Postcard from Cannes. The beautiful future of creativity 

In a world where creativity is facing an imminent threat from AI, data and technology, Cannes Lions 2024 has been a celebration of creativity powered by these very seeming threats. AI, data and technology have become powerful allies for ad folks. The creative business has seamlessly embraced the power of technology to solve for large business and human problems.

A larger canvas

One of our own campaigns for HDFC Bank titled — Lulumelon End of Season Sale — does this beautifully. The campaign, designed to prevent frauds, demonstrates through clever use of AI and technology how deep fakes can fool us. The palette of the creative business today is indeed very rich. Earlier, creativity was only about text, images and video — today it is about using data, using technology and using AI to solve for problems and amplify opportunities. This larger canvas is what makes this business so exciting.

Coca Cola’s ‘recycle me’ campaign aimed at recyclable cans

The Cannes Lions awards themselves have started focusing a lot on the impact of the work being awarded and not just the creativity around it. This has led to greater client participation as work on big brands which have had real impact on people has got awarded. Some notable work in this space is the Coca Cola work on recyclable cans (a stirring campaign called ‘Recycle Me’), Unilever work for Magnum ice cream, Spotify work titled Spreadbeats (an animated colourful music video coded into Spotify’s media plan spreadsheet) amongst many others. This also helps prove the power of creativity in being able to move the needle on business, be able to create a real impact.

The audacity of belief

One of the interesting talks that I attended was the interview with Elon Musk on stage. What struck me was the audacity of his vision, the desire to extend human life beyond earth, to solve for neurological health problems through neuralink and give the world a platform for free speech. In a candid moment, while responding to his somewhat meteoric outbursts on the platform X or to the media, he spoke about showing up with authenticity, and living without a filter. My biggest takeaway was that creativity is not just about imagination, it is about audacity of belief and execution.

Elon Musk’s interview at Cannes Lions 2024

For me, personally, the Cannes Lions this year has been about discussing the future of our business and the future of our company with our India leadership team. In the background of great creative work and conversations on mega trends, these conversations have helped build tremendous energy for our vision to be the best creative company in the world. Moreover, it has given us some clear actionables in terms of how to get there. One of the less talked about aspects of Cannes Lions is the opportunity for connections and networking that it provides. Beyond the speakers at Palais and the award shows, it has been a fabulous week of meeting partners, global leaders of our network and clients. Last night as I sat and watched the winners of the film category, I couldn’t help but reflect to myself, how beautiful this business is, when done right!

(Dheeraj Sinha is Group CEO, FCB Group India & South Asia)