Cannes Lions started as a modest, marketing-themed film festival in 1954 and oh, how the present-day, yacht-filled times have changed. Through the annual gathering, Cannes Lions and other legacy brands explore and celebrate changing views, fashions and what consumers care about the most. This year has been no different at the French Riviera-based fest.
Named “Creative Marketer Of The Year,” Burger King drew praise for the company’s fearless and modern campaigns. The quick service restaurant chain continues to push boundaries from the “Proud Whopper” supporting the LGBTQ community to the controversial ad that hijacked Google Home and Android devices by saying, “Okay, Google, what is the Whopper burger?”
For Fernando Machado, Burger King’s head of brand marketing, staying relevant is just part of keeping the right people at the helm at his burger chain’s marketing efforts.
“We’re trying to make our brand cool enough to attract the people we want to work for us,” he told Campaign. “That’s what we’re really crazy about. If we win awards, that’s perfect. It motivates everyone—our franchisees, our staff and, of course, our agencies because it makes it easier for them to hire the right people for our business.”
CNN president Jeff Zucker is confident his company is rising to the needs of today’s consumers by exploring new methods of communication—influencers. The 37-year-old news organization has partnered with YouTube star and Beme founder Casey Neistat.
“The world has changed—we can all get news 24/7 from any device, any outlet,” Zucker said at Cannes Lions, “but we want to tell different stories in different ways, and add to the news. We are not going to attract new viewers by just feeding CNN onto different platforms.
“The way that CNN would traditionally tell a story is so different from the way Casey and Beme would tell a story, both are incredibly valuable, both will find their audiences and that is what I think the new CNN is about—being a multi-platform company that reaches many different audience members on many different platforms.”
Consumers get their news—and just about everything else—on the go, and YouTube has been an incubator for new ad formats. Last year, Google’s video sharing site introduced a six-second, non-skippable ad format that will change the way brands share stories. Fox Networks Group is just one of the forward-thinking company’s already at the forefront.
“This is the first time that a broadcast television company has committed to the ad format, which YouTube introduced last year,” the companies said during Cannes Lions, explaining that the six-second format “strikes a balance between appreciable brand lift and optimal user experience” as more consumers watch premium video content through mobile.
From social advocacy to adopting new technology, legacy brands that adapt are one step further away from irrelevance in an ever-changing marketing landscape.
