2013cannes lionsrecap

day 28

drawn to Scale

a Huge opportunity$700 billion dollars is waiting to be earned in China’s middle-tier cities according to Chen Xin, Chairman, SinoMedia Holding Limited. The top 10% of the spending pyramid might get all the heat and light, but the urbanization that is currently driving the Chinese economy is bringing 160 million more people into cities. And as they come in, consumption in China’s lower-tier markets will be unprecedented. Who’s going to make bank? Popular, mid-priced, good quality brands. There are rather a few of those running around the world. Chen Xin’s message: First come, first served.

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2013can n es lion s

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a MaSSive

ambitionAstro Teller, Captain of Moonshots. With a handle like that, we’d follow him anywhere—which is a good thing when you consider the scale of his ambition. A moonshot, Teller explained, is “a seemingly impossible and yet impossibly important idea that through science, technology and creativity can be brought to reality.” As head of Google[x], the innovation division of team don’t-be-evil, he’s already launched a few capsules into lunar orbit—self-driving cars, Google Glass and high-altitude balloons that will provide Internet access to the billions still cut off from the web. Moonshoots take storytelling skills of the highest order. After all, you’ve got to get people to follow you to fix an enormous problem, the solution to which will make the world ten times better. Success is not assured. But, heck, we’re storytellers, right? Sure, Teller says, but these aren’t the kinds of stories we’re used to. The stories that launch moonshots are, “deep, hard, weird.”

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2013can n es lion s

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Sizing-up

CreativityFacebook knows a thing or two about creating at cosmological scale. Mark D’Arcy (who heads global creative for them) joined with Boz Bosworth (who invented a little thing called “Newsfeed” ) and David Droga (who is David Droga) to consider how we can scale up creativity. Advertising needs to learn from the tech industry. Not a single person in the audience was surprised. Still, how do you argue with a business that can generate 300 million Newsfeed stories about school funding based on a modestly-sized campaign for a national retailer? We work like pack mules to get the work polished and pretty, launch the campaign, and head to the bar to toast a job well done, as Droga pointed out. When the tech folk put the product out, that’s the starting line. It’s a creative marathon from there on out. Facebook took their photo sharing service, which even they thought was so-so when it launched, and turned it into a the market leader through creative iteration. Droga reminded us that in our business, “We need to transfer the ownership of the creative idea to the people in order to generate creativity at scale.” It’s all about participation.

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2013can n es lion s

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oh, and a

LittLe magiCTED came to Cannes with Technoillusionist Marco Tempest. While few people can match his magical skills, everyone can learn from the style of storytelling embedded in the three elements of magic. Magicians are early adopters of technology who understand psychology and keep secrets. Sounds like Steve Jobs.

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