Hasta La Creative!

With Cannes Lions 2017 in full swing, the debate continues: Is the advertising industry’s annual event a showcase for Mad Men or Math Men? In other words, does Cannes celebrate art or science? Is it honoring the subjective (campaign creativity) or the objective (campaign performance)?

Ultimately, Cannes Lions is about both. A natural shift has occurred from a traditional media system predicated on brand awareness and a very art-focused approachthe “Mad Men”-style of yesteryear, which is still very prevalentto something that is shaped more and more by measurable performance across channels. Now when you go to Cannes, there’s more of a blend of different media and marketing technologies heavily focused on the value they’re adding to brands and agencies.

But there still seems to be a disconnect around art vs. sciencei.e., Mad Men vs. Math Menand it comes down to the maturity of the industry and its relentless fixation with reach. That leads to a mentality of “In front of how many people can I get this highly impactful, beautiful, creative ad?” as opposed to a philosophy predicated on reaching very small segments of highly targeted, responsive audiences. This means that many of the data creativity awards handed out at Cannes are focused around, “How I do target an audience?” as opposed to, “How do I target a person?”

Continue reading at AdAge.com