to shout from. Where do they go next? Cannes advises them how to squeeze that little bit more out of the marketing pot (good luck Pharrel!), from content to platform innovation, leveraging their brand position to the fullest.  Tech start-ups litter the festival, canvasing for funding to bring their revolutionary products closer to the brands migrating towards more dynamic marketing (but in the hope their technology eventually finds it way into the Googles hands…). Technology shouts louder this year than ever before. Those historically on the fringes (the Twitters, the Buzzfeeds etc) are now at the core of the conversation. They’ve finally been let into the VIP section…

This is not to say creativity has become nothing more than binary code. Technology simply leads the development of great ideas.  Your jaw-dropping TV advert needs to survive across devices, across social, and across exchanges feeding the very eyeballs your client craves. The idea hasn’t changed, but the means of delivery has. Media has become more than just buying ad space (which we all knew of course, it’s taken a while for people to recognise it). That centre break of Coronation Street and page 5 of the Sun just isn’t enough in this connected marketplace. Cannes is finally talking about this.

Golley  Slater have been the proud recipient of a Cannes Gold before (British Army speeding campaign). We just wonder how our original Cannes application might look in 2015? We’d assume more numbers, followers, shares, likes, but also far greater context. Who reacted? Did they share? Is this not an accountable measure of the “behavioural change” which we initially set out to achieve? These tech driven measures of engagement are now worth more than (Cannes) gold, and we’d for one welcome it.

If Cannes is a tech-laden-utopia-of-commercialism…Glastonbury is it’s nemesis.

The Eavis family have effectively kept commercialism at bay for decades (one envisages a Gandalf-esque-Michael Eavis proclaiming “you shalt not pass!” whilst a Nike bedecked/Budweiser drinking/Spotify consuming commercial animal bears down on Worthy Farm).  The only hint of a commercial partnerships restricted to a select few with either charitable roots (Oxfam, Greenpeace, Water Aid), a forced impartial position (the Beeb) or political persuasion keeping with the perceived leftie vibe (The Guardian, though the profile of the now affluent attendees fortunate enough to afford 4 days of mud and rain is decidedly drifting towards “Middle England”). Coming from a frequent visitor (pre children that is), one can vouch that any whiff of commercial opportunity onsite for these partners is killed at source, or managed within what the Eavis family consider “acceptable festival boundaries”. These partnerships are long term commitments, the association leveraged through branded content alone (look no further than the Glastonbury pullout in this weekend’s Guardian).

For those looking in from outside our advertising bubble, this stance appears admirable and warrants a hand clap. But we can’t help but feel Glastonbury is missing a trick. The modern festival goer is the modern consumer. They love brands, they hate brands, but they trust brands. The right brands can galvanise and amplify your beliefs and opinions, if you permit and control them. How? In this wi-fi age, successful brands communicate and lead with digital subtlety, not with overbearing billboards or intrusive marketing. Not all commercialism is bad, admittedly you’ll struggle to dampen that cynicism, but good ethics have become core to marketing success. Take Coca Cola’s content fuelled campaign to save the polar bear.  If Mr Eavis is willing to open his door ajar to commercial enterprises who believe in his free world vision, and have the power to promote it to his masses through technology and engaging creativity, Glastonbury might well become the new Cannes, just more “subtle” and with less Róse. Now there’s an interesting thought.