Well here goes the first post, which happens to coincide with the first day of the festival. Though I didn’t get there as early as some, (cough... Whitney) I arrived in Cannes bright and early, ready to start off the day. After checking out the Young Lion Zone and tagging UGA rather obnoxiously on the wall of the HP white space, I headed into the first seminar of the day.
Goviral gave a presentation that stressed the importance of long term branding, and compared it to football in an analogy used throughout the entire presentation. It was an interesting presentation and a good start to the festival. A second speaker then compared good branding to religion. Apparently, the same area of the brain is activated when a loved brand or a religion is thought about. That was definitely interesting to me.
After the first seminar ended, we talked to Susan Lilley from USA Today about how to make the most of the festival. She also shed some light on women’s situation in the advertising world and recommended Martha Stewart’s seminar (one I had already planned on attending).
After that, I grabbed a panini and headed into another seminar; this one was given by UM, Loreal, and BMW. Overall, the panel was very hard to follow, and at times it felt like the speakers weren’t really answering the questions. It was definitely overshadowed by the presentation that followed.
The Independent Agency Showcase was really interesting, and I honestly wish I had caught up with the speakers after instead of staying to hear one of the Jonas brothers speak. All three of them stressed making people nervous, steering away from “looking like an ad,” and above all, where big agencies focus on pleasing the client, independent agencies focus on making great ads. They all showed examples of their work, and I was truly blown away. I got some contact info, so maybe we will meet again during the festival.
After that performance, the imc2 presentation couldn’t really measure up, and I was very tired by the time I made it to the Fleishman-Hillard seminar. I did, however, think that the use of mobile to help vaccinate African children against pneumonia was a very innovative idea. I also admired the enthusiasm of the speaker from livingsocial.com.
Overall, it was a successful day, and I am officially exhausted. I think tonight will consist entirely of relaxing and preparing for another exciting day tomorrow. I need to save myself for all of those agency parties later in the week that I’m somehow going to find my way into.
Excellent post. Keep it up.
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