Purpose-driven marketing finds its meaning at Cannes Lions

Purpose, data and a brave new world of creativity dominate trends at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

FitChix, Honest Eggs Co, VML Australia

Purpose in marketing has finally found its, well, purpose, as brands find the path to authentic connections with social causes and drive profit in the process.

Purpose-driven marketing was one theme dominating conversations at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France.

The week-long festival, which attracts business, marketing, media and creative leaders from around the world, serves as a litmus test for the broader marketing and advertising trends that are set to dominate in the coming year.

This year’s collection of work demonstrated that brands had recognised the need to align with a purpose that was relevant to the brand, not an add-on.

TBWA president and regional CEO for Australia & New Zealand Paul Bradbury told The Growth Agenda: “Purpose-first ideas looking for a brand, were finally replaced by product-centric ideas, executed with boldness, simplicity and sometimes positive purpose.”

Publicis Groupe ANZ chief executive Mike Rebelo, agreed: “There was a real shift from purpose-driven work for the sake of purpose-driven work, like the work that’s there to leverage a social cause or piggyback a movement to purpose that was driving commerce and profit that was very close to a brand positioning.”

The trend was present in a range of diverse work from across different international markets, according to Dentsu chief client & commercial officer Fiona Johnston.

“After many years of trying, there seems a real sense of ensuring a human edge to all communications. From Microsoft making AI meaningful, Uniqlo fixing social issues in Tokyo, or MasterCard helping refugees in Poland. Most – not all – pieces of work I saw seemed to be trying to address or make space for something human, from laughter, to purpose, to honesty.”

WPP Australia and New Zealand president Rose Herceg said the trend was even evident in the creative data category, where she served as the jury president.

“[The] Grand Prix winner ‘Room For Everyone’ is the best argument for creativity we saw in our category. This work delivered socially, economically, geographically, and culturally. It stopped xenophobia in its tracks. It helped create a booming small business economy. It reminded us that there is more that unites us than divides us. It took data and used it with such incredible finesse.”

Date was another key trend. “Data is finally being used in a way that is so incredibly imaginative. It’s jumping the fence from literal to lateral.”

“Creative Data is a category of the future. The next generation of talent in our industry will be trained to see creativity within data. To see how they can take data and turn it on its head. This ability to use data to fuel imagination will be one of the most precious skills in the next five years,” said Herceg.

The event showcased the category-leading brave and bold marketing from around the world. However, with the exception of some outstanding campaigns - notably The Monkeys and Revolver’s Grand Prix winning ‘Play It Safe’ film for The Sydney Opera House, some believe Australian marketers and agencies will need to improve their offerings to keep pace in the future.

Mr Bradbury offered “massive congratulations to The Monkeys and Revolver on their incredible Film Grand Prix win.” However, he stressed more work like that was needed from the local industry. “Across the board we saw a different level of creativity at Cannes this year. The bar has gone seriously higher, and largely Australia has failed to keep up,” he said.

“Australia is going to need to go to a very different level of creativity if we are going to compete with the world’s best, and we can’t use the excuse of budgets and scale not to compete. Smaller agencies in smaller countries and economies across Asia, South America and Africa were challenging the big ones for Cannes big prizes.

“We are going to need a lot more confidence, bravery and trust across our client/agency relationships to go higher.

“Australia loves a challenge, so let’s have a go,” he added.

Overall the event aimed to reinforce the importance of creativity, said Ms Herceg. “The greatest work makes CFOs and CEOs fall in love with creativity. Why? Because world-class work is money in the bank.”