A daily diary series from Cannes Lions Festival 2022

By Jon Evans, Chief Growth Officer, System1

This quote from a chat I had with an editor of a marketing publication today stuck with me: “Who owns the beach owns the agenda,” he said. Today I got to walk the beach and harbour full of super yachts and one word sums up who owns Cannes. Tech. Not just big tech but well-funded start-up tech, too. Cognitive dissonance soon ensued as this a creative festival. Surely, we should be focused on the work we create just as much as the platform it’s advertised on?

However, LinkedIn, which was out in force at Cannes, seems to truly get this whole creativity bit. They invested heavily in their first Cannes sponsorship and I got to see behind the scenes just a bit and I saw the emphasis on creativity they were attempting to foster. Their commitment to creative and effective B2B advertising as well as a desire to demonstrate how it drives growth and job opportunities is the message we all need to hear right now—no matter our industry. I think there is still too much of a focus here on creative people marking their own homework and not enough focus on getting our economy back on track! But maybe whatever I see and experience tomorrow will change my mind a bit.