Bonjourno from Cannes Lions.
This week is the Cannes Lions Festival. The most glamours gathering of advertisers I have ever attended. This is my first time here and it’s been off to a fantastic start. We started the trip yachting through the south of France over the past few days, exploring both Monte Carlo and St. Tropez. The magic of this trip so far has been the serendipity and conversations. On Saturday night, in a small town outside of St Tropez, we went to a small photo gallery show opening by a one of a kind lady named Pattie Boyd. Pattie was married for over a decade to both George Harrison from the Beatles & Eric Clapton. In fact “Leyla” is written about her! She walked me & and a small group of friends through her personal stories of her beautiful pictures, like when she went to India with The Beatles as they studied with Maharashi and changed the sound of popular music at the time.
Now that the weekend is over and Cannes Lions has officially kicked off, the deal-making is heating up. It’s exciting to be in this mix, learning, listening and stoking the fire to help people better understand how they too can leverage culture & music to create more meaningful connections with their consumers and help their companies cut through the noise and stand out. I know music makes every situation better and I know music is one of the most undervalued marketing commodities in the world. That’s an arbitrage opportunity for savvy marketers that want a competitive edge. Meaningful conversation after meaningful conversation, I’m helping everyone I speak to realize that too.
My favorite part of this trip so far is that everyone is here to network, announce deals & solve problems. It’s the impromptu, out of the box jam sessions at all hours that are happening at stunning venues across the city that are aiming to help all of us forge forward as both marketers and people. The overarching shared goal is “let’s figure out how we can take things to new heights”.
Anyway, I feel lucky to be here. It was a last minute invite with a special crew of friends & colleagues so I’ve had to adjust my normal power packed NYC agenda and more go with the flow. I’m figuring the ins and outs as a I go but one thing that I’m certain of is that Cannes Lions is on a whole other level than any other marketing festival in terms of global clout.
One more day and night in town before I jet back. Let’s see what we can create out of it.
No Fields Found.Also published on Medium.