Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
With France crowned the winners of the FIFA World Cup after a nail biting tournament, we turn our attention from the pitch back to business. For Omnicom this means the launch of Omni – our marketing and insights platform. “Until now, the idea of mass personalisation was more of an aspiration than a reality – Omni changes that. This is precision marketing at scale and in action. And the new platform can be leveraged by all Omnicom clients across multiple disciplines.”
AI is also hot on everyone’s lips, as new research reveals that personal touch trumps AI in the workplace. Apparently, the majority of us would rather talk to a real person over a machine when it comes to workplace issues. If you’re looking to win a complex first-person multiplayer video game however – AI might be your ticket – and with children as young as one interacting with voice activation, it’s easy to see why we’re so taken with this tech.
HEADLINES
- One for all of us: Omnicom Media Group launches marketing and insights platform ‘Omni’
- Pinterest adds a chat tool for collaborative planning boards
- Experts say ICO’s fine to Facebook signals seriousness of its GDPR enforcement
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
While the industry recovers from Cannes Lions 2018, it is a perfect time to reflect on the trends and #OMDCANNES highlights from Cannes and around the world. Still got FOMO? Don’t worry, the FIFA World Cup has been hotting up as quickly as the weather!
AutoTrader is getting in on the action, giving away a brand new car EVERY time England scores a goal, while the latest mobile craze HQ Trivia is using World Cup half-time quiz rounds to increase their ever-growing audience.
Follow our OMD World Cup Social Tracker to stay afoot of all the action, trends and conversations from Russia!
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
Square eyes, sore thumbs, general FOMO… is your time well spent? Social media platforms are contradicting the behaviour that inherently comes with their programs by monitoring how much time you wile away online. In the interest of saving time, Instagram now adds shopping capabilities to stories whilst Snapchat adds ‘another dimension’ of measurement through marketing mix modelling. Oh snap.
Whilst you jealously watch revellers on the French Riviera at Cannes, do so in the knowledge that hot nights = loads more shopping. Restless sleepers will turn to the internet to soothe themselves back to a restful state with the promise of a shiny delivery in the morning. Festival-goers (and anyone for that matter) can also rest easy by knowing that any emergency calls made will automatically share your iPhone location with iOS12. Time to get that update.
Last but far from least, check out the great work that OMD is doing at Cannes Lions 2018 with our purpose-built site – bringing you live feeds, blogs, thought leadership and the ‘best of’ in one hot spot. Get in on the action and join the conversation – #OMDCANNES
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
- During an emergency iOS 12 will share your location
- A journalist who lost his voice due to a rare condition, is back on air with the help of AI
- Budweiser launches the first sound-activated Snapchat Lens during the World Cup
DEEP READS
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
The 64th iteration of the annual Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity commences on Saturday and I’ve taken a sneak peak at the schedule of events to see what’s hot and what’s not.
Over the past decade, the trend at Cannes has been to focus on star appeal and judging by the snaking queues to get into these events it’s clearly a tactic that works. Hollywood A listers such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Will Smith and Channing Tatum took centre stage last year at the Palais. And the line-up this year is arguably more impressive with the likes of Alicia Silverstone, Armin Van Buuren, Demi Lovato, Ellie Goulding, Halle Berry, Dame Helen Mirren, Laura Dern, Mena Suvari, Ron Howard, Ryan Seacrest, Simon Le Bon and Sir Ian McKellen treading the boards of Debussy and Lumiere.
But beyond the glamour and glitz of the celebrity guests, there is also much more to enjoy across the 8 days / 18 stages / 450+ talks on offer to the 15,000 or so delegates. Many of the presentations revolve around how the media landscape continues to morph as almost everything becomes digitized, plus a strong focus on how brands are increasingly turning to entertainment content to engage with their customers. Featured themes include curated talks on aspects of our industry including diversity, creativity for good, visions of the future and brave brands.
It’s difficult to pick out individual slots but one session that caught my eye was “Can Data Make You Funnier” featuring Ginger the Robot who is billed as a “professional robot actor and comedian”. It poses the question as to whether a robot, through the use of big data, can master one of the most difficult skills a human can achieve: to make others laugh. Not an easy task but I’d wager that Ginger can’t be any worse than Harry Hill.
Cannes Events beyond the Palais
But it’s not all about what happens at the Palais as the event has inevitably expanded onto the Croisette and its beautiful beaches. Both Facebook and Google have a slew of fireside chats and seminars down by the sea and OMD will be back at their usual Cabana location for the 5th OMD Oasis.
This year the four key themes will be:
- Smarter Stories for Growth
- Everything is media
- Anything is content
- Everywhere is data
There is also a pretty impressive list of speakers including Imran Khan (Snapchat), Mark Thompson (New York Times) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) to name but a few. All that and Bacardi cocktails from 4.00pm. What’s not to like?
The Coveted Cannes Lions
And finally to the awards themselves, which is the real reason why this event exists. Allegedly. The past two years have been particularly strong with the likes of the Volvo ‘Live Test’ featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme doing the splits between two trucks and the cute John Lewis Christmas campaign by Manning Gottlieb featuring Monty the Penguin.
This year a total of 390 judges from 50 countries (including OMD EMEA’s President, Nikki Mendonça) will pore over an estimated 45,000+ entries. And given that ‘diversity’ is a core theme of the event this year it’s interesting to note that 42% of this years judges are women which is the highest ever (and more than double the number from 2012).
It’s a tad too early to predict who the likely winners will be this year (many of the shortlists haven’t been released yet) but I fully expect a focus on ‘bravery’ given the highlight on the agenda. And with all new categories this year for 360° video, VR and AR it’s reasonable to assume that the ultimate winners will have an element of these new technologies as a focal part of their composition. For a full review of all winners and a ‘best of’ review of the 2017 Lions look out for my blog late next week. Until then ‘bonne chance’ and ‘a toute à l’heure’. Je pense.
For any additional information, thoughts or further details please don’t hesitate to contact us at OMD EMEA
Through MG OMD’s CANNESdidates programme we had the chance to attend the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2016. We spent 3 days listening to inspirational talks, trying out new technologies and attending a few parties.
We’re certain you don’t want to listen to us boasting about the various celebrities spotted, so instead, over the next 2 days we will talk you through some of the key learnings from the most interesting talks we attended, focusing on the overall topics of purpose, collaboration and creativity that ran throughout the festival.
STRESS DRIVES CREATIVITY
Carl Addy, Creative Director for The Mill, talked about the SNAFU: a word for chaos and messed-up situations and how they are fuel for creativity. As people, we are built to perform and problem-solve through creativity – that’s how we evolved as a human race from the Stone Age to the modern world we live in now. However, it is key to make a clear distinction between good and bad stress. Bad stress leads to tunnel vision, whereas good stress creates a challenge and avoids stagnation. It is important to note that creativity is not about the right or wrong answer – sometimes it’s better to be more interesting than right. Also, we need to be comfortable with not being able to control everything and learn to work with our gut feelings.
Summary: Don’t be scared of stress – it helps you to think creatively and come up with new solutions. Don’t try to control everything and trust your instinct.
HOW TO WIN A CANNES LION
‘Cracking the code of creativity’ session by Razorfish and Contagious analysed 25 years of Cannes Lions winners with the goal of identifying the key factors that maximise the chance of winning a Lion.
To be honest, the general feeling was that winning a Lion is extremely hard; the percentages speak for themselves:
- Bronze Lion 1.7%
- Silver Lion 1.83%
- Gold Lion 0.73%
- Grand Prix 0.07%
So how can we maximise our chances? Interestingly, the research showed that there is no correlation between creativity and media spend, no correlation between the GDP of the country and creativity and no correlation between the size of the agency and the likelihood of winning a Lion. So it seems the code is far from cracked, however here are a few indicators that do have some influence:
- Clients and agencies that stick together have a much better win rate! 10+ year client/agency relationships experience x2 the average winning rate
- Submissions that have more individual people involved are more successful by 26%
- Submissions with a larger share of below director level individuals are more successful
- Submissions with 3+ agencies credited have 42% higher rate of winning
Summary: Every campaign has a chance to win a Cannes Lion no matter what the budget, the key is relationships between the agencies and the clients as well as involvement across all levels of the businesses.
SHIFTING FROM TARGET TO GOAL
The actor, Will Smith, had one of the most inspirational talks of the festival discussing how the internet has changed the movie industry and how social media puts pressure onto film directors to make great movies due to instant reviews.
Then he hit a more philosophical note regarding how brands and individuals need to shift from targets to goals. This would build both brand and personal legacy. Question all of your decisions – are they helping you reach your goals?
Summary: Do you know what your brand and personal purposes are? If so, make sure any decisions you make help you to get there.
IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THE WAY WE WORK WITH CLIENTS AND OTHER AGENCIES
Al Moseley from 180Amsterdam spoke about moving from the imperialist model to the Roman orgy. Sounds very saucy but it posed a lot of truth. Currently, competing agencies in front of the client are like gladiators fighting in front of an Emperor. They are constantly fighting their corner and waiting for approval. All too often the consumer gets forgotten in this process as well as keeping track of the bigger picture. We need to be reminded that the real Emperors are the consumers and they are the ones to please.
Agencies and clients should move to a more collaborative Roman Orgy model where everybody has clear ambition, knows the rules, trusts each other and creativity is encouraged. This will provide a sound basis for a collaborative culture, healthier relationships and overall commitment to the common goal. To start the collaboration process, Al Moseley encouraged all parties to agree on three key questions:
1.) Do we know the ambition and purpose? Do we share the ideology?
2.) Is everyone empowered to contribute in a positive way?
3.) Are we prepared to push boundaries and if so, where do we draw the line?
Summary: We are stronger when working together; creativity should be a collaborative effort rather than a clash of egos and bravado. Everybody needs to be equally invested in a relationship and have the same ambition and purpose.
FUTURE BRANDS ARE CHANGING THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER
Keith Weed from Unilever talked about the power of individuals, influencers and impacts, but primarily focused on the latter.
Advertising has the power to change habits, hearts and minds meaning that big multinational corporations, such as Unilever, have the chance to touch people across the world at scale. They moved from advertising to sell products, to advertising with a purpose. Some of these examples – Lynx – Find Your Magic , Persil – Dirt is Good, Dove – Self Esteem Project fight stereotypes and encourage social good. We create better advertising if we create more progressive, purposeful ads.
The good news is that purpose led ads are more successful. At Unilever – sustainable living brands grew 30% faster than the rest of the business.
Summary – The returns on purpose-led advertising are not limited to a feel-good factor and a sense of moral achievement – It also provides growth and revenue.
WHAT IS INEVITABLE IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS
Wired’s Kevin Kelly covered four out of 12 predictions for the future. He highlighted that these changes are inevitable, but specifics can’t be known until it actually happens.
1.) Virtual reality (VR) will be the next platform after the smartphone and will take shape in Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality. The key to these new realities is that we are not trading clicks and views, we are trading emotions and experiences. So don’t try to put a banner in VR – give people a story and an experience they can relate to. New realities allow us to move to the internet of experiences. Check out Magic Leap – they pave the way of future MR.
2.) ‘Cognifying’ – making everyday things smart via artificial intelligence (AI). Kelly calls it the second industrial revolution (some say the fourth). When electricity was invented, we no longer needed to use muscle power to move things. With AI, there will be no need for us to complete certain thinking tasks that require efficiency.
Example: When we applied electricity to a water pump, we no longer needed to manually pump the water out of the well. Now take the electric water pump and apply AI – and you no longer need to think when to pump the water.
3.) Don’t worry about AI taking over – it will be better than humans on specific tasks, but not for everything. Just because a dog is much better at smelling or a mouse in hearing, it doesn’t mean they comprehend the bigger picture. In the same way, Siri is smarter than we are in understanding maps and navigation, or Google Now is smarter than we are in finding the information, but it is just that. AI will become a service, a grid that you can tap into to get extra cognitive power (like electricity, gas or water presently). We will be able to ‘borrow’ some extra thinking power to complete our tasks faster and with more precision. There are, of course, still be questions to be answered, such as AI ethics, for example, with autonomous AI cars, at the point of an imminent crash, who’s safety will it put first – the passenger’s or the pedestrian’s?…
4.) Centaurs – teams of humans and AI working together, rather than AI taking over. It will take over jobs that require efficient process and precise outcome. AI will also create new jobs for humans (the same way the internet did), where efficiency is not a priority – such as arts, experiences, scientific innovation – areas that require creativity, bravery and testing. AI will be able to diagnose and cure diseases like cancer, perform gene modification – but we will pave the way in identifying what to actually research (using AI of course).
Summary: The future is always hard to predict, but at present, we can assume it will be tech-driven with machines having the capability to make us super-human.
In conclusion, we had an incredible time at the Cannes Festival of Creativity 2016 and are so grateful to MG OMD for the opportunity to attend. Through hard work and a winning idea, we got to witness the incredible advancements of thought and technology taking place in our industry first-hand and through the mist of sunshine, sea and the occasional glass of rosé, we learnt to look to the future and embrace the changes that promise to impact us all. We are ready, are you?
Originally posted at http://blog.mgomd.com/cannes-2016-cannesdidates-wrap-up-part-1/ and http://blog.mgomd.com/cannes-2016-cannesdidates-wrap-up-part-2/
Tim Shank can guarantee he’ll never leave home without his keys. Why? His house keys are located inside his body. Shank, the president of the Minneapolis futurist group TwinCities+, has a chip installed in his hand that can communicate electronically with his front door and tell it to unlock itself. Shank is one of a growing number of “biohackers” who implant hardware ranging from microchips to magnets inside their bodies. Some biohackers use their implants in experimental art projects whilst others who have disabilities or medical conditions use them to improve their quality of life. Whilst the long-term health risks of the practise are still unknown, many biohackers claim that, if done right, implants can be no more dangerous than getting a piercing or tattoo. With 25% of Australians found to be “at least slightly interested” in paying for purchases through a chip implanted in their bodies, it looks like we could be looking at a very advanced future for contactless payment. As always, share anything interesting you spot with #OMDFWD
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
It wasn’t the first time we had entered the MG OMD CANNESdidates competition. This was Justin’s second time and for me I was hoping for third time lucky. This meant we knew what to expect but it also put added pressure to do well.
Every year the Young Cannes Lion competition brief relates to a charity and with the current refugee crisis in Europe in mind, we had a gut feeling that it might be the topic… So when the British Red Cross brief landed on our lap, it wasn’t a big surprise.
The process wasn’t as easy as we had hoped (does it ever go according to plan?). We only had 24 hours to create a full media plan to answer the brief and 16 hours into the process we still didn’t have a clear direction! We had a pool of complicated, interlinked ideas, but we knew that none of them were winners – Cannes is all about brilliant simplicity, ideas that instantly make sense based on “but of course!” kind of insight. After many debates we decided to trust our gut feeling and run with it.
We found that hostile attitudes towards refugees drives negative headlines and as we are wired to pay more attention to doom and gloom, positive stories slip through our radar. Journalism has identified these behaviours and subsequently adapted their language to drive consumers to read their articles, completing the negativity cycle and deepening the existing hostility towards refugees. On top of that, personalisation algorithms in social media and search engines fuel this behaviour even more, creating an information bubble where we are only served negative content. More of the same, over and over again, because we, as humans, naturally prefer it.
As we cannot fight this behaviour, we decided to use it to our advantage – martial arts style. We planned to use clickbait headlines as well as hiding negative keywords within the stories as a way of infiltrating the information bubble and getting people to see and read inspirational refugee stories that are usually omitted by the publishers. This way we hoped not only to minimise the perceived gap between ‘us and them’, but also to tell memorable and impactful stories that would lead to more empathy and a step change in opinion (this is proven by studies!).
So the day came to meet the MG OMD board and despite feeling very confident about our work, we were still quite nervous! After our presentation and answering some thorough questions, we all gathered at the Dev (MG OMD’s local watering hole) to hear the final verdict… The moment we heard our names called out as the winners was truly amazing and honestly still feels surreal!
So now we are counting down the days, filling our diaries with amazing Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity talks and of course responding to all of the fancy yacht party invitations does take time…
Vin rosé, s’il vous plait!
Originally posted on the Manning Gottlieb OMD Blog (http://blog.mgomd.com/cannesdidates-wonderful-winners-2016/).
More information about #OMDOASIS #CannesLions at http://cannes.omd.com.