Cannes Lions 2022: Q+A With Scott Mitchell

Another year, another fantastic Cannes Lion festival. Officially wrapping at the end of June, the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brought together an impressive roster of talent. Presented in partnership with the Globe and Mail, Cannes Lions explores the value of creativity in branded communication: from product and service development to the creative strategy, execution and impact.

We had the excellent opportunity to speak with Scott Mitchell, Managing Director of Vistar Canada, who was in attendance at the 2022 festival. Scott was able to provide a preview of this year's festival and some of his personal experience.

Source: Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

What can one expect when attending the Cannes Lion festival?

Networking, networking and more networking - but in the best way possible. The Cannes Lions Festival is a unique opportunity to connect with creatives from all advertising disciplines, all over the world. By coming with an open mind and eagerness to learn, you can walk away with a completely new way of looking at a problem or discover capabilities you didn’t even know existed.

What are brands doing to promote content within the festival grounds?

We saw a variety of strong promotional tactics while at Cannes Lions, but the one that stood out most to me was the strong prominence of out-of-home (OOH) and digital-out-of-home (DOOH). Imagine the main strip with OOH/DOOH everywhere you look - almost like Times Square - it was brilliant! The best part was seeing brands exploring these awareness and promotional capabilities with CTA-driving activations like QR codes and sidewalk placements (actually on the ground). It was empowering to see these initiatives in action and even being leveraged to sign up attendees and drive foot traffic for different parties and events.

How has the changing media environment impacted this year's festival?

Given consumers are becoming more savvy and intentional about the brands they choose to engage with, the pendulum is swinging toward long-term brand building and awareness that can develop loyal customers over time. It’s also worth mentioning how quickly topics of discussion change in news and pop culture too. Because of that, we are seeing more brands activate their campaigns with media that is better suited for tight-turnaround pivots like shifted strategies, messaging and targeting. Generally speaking, media investments are now managed on a much more case-by-case basis rather than through hard commitments. It is encouraging to see brands understand the value of this type of creative liberty and still achieve their desired results.

How have ongoing political and social situations shaped the festival this year?

Whenever you are gathering a group as large as the one at Cannes Lions, it is crucial to address the ongoing social and political issues being faced globally. In fact, it would be a fundamental error not to. The global climate crisis played a significant role in shaping conversations at Cannes Lions. With that, we saw some of the world’s top advertising companies announce their plans to roll out Ad Net Zero internationally to major markets (the advertising industry’s drive to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing and running advertising to real net-zero by 2030).

"Brand bravery" was another prominent topic of discussion, as more brands and creative teams are responding to their audiences' demand for action from corporate entities on social causes. An awareness of how quickly the social, political and economic landscape can change is further driving brands to demand flexibility and purpose in their media commitments.

We had the honour of seeing some of the most creative minds join from all over the world and take advantage of the opportunity to develop impactful action plans for some of these issues. One of the ways Cannes Lions specifically addressed this was by focusing on six key themes that are imperative to our world right now. Events throughout the week centred on Sustainability; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Data and Technology; Brand Creativity and Effectiveness; Talent; and Business Transformation.

LinkedIn and Meta are just two of the many sponsorships this year. What other sponsorships stand out?

There was no shortage of impressive and interesting sponsor activations at this year’s Cannes Lions festival. With that, our team is always pleased to see Canadian organizations like The Globe and Mail showing up in an impactful way, in this case participating in the Global Young Lions Competition. We were also proud to see Canadians being recognized in four of the Lions categories. Of course, it is always great to see some of Vistar’s biggest clients, like Dentsu, participating as well.

How can brands or professionals get involved next year?

To get the most out of Cannes Lions, or any industry festival/conference for that matter, I would encourage everyone to attend panels that are outside of their “norm” or comfort zone. By taking a step away from your own agenda, you can really be curious and learn something new. For example, this year I saw Paris Hilton present and found a new appreciation for her business savvy.

It sounds simple and cliche, but don’t be shy. Networking is key to building relationships and opening up new opportunities. If you can’t make it to the festival, I would recommend connecting with a network that you know is attending to get the inside scoop on some of the discussions – this is what it’s all about! People are eager to share their wealth of knowledge. If you see someone posting on LinkedIn that they are attending, reach out.

With that, we also saw more hybrid capabilities than ever before, with some attendees joining the festival live streams virtually. I’m always pleased to see these options made available, so we can truly connect with people all over the world — and am hopeful we will continue to see it in years to come.

Thank you toScott Mitchell for sharing his experience with Marketing News Canada. To learn more about Cannes Lions, please visit this link.

Written by Emma Whiten, Editor of Marketing News Canada with Scott Mitchell, Managing Director of Vistar Canada