Cannes Lion Masterclass

In the impressive Kings Place, a signpost of the regeneration of Kings Cross, I was lucky enough to attend the Cannes Lions Masterclass for under 30s. Not really on par with the French Riviera, but a good opportunity to find out more about the renowned festival of creativity nonetheless. Everyone in our industry knows what Cannes Lions is, it’s often described as the ‘Olympics’ for the creative industry (and especially creatives). It was highlighted that only around 15% of attendees at the festival are under 30, so I thought it was nice to offer a window into what us ‘young folk’ might one day be able to experience for ourselves. It was also exciting to hear that a digital pass was being launched, making the festival increasingly accessible so that more people could benefit from the wisdom that was so desired by everyone in the audience.

The event started off with a strong opening from Stephen Woodford the Chief Executive of the Advertising Association, who reminded us of the importance of the creative industries to the economy. It was reassuring to hear that Brexit had only strengthened our importance further, forcing government to highlight that it was one of the key five industries it would be prioritising in its industrial strategy.

But let’s face it, the reason most people were there was to find out the answer to the burning question: what does it take to win a Cannes Lion? When Now won the award last year, we were all elated, there’s simply nothing like it! It was surprising to hear that smaller and local companies with smaller budgets such as LadBible were winning, and it was highlighted that these were the organisations who had found their focus and made themselves culturally relevant (like our work for the Women’s Equality Party and Equal Pay Day) – it’s something to remember for the future.

They tracked the most used words throughout the festival and the results were: politics, human and experience, certainly what has been on most of our minds recently, especially the first word. But putting all of that aside, a nice takeaway from James Murphy, Founder of adam&eveDDB, was this: whilst programmatic developments stand for the ‘physics’ of our industry, we wouldn’t be anywhere without the ‘chemistry’ which is captured by emotion and all of our creativity – something we’re striving to champion as a key independent London agency.

Written by Luciana Bhangu, Senior Account Manager

Read: CPD Gold Accreditation