“The World Has Heard a lot of Sad Stories. To Drive Real Change, We Need Solutions.”
This year, LBB’s theme for Cannes is ‘Better Together’ and there’s nowhere that the advertising and marketing world needs to come together more than tackling the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. From the climate crisis to social injustice, there are countless issues in the world crying out for creative solutions, making the Sustainable Development Goals Lions an important beacon for the advertising and marketing world.
Jean Lin, global chief culture officer at Dentsu Group Inc. is heading up the SDG Lions jury for 2023 and it’s a responsibility she takes seriously. Here she chats to LBB’s Laura Swinton about bringing the industry together and the kind of creative ideas it takes to make the world a kinder place and enact systemic change.
LBB> How can the industry work better together to ensure brilliance and impact when it comes to ensuring that craft is at the highest standard?
Jean> There is a great deal of focus put on craft in our industry and for good reason. Truly great campaigns create effectiveness by emotionally connecting to the audience through the power of excellent craft.
This is especially apparent in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Cannes Lions; to close the gap between intention and behaviour, and to encourage more sustainable lifestyles, you need the combination of craft, original ideas, and new business models to create true impact.
The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity brings together leaders of the industry and celebrates the best and most impactful work of the year. Awards like the Cannes Lions play an important role in honouring creativity, innovation, and effectiveness while elevating the work the whole industry and creative ecosystem aspire to create. Through attention to craft, we have the power to move the industry forward and redefine success.
LBB> What relationships between different departments, agencies and companies do you think are most crucial to building up and protecting at this time in advertising?
Jean> Advertising is most successful as a collaborative endeavour. It is crucial for us to be aware of multiple perspectives and proactively reach out to connect with others; it is through diversity and empathy of others that we will be the most successful. This is even true within an agency. Creative and finance, account services and technology, everyone must work toward the same goal. The lines of advertising are blurred more and more each day. Creative, technology and media all come together to support emerging platforms and audiences. Powerful new tools like AI will best serve clients, brands, and society only when we understand the impact from many different perspectives.
LBB> Looking at last year's SDG Grand Prix winner ‘The Missing Chapter’, what collaborations do you think will have been most important to ensure that became a Grand Prix winner at Cannes Lions?
Jean> The Missing Chapter is a perfect example of an authentic idea making real change in society. This was not a goodwill or CSR campaign. Although important, CSR campaigns have a smaller and more targeted reach. This work creates such a powerful cultural expression for a taboo long existing in Indian history, a simple and smart idea that changes a girl’s life as she grows into puberty, and you don’t even have to be loud if you evoke actions by involving all parts of the system to effect real and substantial change.
The work is a prime example of the exponential power of collaboration at each step and involving all parts of a system to affect real and substantial change not only for one small community but for a nation. It involves people who came up with the idea (the agencies), the media who amplified the idea, the political leaders that advocated the idea, and the council of education and policymakers to ensure the government is committed to changing a century old education system. This is clear evidence that engaging and mobilising stakeholders in the ecosystem is a critical component in driving systemic change.
LBB> What issue or topic do you think the industry needs to find more alignment and unity on? And how do you hope we will get there together?
Jean> There are a few topics our industry would do well to align on including emerging technologies like AI, but our commitment to supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how we address climate change to be more sustainable is top of mind for me. It is important for agencies to work with our clients and brands to help to reach their sustainability goals with ideas and innovation. Igniting change with our clients is the best way to create sustainable business solutions for the future and create impactful solutions at scale that make the world a better place.
LBB> Advertising industry case studies can be really effective when it comes to describing a really grave or serious situation - but that doesn’t always translate to an idea that has genuinely made a difference. What’s the key to sorting out the cases that are a good bit of sad storytelling from the work that has genuinely made a difference?
Jean> The world has heard a lot of sad stories. To drive real change, we need solutions.
When judging the SDG Cannes Lions, we are trying to look for work that drives systemic change and not just awareness of a problem. We are not looking for stories. We are looking for solutions and their evidence of impact.
The work could advocate, educate, and influence consumer behaviour to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle because we all know the consumer is a key part of the equation to make the world better. Every time we buy something, we are casting a vote for the future in which we would like to live.
It could address an important social issue by creating an ecosystem for change that connects innovators, policymakers, companies, and NGOs to make a difference feasible. Collaboration and ecosystem creation is a critical capability to make things real.
I am always looking for work that demonstrates a clear foundation of how that connection made SDGs part of the broader business strategy. Because the only way sustainability will work is to be an authentic part of the economic value chain. Growth through Good is what businesses can do to build sustainable futures. When brands and enterprises embrace a mindset not just of driving and delivering exponential growth, but of sustainable growth, and when consumers understand and are motivated to support the new business models, products, and services, you will be able to see the impact it truly creates to build culture and change society.
LBB> And what are the current big debates within your specific category - or more generally across the industry - that you expect to see coming through in the judging?
Jean> How do we define success and what should the priorities be?
What must be addressed now and what do we need to solve in the near future?
How do companies select the right areas to focus on so that they can connect their own growth with their authentic, good intention?
How do we hold brands and organizations accountable for tangible and consistent change rather than one off campaigns that have limited or short term effects?
How can this work inspire others to take similar risks to solve complex challenges in our society?
LBB> Do you believe there is enough pressure on the industry to participate in taking the correct steps towards sustainable development and why/why not?
Jean>Traditionally this has not been the case, but things are changing. There is growing social pressure on brands to change. 58% of people buy or advocate for brands based on their beliefs and values (Global, Edelman Trust Barometer 2022). 66% of consumers believe a company’s reputation will depend on its action to address climate change by 2030 (Global, dentsu Consumer Vision 2021). Participating in this journey is the social license for businesses to operate.
At the Cannes Lions, the introduction of non-compulsory sustainability reporting on carbon emissions and diversity, equity and inclusion is an excellent step to move the industry forward. It helps us to start benchmarking best practices and truly think about how we measure progress within the industry. Personally, I would love to see these criteria become mandatory one day, because we need to establish the business case to ensure we can truly deliver Growth through Good.
LBB> What do you hope to learn from your time in the jury room this year? Is there anything in particular you will be looking out for?
Jean> This is the third time I have had the privilege of serving as a Jury President at Cannes Lions (Cyber Lions 2015, Digital Craft 2018, SDG Lions 2023) and I have benefited from hearing so many different perspectives each time. As the jury president, it is most important to set the standard for the category and facilitate an open, engaging, and respectful environment to discuss the merits of the work with a culturally diverse group of talented individuals. I have learned that these diverse perspectives are what inform the jury’s viewpoint and puts them into context. We as jurors learn so much from the debate to clarify what is important.
My past jury president experiences taught me that the best way to learn is to let go of all of what you think you knew and show up in the jury room to learn like a sponge from the best and most brilliant in the industry.
We are looking for work that celebrates creativity, innovation, and effectiveness and promotes excellence in advertising. As we judge the SDG Cannes Lions, we need work that can inspire the industry to embrace a solution mindset to truly change society and transform culture.
LBB> More generally, it seems like there is so much division and polarisation out there on social media, and growing denialism and friction that seem to threaten our progress on Sustainable Development Goals. What role can creativity play in this time of polarisation and disinformation?
Jean> Creativity has always had the power to unite and inspire change. This is true in visual arts, performance arts, literature, culture, and advertising. Creativity can bring people together behind a common goal and we need creativity along with innovation to shift consumer behaviour to embrace sustainable lifestyles – to shape society in a way that businesses thrive in the future from new products, services, and business models. The significance for the SDG Lions is to recognise and advocate the actions, creativity, and ideas that make the world we live in kinder and more sustainable, create systemic changes and impact at scale.
The advertising industry has an influential role to play in designing solutions that align perspectives and inspire people and businesses to make choices for the common good of society and our planet.
