Many in the advertising world will turn their attention to Cannes over the next week for the 60th Annual Festival of Creativity. While the advertising industry is not short on awards, this one is admittedly special. It launches, defines and caps careers. It serves as the annual “table” for advertising holding companies with regard to creative prowess (congrats to WPP who is the defending champion in this regard). It also serves as a platform for new and emerging technologies and a discussion of how and why data can complement the creative process. We will contribute to that particular conversation at 10:30 am on Wednesday with a special session in the TechTalks called “Creative is the New Currency”.
Ultimately though, Cannes is a celebration – both literally and figuratively. Cannes celebrates the risk takers, the pioneers and the creative brilliance required to connect brands with consumers. It is a celebration of those bold and creative enough to break through in this increasingly complex world and to continually redefine the relationships that brands have with consumers. The difficulty of this task cannot be understated. The extraordinary proliferation of advertising channels in the last decade alone is hard to grasp – social, mobile, online each have dozens of sub-segments and they didn’t exist at any scale when Cannes turned 50.
Still, television gets the Lion’s share of attention and justifiably so. It is the biggest stage and represents the largest allocation of capital. Video advertising, on television or online, remains the most effective way to engage consumers at scale – both rationally and emotionally. Given the proliferation of television channels in every corner of the planet and the increased time (and advertising clutter) that accompanies that – it is harder than ever to make viewers laugh and cry, to understand and influence behavior and drive consideration and purchase intent – in as little as fifteen seconds. That is why our agency partners love our platform – because they can use it to understand their creative better to test ideas more easily and to perfect the great ones – quickly, with big samples and a mix of quantitative and qualitative data.
We go to Cannes because we believe in creative. It’s why our tag line is “Creative Rules” – because the more than 6,000 pieces of creative we see each year inspires us, drives us and challenges us to be better at what we do and to help advertisers and agencies take risks. We are not the smallest company at Cannes and we are far from the largest – but we aim to appreciate the experience the most – because at the end of the day – creative is what fuels our business and to that we proudly raise a glass of rosé.
If you find yourself at Cannes next week, please stop by the Ace Metrix cabana (#6), just to the left of the Palais, on the water. We would love the opportunity to say hello, talk to you about what we’ve been up to most recently and toast the creatives and their creative. Even if you aren’t in the South of France next week, you can share in the celebration as we once again, share the highlights – particularly the Creative Effectiveness Lion winners, an award series near and dear to our hearts – which will be announced on Monday night, 17th June.
Email us at marketing@acemetrix.com to arrange for one on one time – or just drop by the cabana between 9am & 6pm Monday – Friday.
