Welcome to Wednesday. Today our very own Ryan Reynolds took to the Cannes Lions stage to share his simple formula for great creative work.
In this edition:
- Checking in with Karen Howe
- Google amps up accessibility offering
- Why NFTs are hot
- Canada keeps scoring
- Why creatives need to question everything
- Where’s the opportunity for advertisers
- Why the potential for NFTs is massive for brands
Checking in with Karen Howe
Canada commanded the Palais today in the form of Ryan Reynolds. An avowed lover of advertising, he is now both client and agency. Ryan’s meteoric rise to advertising icon is fuelled by a decidedly simple formula: humour + speed. He thinks too much time, red tape and big budgets are often the enemy of great work. He values speed above all to grab the coattails of a cultural moment. His credo? To create “remember me” ads you need to embrace the notion that sometimes imperfection is perfection, and just get it out there.
The pavilion’s presence around Cannes this year is revealing. The roster now includes Meta, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Reddit, and Pinterest. It is no longer dominated by just the media players, social is flexing its muscles. But as well, there are many unknowns present. There is a feeling of the establishment of a new order.
Climate anxiety is a thread woven throughout the shortlists this year. Brand activism is pushing the agenda, and one of the most memorable examples was Corona’s Plastic Fishing Tournament. We dump 14 million tons of plastic in the sea. This activation paid fishermen to capture plastic and haul it out of the ocean. The hope is that the fish will someday return.
– Karen Howe is the creative director and founder of The Township Group
All In
Google announces an expanded accessibility kit at Cannes as part of its broader inclusive marketing efforts. Read more here.
Why NFTs are hot with brands
Gary Vaynerchuk and Paris Hilton talk about the big opportunities and challenges facing the NFT space. Read more here.
More Gold Lions for Canada
Strategy reports that Ogilvy’s Toronto and London offices earned a Gold Creative Effectiveness Lion for “Courage Is Beautiful,” a Dove campaign that recognized what health care workers went through in the early days of the pandemic. FCB Canada also took home a Gold Lion in Creative Effectiveness for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society’s “Project Understood,” which won last year for working with Google to make voice-activated technology to be more inclusive of people with Down syndrome and their speech patterns.
Question everything
The CMO of Hyundai Motor America Angela Zepeda and VP Comms at Disney Tori Fernandes discuss how questioning everything is the very soul of creativity and the quintessential essence behind your greatest breakthroughs. Keep reading.
B2B brands are the untapped market for creatives
According to Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn, even in our current financial markets, the uncertainty that we have today, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Block and Nvidia have a market cap that’s greater than Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and GM combined have a market cap that’s greater than Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and GM combined. For the advertising industry, these new B2B categories and businesses like them, that’s where the growth is going to come from. Out of the 10 most successful tech IPOs last year, all but one was a pure B2B play. These companies have no idea that they need you yet. These companies are growing fast, they’re spending much more money on advertising, and they know that they’ll need to stand out in an incredibly competitive market. There’s huge opportunity to help them build their brands.
Why major brands are spending millions on NFTs
For years, marketers have struggled to determine the actual impact of ads on consumer reach and engagement. But the verified transactional nature of NFTs could serve as an antidote. Read Sonia Carreno’s guest column here.
