Cannes 2019: Trends, Talking Points and Twists

Cannes is upon us again. Personally I can’t wait to discover what the best creative minds in our industry have been working on over the last 12 months and catch up with a few familiar faces. 

It’s set to be an interesting year. Publicis are back after a short hiatus, there’s been some big mergers and acquisitions and there’ll no doubt be a few big announcements too. What they’ll be I have no clue, but here are a few talking points that I think will be ever present:

Despite the abundance of cool technology kicking around and debates surrounding data, one thing that I think will be (re)confirmed in Cannes is that ideas still reign supreme. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a product, website or campaign, the most important component will still be the idea behind it all.

Bonjour captain obvious. But here’s the twist — data of the future is not the way we think about data now. I think we’ll see a trend of brands and agencies that emerge from Cannes that are really pushing the boundaries, innovating with data and creating something truly unique. The difference this time is that at the heart of it all will be creativity. 

One of the themes that will emanate from Cannes will be what the power and purpose of digital actually is. I see two main arguments being made for online content and digital interactivity. On the one hand I think we’ll see some argue that the power of digital is the democratisation of ideas, where conversation is sparked and ideas are shared. On the other, there are those that argue that digital is a space for deeper experiences and interactivity. Ultimately in my opinion there’s a truth to both sides but it will be fascinating to see which way the industry lands in the debate. 

It’s always an interesting discussion around the value of social good or cause driven work. As opposed to previous years where the spotlight was on non-profit work, I think brands with purpose will get the lion's share of attention. My feeling is that there’s been a slight shift towards non-profit being mostly seen as a vehicle for agency recognition and it’s now not considered to be as impressive as client work.

In advertising I think we’d benefit if we awarded more brand purpose work as it encourages agencies to push brands into the space. For AnalogFolk you can see it in our mission and in examples like our work with Nike on ‘Nulla Puo Fermaci’ (Stop At Nothing). It’s campaigns that are able to shift culture, influence behaviour and change things for the better that shows the true power of our industry.