Category: OMD Oasis Cannes 2017

Regardless of where you stand on the relevance and value of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, there is still much to take away from this year’s event. Since its inception in 1954, the festival continues to evolve throughout the years adding a number of new categories from creative effectiveness to PR and Film Craft. OMD EMEA’s head of strategy, Mark Murray-Jones has expertly sifted through the huge amount of content on offer, from the brands and work to AI and data, to give you the lowdown on what mattered most.

https://youtu.be/tJPOHotTYUQ

Mark’s seven key Cannes Lions takeaways:

1. The anatomy of a successful client is changing – so must agencies.
2. The virtual reality hype is over – there are opportunities abound.
3. AI is infinitely more transformative than any other technology since the birth of the internet – it’s becoming the plumbing.
4. Think augmented rather than artificial intelligence.
5. The success of data is predicted on diverse skills and capabilities working collectively.
6. Collaborate or die – there’s never been a better time.
7. As for the work – technology is the great enabler, not just a filter.

It is easy to forget that the main reason for Cannes Lions is the work, with over 40,000 submissions and 400 judges selecting the winners. Having been a part of the media jury, OMD EMEA’s president Nikki Mendonça shared her insight on what it takes to win. Perhaps not surprising was that a key criterion for the media jury this year was seeing how the marketing drove tangible business results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-5LzxxVfA

The OMD Oasis also returned for its fifth year. We hosted 22 sessions over five days, curating an experience for our clients, friends and partners to hear about new techniques, tools and ideas. With topics ranging from diversity and inclusion to innovation and growth, our theme throughout the week was to uncover how we make stories matter. Part of this was uncovering how people interact with emerging technologies and to this end, OMD EMEA’s strategy and product development director Jean-Paul Edwards discussed the results of our new research titled ‘Retail Revolution’ with Carlos Watson, which delves deeper into the impact of AI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMslrLQzcs

These are just some of our highlights from Cannes, explore more at #OMDOasis and on our YouTube channel.

Have a question or want to know more? Email us at [email protected]

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity has named OMD Worldwide Media Network of the Year after winning one Gold, five Silver and five Bronze lions and earning 14 shortlists in the Media Lions category. Innovation and creativity are at the centre of what we stand for. We are extremely proud of the creative and innovative work we are producing around the world in partnership with our clients.

Below our worldwide CEO, Mainardo de Nardis, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity CEO, Philip Thomas, talk about the reignited ‘Media Network of the Year’ accolade and what the currency of a Cannes Lion means to the industry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyPsF2VJDS4&feature=youtu.be

11 Media Lions were awarded for work across a broad spectrum of client categories – including, automotive, food & beverage, non-profit, retail and technology including:

• An Excellence in Media Planning GOLD LION awarded to MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD for “NO ONE SHOULD HAVE NO ONE” (AGE UK)
• A Use of Real-Time Data SILVER LION awarded to OMD SINGAPORE for “Restaurant Capacity Based Advertising for McDelivery” (MCDONALD’S)
• A Data Driven Targeting SILVER LION awarded to MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD for “No One Should Have No One” (Age UK)
• A Cars & Automotive Products & Services SILVER LION awarded to OMD Dubai for “Camelpower Automotive” (NISSAN)
• A Media & Publications SILVER LION awarded to OMD UK for “Channel 4 Paralympics” (PARALYMPICS CHANNEL 4)
• A Use of Integrated Media SILVER LION awarded to OMD UK for “Channel 4 Paralympics” (PARALYMPICS |CHANNEL 4)     
• A Use of Brand or Product Integration into a Program or Platform BRONZE LION awarded to OMD USA for “Serena Match Point” (GATORADE /PEPSICO
• A Use of TV   BRONZE LION awarded to OMD DOMINICANA |for “Equalitv International Women’s Day” (LA SIRENA)
• A Use of Brand or Product Integration into a Program or Platform BRONZE LION awarded to OMD USA for “Super Bowl Drones Half Time Show” (INTEL)
• A Use of Other Screens BRONZE LION awarded to MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD for “Spring Waitrose” (WAITROSE)
• A Use of Brand or Product Integration into a Program or Platform BRONZE LION awarded to MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD for “Buster the Boxer” (JOHN LEWIS)

Huge congratulations to our clients, partners and talent!

For more information, visit PR Newswire.

Artificial Intelligence, in its various guises, has surfaced as one of the primary topics of conversation this year. To date it has been framed as an exciting future technology full of space age pontification but this year we really started to focus on the practical real life applications and implications of this technology. Numerous talk at the Palais focused on the role of voice in brand communication or how people are actually utilising personal assistant devices such as Google Home or more specialised emotional robots such as Olly.

The OMD Oasis agenda had a wide range of panels focused on different aspects of the unfolding AI revolution. One is a focus on the use of AI technology across the marketing value chain; how we utilise neural networks to drive more sophisticated market mix modelling solutions, or Bayesian inference to better identify individuals in a privacy friendly way or how support vector machines are used to categorise and train large sets of data into manageable categories to help gain deeper insight about emerging consumer behaviour. One particularly exciting announcement came from our colleagues at Annalect who have built a chat bot called AUBI to facilitate everyone at OMD to access new data sets and analytical tools

As AI moves from the lab and the homes of the very earliest adopters into the lives of mainstream life and culture we need to consider not just how the technology works but also the outlook and feelings of consumers about AI. OMD has spent the past 6 months focusing on this topic with specific reference to the use of AI in and around the point of sale in a study called ReAIl Revolution. The final element of this project, a 12 market quantitative study was released at Cannes and discussed in the AI possibilities Potentials and Pitfalls panel at the OMD Oasis.

The conversation was framed around the topics that most concern consumers; data collection and security, the use cases and value propositions we can create today and the impact on their shopping experience. Rupert Elwood, CMO, Waitrose also illustrated how as an employee owned organisation Waitrose is very much focused on how technology can empower employee partners to deliver a better, more human notion of intelligence augmentation rather that replacing human intelligence with the artificial.

The Retail Revolution outputs discussed included the finding that it is Southern European consumers who are most excited and open to AI solutions with both Spain and Italy leading in many categories, whilst markets such as Germany are more concerned with resolving Data privacy issues before they fully commit to this new technology. An interesting , perhaps surprising observation came from the reasons why comsumers are not yet using AI technology and disctinct pattern aroise between younger and older consumer. Consumers over 35 primarily felt they did not have the skills to use AI yet but would need to learn, whilst those under 35 felt that they did not need AI.  Over 35s have been here before seeing several technology revolutions in their adult lives and this is just another, that they will need to cope with. Those under 35 grew up with much of this technology around them and this is the first time as adults that the world has fundamentally. We believe therefore that today’s Digital Natives will be tomorrow’s AI Immigrant. It will todays Gen Z children who will be the first to truly intuitively understand the impact of this technology over coming decades

The implications for brand and commerce strategy are numerous and we will be exploring in detail with our clients over coming months exactly what this can mean in terms of practical real life implementation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMslrLQzcs

Creating connections that count: OMDs commitment to making every person matter

With such a huge amount of content at Cannes Lions It’s very easy to feel that you’re missing out on something great at all times. The OMD Oasis therefore ends up being a genuine place of refuge at the centre of La Croisette, where this week we have seen some amazing programme. After a fantastic morning in the Innovation Centre, with Beau Lotto telling us how little we know (a particular highlight for me),  I finished the day in our Oasis and was proud to hear how Omnicom is making a genuine difference in the world.

Moving From Impressions To People

First, indulge me, as I talk about a technical presentation which I think could help us overcome a huge issue for a lot of clients. Annalect’s Global CEO Slavi Samardzija hosted a session on Moving From Impressions To People: a discussion on how machine learning can help us better understand and connect with our consumers. I always struggle to understand how online optimisation actually works for clients, where most of their sales are delivered offline, and there’s no clear line of sight from the ads served to end purchase. We can end up optimising our media to engagement or reach, rather than driving more sales for our clients. Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan from Drawbridge talked about some smart ways that we’ve overcome this problem. Drawbridge work with brands to deliver “cross-device identity matching” solutions. Basically, cross-device identify matching helps marketers to map devices and browsers to the same consumer. What interested me was that by using the device ID, we can track when consumers are in-store and link that back to ad exposure over the whole campaign period. This means that even if the sale doesn’t happen online, we can still use the device ID to link a sale back to online exposures – which seems like a smart way to actually optimise online engagement to offline sales.

Traditionally the data points used to identify the consumer rely on registration based log-in. Great, but you’re obviously not getting the complete picture. What I liked about Drawbridge’s solution was that by adding in modelled identity, we can build a scalable solution which allows us to get as close as possible to a complete picture of who our consumers are.

The Power of Data-Driven Storytelling in Educating the Children of the World

The final session of day two made me proud to work at Omnicom Media Group. Our CEO John Wren introduced a brilliant new partnership with Girl Effect and Theirworld, supporting the UN’s goal to deliver “inclusive and quality education for all”.

When girls have access to education, everyone benefits. Educating women means that the economic prospects of their families and the whole community rises. The work that Girl Effect and Theirworld do aims to provide education for everyone. I hope this partnership with Omnicom can help them in two ways. First, by making sure that every connection they make counts. Annalect are helping to organise and process all the leads that they make to maximise the return and prove the impact of their work. But each connection and each data point tells often a heartbreaking story – the second way that we can help is to find these stories that sit behind the data. Girl Effect CEO Farah Ramzan Golant highlighted some of these stories, showing the perseverance and resilience of women denied education but who believed in the power of education to give them a better future.

I’m proud that the company I work for is supporting this initiative, and can’t wait to talk to OMD EMEA about how we can help.

It’s not often that a Global CEO opens up about the challenges that his organisation is facing and turns the interview around to ask advice from the interviewer. But Cannes invites disruption, and open-source is a theme that’s been running through a number of panels this year, this session included. So it was with much anticipation that we took our seats in the OMD Oasis to listen to the riveting fireside chat between Tim Armstrong, CEO of Oath (Verizon’s AOL and Yahoo merger) and Mainardo de Nardis, CEO of OMD Worldwide.

It was a rapid and brilliant exchange that ran the gamut of Oath’s purpose and goals, its short and medium-term challenges, predictions around the future of content (both brand-centric and performance-led), and the need to broaden our understanding and definition of data transparency. Armstrong laid out the elements for organizational change and three lessons emerged.

1) Emotional involvement and personal belief are key
The name of the company itself is steeped in emotion and solemnity and this was intentional. As Armstrong explained, ‘Oath’ ignited both internal and external discussion and prompted employees to define their own three-word promise. This immediately involved and engaged people –  a critical step in ensuring that your employees believe in the company’s new vision and mission. And for those of you wondering what’s his oath, well it’s ‘Never Give Up’ of course.

2) Speed of execution demands clarity of upfront strategy
Armstrong had 14 minutes to announce the launch of the merger before the press did back in April, and he did it via a single tweet that earned $100 million of media coverage. That’s undoubtedly a record time for any company announcement, let alone the unveiling of one of the most talked about mergers of the year, but that level of speed was only possible because of the extensive work that had been done in the many months running up to that moment. Preparation powers agility and readiness.

3) Openness is a behavior and a process to be cultivated
Armstrong exemplified this behavior when he asked de Nardis for advice on how to solve a challenge that has arisen from the merger which is this: ‘how do you choose between two equally qualified people?’.  De Nardis’s response was two-fold: you must create a culture that focuses on the future and keep people from harping back to how things were done before, and you must ensure that the change you seek starts at the top.

The conversation then shifted to the future of content and Armstrong explained that the marriage of data and stories demands attention because our ‘programmatic muscles are big, but storytelling muscles have atrophied’. De Nardis agreed, stating that as our sources of content have expanded exponentially, there is an urgent need to synchronize, sequence, and orchestrate it for the benefit of brands. Armstrong’s route to achieving this contains both sensible as well as more provocative and friction-sparking steps for the industry:

• Hook onto universal consumer behaviours but execute the strategy locally
  People want both the 2-minute snackable snippets of content but also the more involving, richer, long form content. And with a potential 8,760 minutes available in the year, Armstrong wants his fair share of your time. But this will only be achieved through laser sharp consumer insight that is tailored to the needs of audiences in each market, hence the need to harness both shared consumer motivation with locally relevant insights.
• Move towards delivering enjoyable two-way experiences with ads to avoid ad blocking
  Not only will Oath involve more storytellers in their content (they’re aiming to have 10 million storytellers and creators by 2020), but the commitment to put consumers first means that Oath will push back on advertisers who deliver poor experiences. In the not-so distant future, we can expect Oath to tell brands that they cannot run a single creative more than 50 million times but that they need to expand their creative assets in order to deliver more involving, enjoyable, and effective experiences.
• Pay consumers for their data
  This was a controversial point but one that’s likely be welcome by consumers and it’s that the business models of the future will be the ones that reward consumers for the data that they share.  Our understanding of data transparency will shift beyond simply the financial transaction and include how and where that data is used, as well as the benefits that can be harnessed by the consumer.Armstrong concluded by saying that Oath wants to be an awesome partner to both brands and agencies and that he doesn’t believe in the term ‘frenemy’. Sharing and operating in an open-source manner is critical for business, and it’s clear that we can expect much more innovation and disruption to come from Oath in the months and years ahead.

It’s not often that a Global CEO opens up about the challenges that his organisation is facing and turns the interview around to ask advice from the interviewer. But Cannes invites disruption, and open-source is a theme that’s been running through a number of panels this year, this session included. So it was with much anticipation that we took our seats in the OMD Oasis to listen to the riveting fireside chat between Tim Armstrong, CEO of Oath (Verizon’s AOL and Yahoo merger) and Mainardo de Nardis, CEO of OMD Worldwide.

It was a rapid and brilliant exchange that ran the gamut of Oath’s purpose and goals, its short and medium-term challenges, predictions around the future of content (both brand-centric and performance-led), and the need to broaden our understanding and definition of data transparency. Armstrong laid out the elements for organizational change and three lessons emerged.

1) Emotional involvement and personal belief are key
The name of the company itself is steeped in emotion and solemnity and this was intentional. As Armstrong explained, ‘Oath’ ignited both internal and external discussion and prompted employees to define their own three-word promise. This immediately involved and engaged people –  a critical step in ensuring that your employees believe in the company’s new vision and mission. And for those of you wondering what’s his oath, well it’s ‘Never Give Up’ of course.

2) Speed of execution demands clarity of upfront strategy
Armstrong had 14 minutes to announce the launch of the merger before the press did back in April, and he did it via a single tweet that earned $100 million of media coverage. That’s undoubtedly a record time for any company announcement, let alone the unveiling of one of the most talked about mergers of the year, but that level of speed was only possible because of the extensive work that had been done in the many months running up to that moment. Preparation powers agility and readiness.

3) Openness is a behavior and a process to be cultivated
Armstrong exemplified this behavior when he asked de Nardis for advice on how to solve a challenge that has arisen from the merger which is this: ‘how do you choose between two equally qualified people?’.  De Nardis’s response was two-fold: you must create a culture that focuses on the future and keep people from harping back to how things were done before, and you must ensure that the change you seek starts at the top.

The conversation then shifted to the future of content and Armstrong explained that the marriage of data and stories demands attention because our ‘programmatic muscles are big, but storytelling muscles have atrophied’. De Nardis agreed, stating that as our sources of content have expanded exponentially, there is an urgent need to synchronize, sequence, and orchestrate it for the benefit of brands. Armstrong’s route to achieving this contains both sensible as well as more provocative and friction-sparking steps for the industry:

• Hook onto universal consumer behaviours but execute the strategy locally
  People want both the 2-minute snackable snippets of content but also the more involving, richer, long form content. And with a potential 8,760 minutes available in the year, Armstrong wants his fair share of your time. But this will only be achieved through laser sharp consumer insight that is tailored to the needs of audiences in each market, hence the need to harness both shared consumer motivation with locally relevant insights.
• Move towards delivering enjoyable two-way experiences with ads to avoid ad blocking
  Not only will Oath involve more storytellers in their content (they’re aiming to have 10 million storytellers and creators by 2020), but the commitment to put consumers first means that Oath will push back on advertisers who deliver poor experiences. In the not-so distant future, we can expect Oath to tell brands that they cannot run a single creative more than 50 million times but that they need to expand their creative assets in order to deliver more involving, enjoyable, and effective experiences.
• Pay consumers for their data
  This was a controversial point but one that’s likely be welcome by consumers and it’s that the business models of the future will be the ones that reward consumers for the data that they share.  Our understanding of data transparency will shift beyond simply the financial transaction and include how and where that data is used, as well as the benefits that can be harnessed by the consumer.Armstrong concluded by saying that Oath wants to be an awesome partner to both brands and agencies and that he doesn’t believe in the term ‘frenemy’. Sharing and operating in an open-source manner is critical for business, and it’s clear that we can expect much more innovation and disruption to come from Oath in the months and years ahead.

The fifth OMD Oasis kicked off yesterday with our very own Mainardo de Nardis stating that the Oasis line-up of speaker was arguably stronger than at the Palais itself. It would be difficult to argue with him when the triumvirate of speakers included Imran Khan from Snapchat, Linda Yaccarino from NBC Universal and Gwyneth Paltrow from Goop.

Given the star quality of Ms Paltrow it’s maybe unsurprising that there was no room left on the veranda when she stepped on the stage to be interviewed by Monica Karo (OMD CEO US). The initial topic of diversity is a key theme at this year’s Cannes Lions and Monica wasted no time in asking why there were so few women in leadership roles and what we can do about it. Gwyneth talked about how women needed an “absolute self-belief” in their abilities and the courage to ignore the people who simply tell them that “they can’t”. The word she used to describe this was “teflonness” which obviously can’t be found in a dictionary but we all know exactly what she means.

Intriguingly, apart from those traits of self-confidence and the ability to shun detractors she also focused on how innate “femininity is an asset” and that this “softness” can be used as a genuine advantage. Her e-commerce health and wellbeing business Goop is mainly comprised of women and she alluded to the fact that all her employees have all these elements in their skillset.

When quizzed about what scares her, Gwyneth was surprisingly honest with her response: “I’m scared sh**less all the time”. And the main cause of that fear is the unknown. As a relatively new entrepreneur she is evidently keen to learn and cited a number of mentors and colleagues who are assisting her on her commercial journey. And it’s clear that she is prepared to face those fears when she claimed to be “fastidious about what I don’t know” whilst equally accepting that she just doesn’t comprehend certain aspects of her business: “Facebook pixels? F**k off. I will never understand how that works!”

So what does she do to counteract those pockets of knowledge that she doesn’t have? Simple. Like all strong leaders, she employs people who are “way smarter than me” to do the jobs that she cannot do. As she so eloquently out it, “it takes a village”.

To close the fireside chat, Monica asked her where she wanted her business to be in five years time. Her answer was measured and smart. Paltrow wants her business to avoid haphazard growth and grow steadily into a “massive, modern, global lifestyle brand with health and wellbeing at its heart”. And when Goop does push its boundaries beyond the US she wants to guarantee that they are sensitive to culture and values. Simply put? “Do it well”.

This is the second year that Gwyneth has attended the OMD Oasis to talk about Goop. She has been impressive on both occasions but this year, even more so. In just one year she has transformed herself from being a Hollywood A-lister trying to become a powerful business icon into a powerful business icon who used to a Hollywood A-lister. Now that’s what I call a transformation.

The fifth OMD Oasis kicked off yesterday with our very own Mainardo de Nardis stating that the Oasis line-up of speaker was arguably stronger than at the Palais itself. It would be difficult to argue with him when the triumvirate of speakers included Imran Khan from Snapchat, Linda Yaccarino from NBC Universal and Gwyneth Paltrow from Goop.

Given the star quality of Ms Paltrow it’s maybe unsurprising that there was no room left on the veranda when she stepped on the stage to be interviewed by Monica Karo (OMD CEO US). The initial topic of diversity is a key theme at this year’s Cannes Lions and Monica wasted no time in asking why there were so few women in leadership roles and what we can do about it. Gwyneth talked about how women needed an “absolute self-belief” in their abilities and the courage to ignore the people who simply tell them that “they can’t”. The word she used to describe this was “teflonness” which obviously can’t be found in a dictionary but we all know exactly what she means.

Intriguingly, apart from those traits of self-confidence and the ability to shun detractors she also focused on how innate “femininity is an asset” and that this “softness” can be used as a genuine advantage. Her e-commerce health and wellbeing business Goop is mainly comprised of women and she alluded to the fact that all her employees have all these elements in their skillset.

When quizzed about what scares her, Gwyneth was surprisingly honest with her response: “I’m scared sh**less all the time”. And the main cause of that fear is the unknown. As a relatively new entrepreneur she is evidently keen to learn and cited a number of mentors and colleagues who are assisting her on her commercial journey. And it’s clear that she is prepared to face those fears when she claimed to be “fastidious about what I don’t know” whilst equally accepting that she just doesn’t comprehend certain aspects of her business: “Facebook pixels? F**k off. I will never understand how that works!”

So what does she do to counteract those pockets of knowledge that she doesn’t have? Simple. Like all strong leaders, she employs people who are “way smarter than me” to do the jobs that she cannot do. As she so eloquently out it, “it takes a village”.

To close the fireside chat, Monica asked her where she wanted her business to be in five years time. Her answer was measured and smart. Paltrow wants her business to avoid haphazard growth and grow steadily into a “massive, modern, global lifestyle brand with health and wellbeing at its heart”. And when Goop does push its boundaries beyond the US she wants to guarantee that they are sensitive to culture and values. Simply put? “Do it well”.

This is the second year that Gwyneth has attended the OMD Oasis to talk about Goop. She has been impressive on both occasions but this year, even more so. In just one year she has transformed herself from being a Hollywood A-lister trying to become a powerful business icon into a powerful business icon who used to a Hollywood A-lister. Now that’s what I call a transformation.

They say that great stories start in Cannes, so it was only fitting that I should kick the day off with the bold and brilliant session entitled The Biology of a Creative Idea. Adam Horowitz (MIT Media Lab) and Benjamin Tritt (ArtMATR) delivered a stimulating and challenging examination of how the world continues to divide art and science, and how we tend to choose between either empiricism or experience, never both. But it is when there is a convergence of the two, when we value the surrounding context as much as the event itself, that we create something new. We create a space where art and technology can co-exist and sparks of creativity occur more readily.

Horowitz brought the language of neuroscience into the picture, which always gets me excited and a little daunted. Once we’d established that transient hypofrontality is when you give your brain a rest for a short period of time, say when you’re in the shower or meditating, and allow new neural connections to form, thus increasing the likelihood of an ‘ah-ha!’ moment, it all made sense. Children are highly hypofrontal and we have much to learn from them in terms of how their play is such a rich source of creativity. Intuitively, we know all of this, but it’s hard getting out of our own heads and our automatic thought processes. Yet we have to open up and form new connections (neural and physical) if we want to be creative and create cultures that truly embrace and fuel creativity.

The intersection of engineers and artists

Tritt’s company, ArtMATR, is an example of that very intersection of engineers and artists. ArtMATR has created robotic painting tools that use the motion, speed, angle, tilt, rotation, and pressure of a pen; all of that data is saved into a file, and turned into code. Into code that ‘paints’. The result is that you have a video file that shows the journey of a painting over time; we can see the numerous revisions that an artist made over time to perfect a work of art and that journey is accessible for others to see for as long as we want.

The theme of open access continued into the next session; What NASA and Space Exploration Can Teach Us about Creativity. James DeJulio (Co-founder of Tongal) began by stating why ‘open’ is good. We praise people who are open-minded, open-hearted, who welcome others with open arms. And yet we embrace closed systems and tend to expect the same people in our organization to solve our thorniest problems. DeJulio said that ‘openness is a catalyst to breakthrough’ and that you need new individuals and new groups of people to bring a fresh perspective to your issues.

Jason Crusan (Director of Advanced Exploration, NASA) was the case study on why openness is good. Space exploration is a $300 billion industry, of which $80 billion is funded by the government. That means that rest of the funding comes from commercial entities and that is to be encouraged. In fact, NASA see themselves as an orchestra; they’re creating the infrastructure that allows for commercial exploration beyond lower orbit. This stems from NASA’s mission which is to Share the Journey, to broaden people’s horizons. Their vision means that NASA is ‘one of the most open organisations in the galaxy’, the proof of which lies in their Tournament Lab, which uses crowdsourcing to tackle NASA’s biggest challenges. But being this open comes at a risk, the most recent and hilarious one being their Space Poop Challenge, where NASA called for solutions to human waste management inside a spacesuit for 5 days. The comedian Trevor Noah devoted a lengthy sketch to this on The Daily Show, but as Crusan remarked, if NASA can be this open, surely everyone else can.

I then headed over to the Inspiration Stage to see Man, Machine and Creativity: IBM Watson & Alex da Kid. Bob Lord (IBM’s Chief Digital Officer) talked about how we’re living in times that demand even more creativity, and that AI is both redefining what it means to be creative as well as enhancing human creativity.  Many of our assumptions regarding AI have been shaped by popular culture, with film characters such as HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968) and R2-D2 (Star Wars, 1997) painting two extremes. HER (2013) offered a glimpse into a future in which AI would be more nuanced and emotional, and today, Watson can recognize the content and context of language, and understand tone, personality, and emotion. It has become the muse of artists, resulting in collaborations that put social data at the heart of the art. From the 2016 Marchesa & Watson’s Met Ball ‘A Dress That Thinks’, to the Anthoni Gaudi inspired sculpture that was showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress, Watson is injecting innovation and creativity into the arts and the result is something completely new and thought -provoking.

The creative process

Music Producer and Grammy nominee Alex da Kid shared his creative process with the audience and it was refreshingly honest and funny. It all starts with a dinner (or in Cannes it might be a long lunch!) where he talks to people about the things that they wouldn’t usually tell anyone, because ultimately, he’s after the truth. He wants to go beneath the surface of what the artist says is their vision for an album and figure out what’s really driving them. His need to understand individual human behavior ultimately allows him to tap into the shared experiences that we all feel, and this is where Watson comes in. Watson gave Alex da Kid insight into what was going in society at the time, and revealed that there was a global movement towards darker songs, which in turn influenced the direction of the first cognitive song ‘Not Easy’.  He’s now using Watson to analyse the lyrics of award-winning songs over the years to understand human motivation and preference shifts over time. Watson therefore serves as one more point of inspiration in the creative process.

Our desire to access creativity at will for ourselves, for our organisations, even for the systems that we develop is why these sessions were packed. We heard repeatedly that creativity comes from new encounters with man or machine, and that made me think about the importance of festivals like this. When we meet new people and we create a space for spontaneity, wonderful things can happen. Whether it’s your first or thirty-first year at Cannes, the festival delivers inspiration and education if you’re ready for it. I’m looking forward to Day 2.

They say that great stories start in Cannes, so it was only fitting that I should kick the day off with the bold and brilliant session entitled The Biology of a Creative Idea. Adam Horowitz (MIT Media Lab) and Benjamin Tritt (ArtMATR) delivered a stimulating and challenging examination of how the world continues to divide art and science, and how we tend to choose between either empiricism or experience, never both. But it is when there is a convergence of the two, when we value the surrounding context as much as the event itself, that we create something new. We create a space where art and technology can co-exist and sparks of creativity occur more readily.

Horowitz brought the language of neuroscience into the picture, which always gets me excited and a little daunted. Once we’d established that transient hypofrontality is when you give your brain a rest for a short period of time, say when you’re in the shower or meditating, and allow new neural connections to form, thus increasing the likelihood of an ‘ah-ha!’ moment, it all made sense. Children are highly hypofrontal and we have much to learn from them in terms of how their play is such a rich source of creativity. Intuitively, we know all of this, but it’s hard getting out of our own heads and our automatic thought processes. Yet we have to open up and form new connections (neural and physical) if we want to be creative and create cultures that truly embrace and fuel creativity.

The intersection of engineers and artists

Tritt’s company, ArtMATR, is an example of that very intersection of engineers and artists. ArtMATR has created robotic painting tools that use the motion, speed, angle, tilt, rotation, and pressure of a pen; all of that data is saved into a file, and turned into code. Into code that ‘paints’. The result is that you have a video file that shows the journey of a painting over time; we can see the numerous revisions that an artist made over time to perfect a work of art and that journey is accessible for others to see for as long as we want.

The theme of open access continued into the next session; What NASA and Space Exploration Can Teach Us about Creativity. James DeJulio (Co-founder of Tongal) began by stating why ‘open’ is good. We praise people who are open-minded, open-hearted, who welcome others with open arms. And yet we embrace closed systems and tend to expect the same people in our organization to solve our thorniest problems. DeJulio said that ‘openness is a catalyst to breakthrough’ and that you need new individuals and new groups of people to bring a fresh perspective to your issues.

Jason Crusan (Director of Advanced Exploration, NASA) was the case study on why openness is good. Space exploration is a $300 billion industry, of which $80 billion is funded by the government. That means that rest of the funding comes from commercial entities and that is to be encouraged. In fact, NASA see themselves as an orchestra; they’re creating the infrastructure that allows for commercial exploration beyond lower orbit. This stems from NASA’s mission which is to Share the Journey, to broaden people’s horizons. Their vision means that NASA is ‘one of the most open organisations in the galaxy’, the proof of which lies in their Tournament Lab, which uses crowdsourcing to tackle NASA’s biggest challenges. But being this open comes at a risk, the most recent and hilarious one being their Space Poop Challenge, where NASA called for solutions to human waste management inside a spacesuit for 5 days. The comedian Trevor Noah devoted a lengthy sketch to this on The Daily Show, but as Crusan remarked, if NASA can be this open, surely everyone else can.

I then headed over to the Inspiration Stage to see Man, Machine and Creativity: IBM Watson & Alex da Kid. Bob Lord (IBM’s Chief Digital Officer) talked about how we’re living in times that demand even more creativity, and that AI is both redefining what it means to be creative as well as enhancing human creativity.  Many of our assumptions regarding AI have been shaped by popular culture, with film characters such as HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968) and R2-D2 (Star Wars, 1997) painting two extremes. HER (2013) offered a glimpse into a future in which AI would be more nuanced and emotional, and today, Watson can recognize the content and context of language, and understand tone, personality, and emotion. It has become the muse of artists, resulting in collaborations that put social data at the heart of the art. From the 2016 Marchesa & Watson’s Met Ball ‘A Dress That Thinks’, to the Anthoni Gaudi inspired sculpture that was showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress, Watson is injecting innovation and creativity into the arts and the result is something completely new and thought -provoking.

The creative process

Music Producer and Grammy nominee Alex da Kid shared his creative process with the audience and it was refreshingly honest and funny. It all starts with a dinner (or in Cannes it might be a long lunch!) where he talks to people about the things that they wouldn’t usually tell anyone, because ultimately, he’s after the truth. He wants to go beneath the surface of what the artist says is their vision for an album and figure out what’s really driving them. His need to understand individual human behavior ultimately allows him to tap into the shared experiences that we all feel, and this is where Watson comes in. Watson gave Alex da Kid insight into what was going in society at the time, and revealed that there was a global movement towards darker songs, which in turn influenced the direction of the first cognitive song ‘Not Easy’.  He’s now using Watson to analyse the lyrics of award-winning songs over the years to understand human motivation and preference shifts over time. Watson therefore serves as one more point of inspiration in the creative process.

Our desire to access creativity at will for ourselves, for our organisations, even for the systems that we develop is why these sessions were packed. We heard repeatedly that creativity comes from new encounters with man or machine, and that made me think about the importance of festivals like this. When we meet new people and we create a space for spontaneity, wonderful things can happen. Whether it’s your first or thirty-first year at Cannes, the festival delivers inspiration and education if you’re ready for it. I’m looking forward to Day 2.