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Sustainability in the context of brand partnership is a field where collaboration should take place instead of competition, said Conny Braams, chief digital and commercial officer of Unilever.

“Sustainability drives more growth, and brands that are considered by consumers to make a positive impact on climate grow much faster,” said Braams, who started her Unilever journey 33 years ago and was recognised as Global Marketer of the Year 2021 by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA).

Braams, whose career has taken her to Spain, Singapore, Africa and the Middle East, spoke to Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer and president of healthcare business at Mastercard, on short-term growth, long-term resilience and sustainability at Cannes Lions this year.

“Sustainability is a field we should not compete on. We need to make this field available for anyone in this industry. Marketers here have a huge role to play,” Braams said.

Unilever, which reported a turnover of €60.1 billion in 2022, says its purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace. Addressing the business focus on sustainability and conscious consumerism, Braams said Unilever’s turnover is about 60 percent because of an innovation-driven approach through initiatives like plant-based alternatives.

She said Unilever, with brands such as Dove, Vaseline and Knorr, wants to drive short-term growth but long-term resilience. According to her, no FMCG company is risk free. Climate change is a massive issue – 40 percent of Unilever’s factories are in water-stressed environments.

“We need to make sure these factories are less reliant on water. Then focus is on sustainable growth and creating a less risk-prone business for Unilever and attracting best talents. People want businesses to be part of the solution, and businesses want the same,” Braams said.

On brand partnerships, Braams said 97% of the people say they want to live a more sustainable life. However, people find it very confusing to understand which brand is truly sustainable.

“Sources of information are changing – 68 percent actually tell us that they believe that influencers are telling the truth. As an industry, we need to come together to train those influencers, give them the right information and educate them. Secondly, for a marketer, consumer behaviour is the hardest part as it can be difficult to make people change,” Braams said.

Braams said that if consumers stand on the sidelines, nothing is really going to change. People need to come together with different capabilities and use the intersection of sustainability, technology and digitisation and consumer behaviour science to make a big leap forward.

<strong>(Compiled by Indrani Bose)</strong>


Sustainability requires collaboration, not competition: Conny Braams of Unilever

Devika Bulchandani, global chief executive officer, Ogilvy, says her first agenda after coming to the advertising agency was to make the organisation and people feel stable as there have been a lot of uncertainties at the company.
 
It was important, she said, to calm down the internal noise and for the people to remember that Bulchandani and Liz Taylor, global chief creative officer, came because of the love they have for the brand. “If you don’t have the people feeling good, nothing happens,” Bulchandani says.
 
She was talking to Storyboard18 at Cannes Lions 2023. 

<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/watch-listen/ogilvys-devika-bulchandani-liz-taylor-on-their-relationship-with-each-other-personal-goals-and-more-9786.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ogilvy's Devika Bulchandani & Liz Taylor on their relationship with each other, personal goals and more</a>

Bulchandani, who is one more Indian-origin CEO running a global company, says that if she wanted to lead like a woman earlier, now she wants to lead like an Indian. 
 
Taylor who was also present there addressed the the dynamic between her and Bulchandani. Taylor revealed that the duo share a chemistry and have both intellectually stimulating and woman to woman conversation.Taylor also mentioned that her goal is to make the work culture at Ogilvy simple and make people understand what Ogilvy’s core values are.

 
<strong>‘Winning fixes everything’</strong>

Bulchandani focuses on stabilising the creative leadership and talks about making sure that the creative reputation of Ogilvy is intact. Bulchandani ensures that she spends time with clients and listening to them and understanding whether Ogilvy is delivering. “Winning fixes everything, be it winning a client, or winning at Cannes,” she feels.

“When an agency feels like a winner, they do better work for clients and show up with bravery. We got to get our fundamentals right. Once your fundamentals are right, you can innovate stuff,” she says.

Bulchandani also talked about the love for complication that the industry has. “They believe that if we complicate our industry, that’s our value. Data is a means to an end. In the end, it is creativity, whether it is PR, a health business or digital experience, it is creative thinking that is solving a business problem,” she said.

<strong>(Complied by Indrani Bose)</strong>

If I wanted to lead like a woman earlier, now I want to do it like an Indian: Ogilvy’s Devika Bulchandani

Artificial Intelligence is the talk of the town. Everyone wants to know more about it, use it and be surprised by it. AI is the next big thing. It will transform work culture and streamline a lot of processes. In the creative industry, AI will have a significant impact in the years to come. Everyone from head honchos to junior staff is just as excited as anyone to witness the potential AI packs. Some might even be scared to lose their jobs. Rob Reilly, global chief creative officer, WPP caught up with Storyboard18’s editor Delshad Irani at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to talk about his first experience of winning a Lion, being jury president, humour in advertising, AI, young creatives and more. 


According to Reilly, for him the feeling of presenting the Lion to a winner might just be greater than receiving one. “Being able to see the happiness on a young creative’s face is worth it.” He adds. Furthermore, when asked about the kind of work that agencies are churning out recently, he said, “People talk about purpose-led work and how there’s too much of it. In my opinion, there actually isn’t enough of it. Brands have filled in where the government can't help people, whether it is because of money or other reasons. Why should that stop?” However, he added that what needs to be figured out is how to effectively bring humour back into advertising. This was a hot topic at Cannes this year. A lot of campaigns that won awards this year were purpose-driven. 

[caption id="attachment_10105" align="alignnone" width="750"]<img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/2023/07/WhatsApp-Image-2023-07-11-at-18.07.03-1024x768.jpeg" alt="Rob Reilly speaking to Delshad Irani in Cannes." width="750" height="563" class="size-large wp-image-10105" /> Rob Reilly speaking to Delshad Irani in Cannes.[/caption]

“I don’t want to blame purpose for the lack of humour.” Reilly adds. He believes that agencies have simply shied away from humour. They’re afraid of how far they can push things. India has done tremendous work with humour. Australia and Thailand too. “We need more of it. We need to figure out how to bring more humour into advertising, not at the expense of purpose.” said Reilly. 


WPP has made some leaps in using AI. Reilly said that WPP is deep into AI, they’ve been using it quite a bit. Moreover, WPP is partnering up with NVIDIA to increase their AI footprint. “For creative people what has been lost is the ability to experiment and to try things and fail. There’s not enough time and money. AI will help creative people experiment.” He too believes that AI will work as a tool that will help people work better and faster but won’t replace creative people. “AI will definitely make stuff but it won’t make the best stuff. Having humans involved is the only solution to creating magical work.”


A few campaigns that stood out for Reilly over the past year were AB InBev’s work for Corona, where they helped farmers grow limes for their beer. China doesn’t grow a lot of limes. AB InBev taught them to grow it. Now it has changed the face of Corona in China. “Secondly, The Burberry film where we saw people flying through the air. There’s also Serena vs Serena who won the Grand Prix.” He also mentioned the Cadbury campaign featuring Shah Rukh Khan as another stand-out campaign. 


Lastly, he spoke very highly of India and how it has made progress in leaps and bounds in creativity and technology and marrying the two effortlessly. “We’re looking for India not just to win but to show us the way.” 

Watch the full interview here.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/daZMxWdKJLM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<strong>(Curated by Aashrey Baliga) </strong>




WPP's Rob Reilly on creativity, humour in advertising, future of AI and more

Firstly, I sensed like there were two parts to the entire Olympics of creativity - One that spoke of the message and the other that was all about the means. The bigness and the buzz aside, I wish for Cannes to get even more revitalized as the apex festival of creativity rather than an expo of digital plumbing and ad tech.

Kraft Heinz would be a perfect Ad for Cannes itself, swinging back like a pendulum from 3G Capital’s mandated zero-based budgeting to being a big winner for creativity. Its partnership with with Gut, the agency made headlines this year. That’s acute business sense feeding into a renewed culture of creativity. Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) as Creative Marketer of the Year for a second year in a row arrived with all the effervescence and the froth it deserved.

I sensed that creativity is being seen through the lens of effectiveness and results. Brands have over purposed themselves to excuse creative license. Business needs payback. 

I was head of Jury for the APAC Effies this year, and every time I had to remind myself and the jury that results and effectiveness was above all other criteria. That great results were garnered using creatively enriching ways was a clincher or a bonus. The Cannes weightage is the other way around. The end list is equally credible. 

Tech, diversity and inclusion was pretty much at the heart of the agenda and not something auxiliary, novel or exotic. The biggest headline from Cannes was ‘The arrival of AI’. The mainstage takeaways were broadly positive qualifying it as a developing but vast area which will be a means and an end at the same time. 

There were no awards for AI-generated campaigns, yet but I saw AI and machine inspired creative expressions being generated and shared. 

It was good to see the absence of doom and gloom but no votes were cast for whether generative AI is a force for good or evil. I imagine in its day, a Xerox machine, a graphics software package and the internet itself could have been qualified as bigger and more imminent disruptions or tools. And I am serious. The marketing fraternity’s self-convened leadership has an adoration of the icing more than the cake. The younger talent may have a more balanced response, I suppose. 

I heard Sir Martin Sorrell say he feels there is no case for 10,000 media planners in the world and that an algorithm will always do a better job than a 25 year old media planner. I agree and I sense he knows this is already a ‘pending past due date’ reality.

Clay Shirky said something along the lines that society changes when it adopts new tools, not when it invents them. I think we must keep our focus on the technology adoption cycle. Hype hurts developments more than it hurts corporations. Look at Meta and look at Metaverse. Nobody talks about trains that arrive on time, so therefore they’re all late! If our ancestors had assumed the pose of Rodin’s The Thinker every time they had to decide whether to flee a predator or an enemy, humanity would have become extinct a long time ago. Urgency of assimilation is more important than urgency of innovation. 

So, can any man who buys a salon kit be a stylist? There is no entry barrier to harnessing generative AI to build creative assets, iterate and ideate, refine audiences, measure outcomes and engineer relevance into every prospect and customer interaction. 

That YouTube, Google, Amazon and TikTok were the biggest destination pavilions acknowledged that we are living in a digital advertising world but programmatic spending was under discussion. Wasted ad spends, programmatic transparency, inclusion lists and bright-listing of publications were spotlighted. 

Given where the world spends its digital money, I think a hard look at made-for-advertising sites based on the quality of the user experience and the ad to edit ratio is much required. The media agencies can seem like the pied piper leading both clients and platforms to a lower payoff. I am not being alarmist, just mindful.

There is an acute need for advertisers to tap into unduplicated reach through whichever publishers in digital, video and audio deliver it. Trusted news sources are top of the list.

More and more brands are dedicating budgets toward minority owned media outlets and taking a more thoughtful approach to media spend. This is an excellent step forward in creating a fairer environment and will only go farther as the industry adopts new standards for identifying these outlets and scaling campaigns. The separation between editorial and advertising must be reclaimed for journalistic purity’s sake. But, we must think of the world where as advertorials fade, so would many of the storied publications.

I felt the entire discussion on digital in a world of enforced privacy was a bit muted. It isn’t about the regulatory environment, privacy expectations or auditability. It’s about rebuilding the tech stack with a privacy-and-compliance-first mindset across all consumer touch points. Marketing in the post-cookie world will take cross-industry collaboration. The principle of advertising as an unavoidable interruption of the content experience rose from the ashes stronger than ever with the growth of digital media.

Publishers will scramble to leverage first-party data. Brand advertisers will need an understanding of the right audiences. There will be a new marketplace of first- and second-party data vendors set to change the future of buying. Apple is cracking down on tracking on Safari and iOS. Google's final deadline for cookie deprecation is quickly approaching. All of us must prepare for cookie-less solutions.

There are some fools who find it impossible to sleep when they are passengers; apparently they can sleep only when they’re the driver!

Finally, if you haven’t already, do get influencers aboard. The creator economy is mainstream. Influencer work is the main campaign in many cases especially lifestyle, alcobev, luxury and fashion. The creator economy is a big business, and after gaming, it best delivers messaging in an environment of attention. 

It was a privilege to be there at Cannes. It was a personal trip for me cutting days out of a family vacation. My daily trek from the, not so nearby, Mandelieu was not the easiest. I was high on ideas more often than on expensive wine. The arrangements at all festival venues were first rate. McDonald’s fed me many a McSwirl and convinced me of in moment marketing.

In conclusion, as I took the train to Paris, I thought of the debates on the rules of engagement, part industry talk, part frenemy warning. I was reminded that the world is in a withdrawal from globalisation and growth is the key deliverable. All of us are impacted by fragmentation.  

Then, as the afternoon sun bounced off the shimmering waters on the Côte d'Azur, I remembered that attention is the mother of memory. In my world, it’s the brand first and always and my business is producing wow ideas that scale.

Then I ordered a beer. Yes , We Cannes !

<strong>Shubhranshu Singh is vice president, marketing - domestic & IB, CVBU, Tata Motors. He writes Simply Speaking, a weekly column on Storyboard18. Views expressed are personal.</strong>



Simply Speaking: All about the Olympics of creativity

<strong>Devika Bulchandani global CEO and Liz Taylor, global CCO at Ogilvy</strong> catch up with Storyboard18's editor <strong>Delshad Irani</strong> to talk about the relationship the two CXOs share, how they met, how Bulchandani pitched the job to Taylor to bring her on board and what it takes to run a legacy ad agency in today's times. They also spoke about the personal goals they set for themselves when they arrived at Ogilvy and how much of it have they managed to accomplish.

Watch here. 

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Ogilvy's Devika Bulchandani & Liz Taylor on their relationship with each other, personal goals and more

The world is becoming more fragmented and globalization is not over. Martin Sorrell, founder and executive chairperson at S4 Capital believes that in today’s data-enabled world,  AI engenders fear, as well as wonder. He says the initial reaction is usually “wow,” but then there is skepticism due to fear of losing jobs.  


According to Sorrell, AI’s impact can be witnessed in visualization and copywriting. Also, because of AI, media planning and buying has turned upside down, and there is also hyper personalization at scale.

AI has made information democratic. The world has become data driven, faster and cheaper. “As long as we ingest the right data, we can give people access to it,” says Sorrell.

 

Sorrell says that AI will have impact on major companies and the platforms like Alphabet and Meta will only get bigger and bigger. “Amazon’s 45 billion will probably increase to 100 billion dollars because of ad revenues. Google’s ad revenue will increase to 225 dollars. There will be no demise of Facebook, it is only getting stronger. The same will happen with Alibaba, Tiktok and Tencent in the East,” Sorrell concludes. 

<strong>Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani spoke to Martin Sorrell on the sidelines of Cannes Lions. Watch out for the full conversation on Media Dialogues on CNBC-TV18.</strong>

AI engenders fear as well as wonder, says Martin Sorrell of S4 Capital

<strong>Cooling period </strong>

The richest cricket board in the world was in the fix hunting for sponsors as its current sponsor, a  trouble-ridden edtech firm is on its way out. Flushed with funds, a fantasy sports platform came to its rescue as the only serious contender in the race, with only two other companies showing interest by picking up the tender document. It was a close save. Industry insiders believe that it is basically an indication of a hot market cooling. With investor money drying up, lesser and lesser number of ‘couldn’t-care-less’ tech, gaming and fintech startups are now staying away from high value properties.

<strong>No Cannes do  </strong>

Indian adwallahs try everything to get a ticket to Cannes to attend the festival, not the film one but it’s other cousin, the Lions. They go through budget hoops and find loops and ways to get themselves, their key team members and a smattering of worthy juniors, to the French Riviera every year. But there was one agency executive who wasn’t too keen to swirl Rose with the global ad crowd at all. So, while this adman’s boss, a constant and regular at Cannes, attended the festival, the said adman preferred to be hundreds of miles away in an Asian paradise. We wonder why. 

<strong>Cannes Do Better </strong>

An award-winning creative director who has broken records at international advertising festivals over the years wasn’t at all impressed with the work from India this year. He called the campaigns ‘uninspiring’.  The adman also felt that causevertising is formulaic. We wonder if this is genuine critique or a case of sour grapes. But hey, when life gives you grapes, you know what to make.

Storyboard18 Insider: Startups' cooling period; uninspiring ideas from Cannes Lions; and more

Yannick Bolloré believes artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t a hype but a real revolution and a fantastic opportunity for the advertising industry. 

Havas, a French multinational advertising and public relations company, has been implementing AI in creative agencies to make the team more efficient and effective.


Bolloré, who took over Havas 10 years ago, and has witnessed the company’s transformative process that includes innovation and putting digital at the core, says: “We, as a company, have changed. We have been the pioneer of integration, with 22,000 people operating in more than 100 countries. We believe we have the responsibility to make a difference in the world."

 
On AI taking jobs, he says: “In the 1830s, with the invention of photography, painters were not killed; it killed average painters. Similarly, AI might kill average creators but Havas can stand out with the best creative team.” 
“At the end of the day, i-domains, including IT, legal, finance and HR, will be revolutionised through AI,” he says.

 
On AI regulation, Bollore says: “Generally speaking, we are fans of regulation. Intellectual property and copyrights need to be respected. At the same time, it’s important for a European company to embrace innovation and technology to grasp and seize the opportunity.”


About the performance of Havas, Bolloré said: “Despite the Russia-Ukraine war, inflation, and supply-chain troubles, Havas’ revenue has grown more than 6-7 percent. There has been a change during COVID and brands and businesses have realised that investment in advertising will build more equity and business in the near future."

<strong>Watch out for the full conversation on CNBC-TV18.</strong>

(Complied by Indrani Bose)<strong>
 


AI isn’t a hype but a real revolution: Yannick Bolloré of Havas

Cristina Diezhandino, global chief marketing officer, Diageo says that the premiumisation trend is gaining momentum in the spirits category with people craving for socialisation more after the Covid pandemic. 
“The world of premium spirits is an exciting category. It is embedded in the world of socialisation. Post Covid, people have been craving for socialisation and celebration all the more. This category plays a phenomenal role in this context,” Diezhandino told Storyboard18’s editor Delshad Irani at Cannes Lions 2023. 

In a candid chat, Diezhandino spoke on key trends and insights in the alcohol category and how Diageo is leveraging AI.She revealed that premium trends have been gaining momentum for a while and people are choosing the higher end of this particular category more. People are observing and valuing the quality of these liquids, she said.

Diezhandino also delved into the trend of sober curious where on many occasions people want to socialise without alcohol. For a long time, the alternatives to alcohol weren’t attractive to people as they did not quite give people the experience that alcohol gives. Considering this, Diageo created non-alcoholic spirits ensuring that liquids having no alcohol deliver the same experience as their alcoholic counterparts.


<strong>Local challenges</strong>


Diezhandino said Diageo manoeuvres and navigates local, cultural and hyperlocal challenges to ensure it still delivers its proposition despite having limitations in media for advertisements. In every market, Diageo has real expertise to deal with the circumstances while ensuring that people enjoy the brand in a way that is attuned to the legislation.

 Diageo understands the value of instrumentality and that technology keeps evolving, and therefore it keeps on layering the technology it has incorporated, she said. “AI is helping us gather insights on connecting points between consumers and brands. AI will not take over human creativity, certainly not now but it does help brands operating at a global level in local circumstances. AI helps us create content that can be applied in the right way for different geographies,” Diezhandino said.

 Diageo also believes in connecting the dots between purpose and profits. “Purpose is so intertwined with the nature of Diageo’s business. We have created this programme ‘Raising The Bar’ where we gave away 100 million dollars globally to help people adapt to their circumstances,” Diezhandino said. 

Diageo also has a Society 2030: Spirit of Progress 10-year ESG plan where the focus is on sustainability, positive drinking and diversity & inclusion. For example, on sustainability, Diageo realised that a part of the footprint has to do with agriculture and therefore decided to engage with farmers in Ireland through its brand Guinness.

<strong>Watch out for the full conversation on CNBC-TV18.</strong>

(Complied by Indrani Bose)<strong>



Craving for socialisation post Covid has spurred premium trend in spirits, says Diageo’s Cristina Diezhandino

<strong>Yannick Ballore, chairman - Vivendi and chairman and CEO - Havas Group</strong> talks to Storyboard18's <strong>Delshad Irani</strong> about the potential AI has to cause a revolution in the advertising and marketing industry. He says that AI has definitely made jobs a whole lot easier and streamlined. However, it will never replace a job or role entirely. 

He added saying that int the same way photography didn't take away the jobs of artists, just average artists, artificial intelligence will not take away the job of creative directors. It will only put jobs of average creative directors in jeopardy. 

Watch here. 

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CANNES LIONS 2023