Cannes Lions: Pharrell, Tim Berners Lee, and RTs from Busta Rhymes

Hello again, so as midweek approaches at the Cannes Lions I have I think finally moved from being overwhelmed to acceptance and just going with the flow.

The day kicked off with Pharrell Williams who is 42 but looks about 25. He was asked if he can share whatever secret beauty cream he uses with the crowd.

His main insight was that when he writes music he is not just interested in the sound and the beat, but in how it makes you feel.

Tim “Inventor of the WWW” Berners Lee discussed the dangers of AI, saying we are at 11:59pm on the evening before the dawn of this promising but sometimes terrifying technology.

It really is incredible to chat to so many smart people, some other pearls of wisdom I learnt are:

• In most industries you start as an apprentice, then become a master and carry on being looked up to, however in advertising you start an apprentice, then become a master…and then you slowly burn out.
• Nine out of 10 purchases worldwide are made by women, so how is this not something we talk about more often.
• The biggest thing being discussed by CEO’s in cafes off the Palais in Cannes is about how to survive, drive revenue and remain relevant in today’s increasingly tech driven anti-advertising world.
• “Creativity is always about doing things differently so I advise my leaders to be at least 27% incompetent” — Joseph Ripp CEO Time Inc.

The talk I enjoyed the most was by the leaders of CP+B a US agency based in Boulder. They joked the original title of the talk was “How to make lots of money without having to deal with clients”, but then had a pretty serious talk about how as well as doing some great advertising; they have also created six successful brands. They come up with ideas, filter out the good ones, then partner with investors who have great connections and experience in the relevant industry, great makers and manufactures, and then CP+B creates a brand and relevant marketing and they all get to work. So far it’s working well, they recently sold a liquor brand for over US$100-million. Personally, I would love to see more great agencies doing this sort of thing.

The Cannes launch party ended the day, all the thousands of people present for the lions get a free party with free drinks and often a surprise guest, this year that guest happened to be Busta Rhymes. It was a pretty raucous event but my personal highlight was getting a retweet from Busta (See below)…that’s it from me, chat again tomorrow.

RT @ChrisRawlinson: Just watched @BustaRhymes and Mary J…what a rather marvellous event #CannesLions pic.twitter.com/Pa1dDQrDL1 #GREATNESS!!

— Busta Rhymes (@BustaRhymes) June 23, 2015