Geometry Global CCO Jon Hamm Talks Brand Experience with Cannes Lions

The desire for great 'experiences' has become a mainstay of consumer culture and is at the heart of every brand’s future growth, says Cannes Lions. Meanwhile, WARC’s recent 2019 Marketers Toolkit reports that customer experience is highlighted as the most important priority for digital transformation in the year ahead, and selected as the key priority area by 52% of clients and 61% of agencies.

In the first of a series of Deep Dive Reports published by Cannes Lions ahead of this summer’s 2019 festival, Geometry’s global chief creative officer, Jon Hamm, is one of a handful of leading creative and marketing thought leaders offering clarity on what a great brand experience looks like. He joins General Mills’ chief brand officer NA Brad Hiranaga; Burger King’s CMO Fernando Machardo; and YH Lee, global CMO Samsung, among others in a series of interviews.

What makes for a great brand experience? Jon believes in putting the needs of the people first. “Try and understand from the very beginning what’s relevant to the person, how do they want to be entertained, how do they want to be engaged, what is useful to them? Approach it through this lens you’ve got the beginning of a great brand experience.”

The Deep Dive 'Inside Brand Experience' is a treasure-trove of insights. It defines brand experience in 2019, explores four ways to build a better brand experience, looks at how difference forms of technology are enabling better brand experience.

Importantly, the interviewees believe that everything comes back to the creative culture.

"I think it is important to create an environment where failing is OK. If you are on the leading edge of creativity, you are always creating a new path. You need to be OK with making mistakes. If you're not comfortable with this, your organisation will probably become risk-averse and not create anything truly new or creative," said Burger King’s Fernando Machado.

Explains Charlotte Williams, VP content, Cannes Lions: “Delivering exceptional consumer experience has been identified as a core theme for the Festival this year, as brands urgently look to keep up with the likes of Amazon and Apple, who are constantly re-defining what success in this space looks like.”

She concludes: “People have such high expectations and demands that just one piece of friction in their interaction with a brand can lead to negative consequences, amplified by social media. Our research has shown that brands now recognise the incredible opportunities and possibilities offered by 5G, by AI and good old-fashioned face to face. We are particularly excited to see the work and content that will be delivered on this topic this year and we’re confident it will be mind-blowing. There’s a sense from the people we’ve spoken to that we’re only at the beginning of what’s possible.”