A daily diary series from Cannes Lions Festival 2022

By Jon Evans, Chief Growth Officer, System1

Cannes is where the meeting of the minds happens. Case in point as the first “job” I tackled at the festival was a recording of Uncensored CMO, my 50^th episode as it turns out! My guests were effectiveness legends Peter Field, Karen Nelson-Field and Orlando Wood who had just come off stage after delivering their ‘Triple Jeopardy’ keynote speech. After a few jokes about how sustainable-sounding their names were, we discussed some tough topics—specifically, how advertising has become more short term, attention is being lost and creative work has become left-brained—which, when taken altogether pose a triple threat. The good news is they are seeing positive signs of change and are hopeful.

Later, the networking got underway in style at a fabulous beachfront location with the kind of ambiance befitting the venue. I met several interesting people but the single most surprising conversation happened when someone asked if I had been at Davos and inquired as to how I thought the agenda at Cannes stood in comparison… Flattering, to say the least. Last time I checked I wasn’t president of a country or a global CEO but it was a stark reminder of the kind of people that attend Cannes and the bubble of privilege we sit in while here.