Hasta La Creative!

(TrendHunter.com) In order to get a message out or to make a name stick with consumers, brands know that it’s important to involve consumers in memorable experiences that they’re likely to think back to…

Most advertising award shows are expensive navel-gazing affairs that miss the mark badly, which is particularly woeful news for an industry that prides itself on driving results from targeted marketing. Given the problem, I was encouraged to learn that Wieden + Kennedy had recently considered giving up award shows. That would have been a brave […]

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So, are you tired of hearing about Cannes and Publicis and Marcel? If you happen to have made the trip to France this year, are you ready to come home and wash the rose-flavored puke off your shoes?

Well get ready, because Monday is gonna be interesting. In what appears to be an all-staff memo sent out late last night, Arthur Sadoun committed to clearing the air in the best possible way: with an open-forum Twitter Q&A.

You’ve almost definitely heard about this already, but here’s the full memo (which Publicis PR kindly provided to a few select “trade journalists”):

Bonjour,

Cannes is coming to an end, and I think you’ll agree that it has been an eventful week!

I wanted to come back to all of you and hopefully bring a bit of clarity from all of the noise.

But before that, I want to personally congratulate the teams whose incredible work has been celebrated so far. We already have several grand prix and campaigns that have had a real impact for our clients thanks to the exceptional talent behind them.

Of course, one of the biggest pieces of news from this week was our announcement of Marcel, the world’s first professional assistant powered by AI and machine learning. I know from many of you that there are a lot of questions, so I didn’t want the week to end without answering some of the big ones.

First, let me be clear: at Publicis Groupe we stand for great work. The Marcel platform is being created to make that work even better, by developing new types of collaboration that will lead to creativity without borders and without limits. Creativity is our raison d’être and Marcel will allow us to climb higher.

Second, to build this extremely powerful tool, which will allow each and every one of you to fuel our best creative work, we need to focus 100% on making it a reality.

That’s why we’re shifting our promotional budget to reinvest in our people and the future of our company. So, we are taking a pause from awards shows, festivals and industry events for 365 days. But make no mistake, when that time is done, we will be back stronger than ever before.

Third, I know many of you are asking how our clients are reacting. I’m excited to tell you that their early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. And it’s not just our clients. Other partners have expressed not only their support, but also their belief that this has the power to be transformational. Earlier this week, I was speaking with Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey who called our initiative “ambitious and disruptive.” He said, “without a doubt, Publicis Groupe’s Marcel platform will be a game-changer for the industry.”

Finally, nothing great comes easy and we didn’t take this decision lightly. But I’m convinced that this is the right move. The only thing that will derail us is a lack of communication. And that’s my responsibility. Which is why in the next days and weeks we will provide all of you with more information, Q&A’s, updates and opportunities to get involved.

As a first step, starting Monday I will be on Twitter to answer all of your questions – the good, the bad and the ugly – openly and transparently. Be as candid as possible; use a pseudonym, use a friend’s account, or get in touch personally … Whatever you’re most comfortable with, I want to hear from you.

Voilà, I can’t wait to continue the conversation with all of you.

Amitiés,

Arthur.

Channel 4’s “We’re the superhumans” campaign for the Paralympics took home two gold Lions for Film Craft at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

A VR experience music video that places the audience within the singer Björk’s world of Vulnicura has earned VFX agency Analog and W&N Studio the UK’s first Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Lions.

Havas’ headquarters were raided by French anti-corruption police on Tuesday.

RFI reported that the raid was part of an investigation launched in March regarding charges of “favouritism, complicity and profiting from favouritism” related to the agency’s involvement with promoting French tech companies during CES Las Vegas, which also involved a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron (who was then economy minister). Macron’s successor as economy minister, Michel Sapin, told RFI Macron isn’t accountable, pinning the blame on a “malfunction by Business France.”

The offices of Business France were reportedly also raided as part of the investigation.

RFI added that Business France awarded the assignment to Havas without issuing any call for alternative bids.

According to AdAge, Business France claimed in a statement released months ago it made the decision to award the assignment to Havas because it was facing a fast-approaching deadline and already had established a relationship with the agency, but it also recognized “potential irregularity” in the organization of the event.

The Cannes Lions is almost over for yet another year, and you’ve probably been following the action. (What do you mean, you haven’t been following the action??)

Back in the real world, we do have some news today: AB-InBev has split with FCB and launched a creative review for its Lime-A-Rita brand.

This afternoon, Adweek broke the news that the company has issued an RFP. From a spokesperson:

“We are proud of the work that was created from our collaboration with FCB Chicago and Lime-A-Rita, which has produced a number of memorable ads since 2015. As the brand evolves, we continually look to refresh our perspective and evaluate our agency structure.”

FCB’s Chicago office had been working on the account since at least 2015, and last February helped the parent company launch the not-beer line’s biggest campaign ever with a little help from the 15-year-old Nelly jam “Hot in Herre.”

A second promo wave arrived in March, which brought a new array of flavors and the multi-spot “Margarita Moment” campaign. This effort was notable for catering more directly to women in their ’20s (who make up 65 percent of the brand’s consumer base) and involving “female-led marketing and creative teams” on both the agency and client sides. The ads were directed by Tricia Brock of Hey Wonderful, who has also helmed episodes of Girls and The Big Bang Theory, among other shows.

AB-InBev did not elaborate on the reasons for the review, but it’s worth noting that the brand provided a rare sales bounce for the beverage giant back in 2014 as its beers lost market share. Those sales dropped off in late 2015, and the new marketing efforts do not appear to have helped the brand recover.

It’s not clear at this time which agencies have been invited to the pitch. FCB representatives have not responded to requests for comment.

According to Kantar Media, AB-InBev spent around $15 million promotion Lime-A-Rita last year but shelled out less than half a million in the first quarter of 2017.

In a world of doubters, someone still believes in the power of advertising: The United Nations.

The UN Women organization came to Cannes this week to convene a sort of Security Council of the ad industry, including many of its biggest-spending marketers, three of the biggest agency holding companies, digital duopolists Facebook and Google, Alibaba, and more. The idea is that advertising can do what more than two decades of UN proclamations, local laws and good intentions haven’t — spur real progress on gender issues.

“No country in the world has achieved gender equality, even though we have big initiatives and laws passed,” said Phumzile Miambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women in an interview. “Changing laws didn’t do much to change cultural norms. Advertising has skill in behavior change.”

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Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg won the Radio Grand Prix for a campaign that plugged KFC’s Double Down sandwich. The agency took the top prize for the second consecutive year after winning in 2016 for KFC work.

WHAT IT IS: Radio ads plugged the limited-time offer by using voices to portray small moments of sadness, like when you ask people to cheer but no one returns the favor. Then the ads state that the “saddest thing of all” is when the Double Down goes off market.

WHY IT WON: Jury president Mario D’Andrea, president-chief creative at Dentsu in Brazil, praised the agency for turning out a creative campaign from a run-of-the mill brief for a promotional item.

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