Cannes Lions Festival - Day One

It’s finally here! The festival started off with Lions Health. The sessions I attended ranged in various different topics. All had interesting takeaways that are applicable to other sectors within creative work. Throughout these sessions, there were a few interesting concepts that stuck out that are worth sharing: 

1. Start thinking about music as a major part of the creative process. Many marketers fail to realize that music greatly enhances their work and wait until the last minute of their creative process to think about it. Simon Le Bon, lead singer of Duran Duran talked about how music, when pieced together with the right work, can portray your brand tone and voice in a way that people can’t put into words but remember most. On an unrelated note, be sure to listen to the new song “Closer To Your Bed” by Duran Duran when it’s released — you might hear a familiar voice in the background! 

2. Find the reasons for the emotion. The goal is to generate action in response to the emotion but brands can’t achieve that without finding the source to people’s feelings and delivering content that is humanized and personalized. 

3. Every story needs a conflict, so health communications needs to pick a fight, challenge conventions and be daring. Your brand needs to be trustworthy - anyone can Google something so you have to straight shoot with your audience. 

4. People want brands with a soul. 

That’s all for day one! Stay tuned for more analysis and recaps of each day at the festival.