Cannes 2017 Key Quotes

[Anurag]

WARC at Cannes Lions
22 June 2017 - WARC today returned to Cannes Lions for a day of sessions on advertising, strategy, targeting, purpose marketing and effectiveness. Presenting to a packed auditorium, here are some key thoughts from some of our guest speakers:

Session: Lessons from the World's Best Campaigns

"Think inside the box. There's a tendency to go into a far bigger topic than what your brand can own" - Rajat Mendhi, EVP Planning, BBDO India

"Context is more important to people than advertising. We realised there was something far more important to women in urban India than removing stains from their clothes. There was a purpose to remove the cultural stain of gender inequality" - Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India on Ariel 'Share The Load' campaign ranked #1 in WARC100

"Despite changes, perceptions are hard to change" - Eric Zuncic, Chief Strategy Office, CP+B


Session: Is the creative industry losing its ability to sell stuff?

"We live in an age when people are trying to define themselves with personality and personality alone" - Malcolm Poynton, Global Chief Creative Officer, Cheil

"Purpose is a good thing but it doesn't have to be the essence of what your brand projects" - David Kolbusz, Chief Creative Officer, Droga5 London

"I don't think creativity has ever been more necessary than now"..."Everything's fragmenting so people and brands are grasping for some cultural relevance" Nigel Hollis, EVP & Chief Global Analyst, Kantar Millward Brown

Session: How to be a smart targeter

"Targeting is like salt in cooking - a little helps, too much ruins things" - Associate Prof. Rachel Kennedy, Associate Director (Special Projects), The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

Session: The Future of Strategy

"People are paying money to avoid what we spend our lives doing. Planners need to have a bigger role to play in building brands that people want" ... "Human relationships are rich, messy and demanding. This drives consultants mad" - Lucy Jameson, former CEO, Grey London

"Not having humans involved in data is really dangerous" - Suzanne Powers, Global CSO, McCann Erickson

"We have to be careful not to optimise ourselves into a non-optimal position" - Sue Unerman, Chief Transformation Officer, MediaCom