The Cannes evolution

This was the opinion of Ran Neu-Ner, co-CEO of The Creative Counsel when he gave his annual review of the Cannes Lion awards to a full room at The Venue at Melrose Arch in Gauteng recently.

In 2014 the buzzwords coming out of Cannes included brand with purpose, second screen, content is king, combination marketing, and authentic. The winners included the Volvo "Epic Split" video and Procter & Gamble's "Like a girl". This year the winners summarised where the industry has moved to: activist emotional type stories that are resonant with the audience, with buzzwords including neuroscience, oxytesis, culture and how to use it in marketing, hijacking, collaboration..."

Context

Neuroscience is about understanding human behaviour and changing decision making and consumers' behaviour. However it is not neuroscience that is of that much concern; it is cognitive neuroscience, which allows us to build a bridge to perceive and remember information he says.

The vast majority of purchase decisions are irrational. If we do not make decisions rationally then how do we make decisions? he asks. "Human decisions are subject to non-rational and other influences which means we make decisions based on content. Therefore it is not enough that we see or are presented something. To remember it, there must be a trigger, encoding and then a change in the way the brain thinks."

The brain is not a camera, it does not remember everything. What people remember - and what the brain remembers - is what is each-ness or uniqueness, not sameness.

For example, he says, when Heinz replaced the gherkin with a tomato on their bottle sales fell. "They removed the each-ness and replaced it with sameness."
Neu-Ner explains that rationality does not drive human behaviour, but people assume that their decisions are rational. Never ask a consumer what they think because they will tell you what they think. "Take the Pepsi vs Coke debate. 90% of people in a blind tasting agree that Pepsi tastes better than Coke, yet Coke sells more. That's because the brand does amazing things - it adds a layer of context which sways the purchase decision. You need to talk to the correct side of the brain using the correct emotion."

In other words sell to the heart to justify the head. One emotional experience is much more powerful than 100 rational messages.

Culture

"If you accomplish these three things then you will change behaviour and if you can change behaviour then you can change culture," he explains adding that culture and marketing was one of the biggest themes in Cannes.

For example technology has impacted on culture and how we react in certain situation, therefore there is a technology culture.

However the biggest theme under culture was the culture of doing good. "Of changing the world and making it a better place... Activism or the act of doing good was huge at Cannes this year."

Last year the biggest campaign was the ALS Challenge. The Water for Africa campaign "Marathon Walker" is such a campaign. These campaigns are easy to implement he says. "In the Water for Africa campaign, one person is walking a marathon, but it received more exposure than if you were paying. How much would you have to pay to get your campaign to go as viral as the ALS Challenge?"

The concept gets the results and he says it's not rocket science, it's a formula. "Find a cause that matters, tell the story, create a talking point, and find a passionate group of people to drive it down their social communities." But he says, don't stop there. "A concept will die or plateau if you do not have a phase 2 and phase 3. ALS had no phase two or three. Today it takes moments to create a concept and for people to rally behind it, not years as it did previously."

Other campaigns that did well under the 'do good' banner include the Love has no labels and Mums and maids. "Both are examples of changing the world for good, around causes."

What does this mean to brands? "That they need to get involved. They need to change their organisation to make the world a better place." And he adds, the formula for brands to do this is the same as the formula above to do good.

For the people

Keith Weed, CMO of Unilever Global Marketing says it is no longer about marketing to the people or with the people, but marketing for the people. Volvo is a prime example of this evolution. It has moved from its "Splits", to marketing for the people this year with its Volvo Life Paint for cyclists. The paint illuminates cyclists in car headlights thereby helping cyclists and car drivers to save lives and therefore making the world a better place.

Weed also added that you cannot use good to cover up bad. "Weed is also the chief sustainability officer for Unilever and the merging of his two titles show just how important making the world a better place is becoming," Neu-Ner adds.

"Last year we saw phase one of this with the Unilever Expectant Moms campaign. This year, phase two, is around children. Unilever have changed their culture to make the world a better place and they are marketing for the people to achieve this."

Women's rights

This year also saw a new Lion, the Glass Lion that celebrates marketing to women. "It is saying women are not super mom, but they are a different consumer and Cannes is recognising this." The income for the category for women is US$12.5tn as women buy almost everything. By 2018 this will grow by 50%. Women also consume media differently, and they are much harder to market to than men. Therefore marketing to women needs to be done differently.