Back to the (virtual) beach
After our discussions about tech companies and their beach venues at Cannes, we overlooked one major initiative – the first Cannes Lions virtual beach.
WPP agency Wunderman Thompson has launched the WT Inspiration Beach, a metaverse activation to celebrate the festival in Cannes. It allows people from all over the world to experience the agency’s take on creativity, content, and connectivity. Might also save the agency a few euros on site fees too.
WT Inspiration Beach has been custom-built in partnership with metaverse platform, Odyssey, and features collaboration spaces, a networking lounge area, as well as a creative showcase of Wunderman Thompson’s pieces of work.
Wunderman Thompson was one of the first agencies to launch their own metaverse, debuting at CES 2022 in January. The global network has published two reports about the rise of this new virtual frontier: Into the Metaverse was launched in September 2021 and the follow-up report, New Realities: Into the Metaverse and Beyond, was launched in May 2022, which reported that awareness of the metaverse has more than doubled in less than a year.
Visit WT Inspiration Beach here.
Ryan Reynolds makes it to Cannes…just
Wendy Clark, global chief executive of Dentsu, got to spend time on stage with actor Ryan Reynolds on the morning of day three of the Cannes Lions.
Best known perhaps for his role in the Deadpool franchise, Reynolds calls himself a part-time actor when talking about his business interests. Reynolds is the chief creative officer of MNTN (Mountain.com) which builds advertising software for brands to drive measurable conversions, revenue, site visits and more through the power of television.
The connection with Ryan Reynolds came when MNTN bought Reynolds’ creative agency Maximum Effort 12 months ago. Reynolds is no stranger to business – he also owns US telco Mint Mobile and the Welsh football club Wrexham.
Earlier this year, MNTN raised US$119m in funding from private equity investors. In a statement released at the time that deal was revealed, Reynolds said: “I’m the least interesting thing about MNTN. It’s changing TV advertising. I was lucky to stow away in the cargo hold on its trip around the sun and back. MNTN is a beast. I’m mixing metaphors. Whatever. The point is I’m super grateful for our new partners.”
During his Cannes Lions appearance, Reynold spoke about marketers that flock to major event spots on television. “We all watch Super Bowl ads. Some of the Super Bowl ads I have seen are just miraculous. But sometimes the product just disappears. The ad can be so funny that afterwards, you are just talking about the actor who was in it, and I couldn’t tell you the product they were talking about. We definitely make sure the products we are working with creatively speaking about are front and centre.”
Coinciding with Reynolds’s visit to the French Riviera was his announcement he was the co-creator of a new nonprofit, The Creative Ladder, to help make creative careers more accessible to all – especially those from underrepresented communities. Deloitte has joined the initiative as a founding donor with an initial $500,000.00 contribution and as a strategic collaborator.
Wendy Clark gave the packed Lumiere Theatre audience in the Palais a scare at the start of the session when she walked onstage to explain Reynolds had been held up and that they had a great Plan B with lots of slides! But even before she had finished discussing Plan B, Reynolds slinked on stage and they got underway with Plan A.
Cannes Lions: More actors on stage
Another actor on stage on day three was US star Issa Rae, best known for her roles onscreen and off with HBO comedy Insecure. Chatting to Rae was Ogilvy global chief creative officer Liz Taylor (Twitter handle @otherliztaylor).
The discussion included the importance of having diversity in agency teams and also having a safe space for people to speak out when they feel something is wrong and needs to be discussed.
Taylor also asked about a past quote from Rae where she advised women, “Don’t be afraid to be a bitch.” Rae said that quote came from experiences she had in meetings where someone higher up may have described a woman as such for being too demanding or too critical. “When I started doing my show [Insecure] for the first time I was very conscious of not getting that label. Being difficult might mean that person never wants to work with you again. As a creative and as a boss there is a standard that I expect and I was tired of that standard not being met. I had to tell myself don’t be afraid of being a bitch if it’s going to get you the standard that you require.”
Rae runs her own business Hoorae Media which produces her series for HBO in addition to other projects.
Another actor sharing her story was Regina Hall in discussion with Ukonwa Ojo, global chief marketing officer, Amazon Prime Video and Studios Amazon. The late morning session was held in the Debussy Theatre in the Palais.
Hall may be best known recently for her role in Nine Perfects Strangers. She has also appeared in Issa Rae’s Insecure and she recently starred in the Prime Video movie Master. The Cannes Lions discussion included telling stories that are impactful and resonate with global audiences.
Batman Unburied
The hit Spotify fiction podcast Batman Unburied was the subject of a session at the Spotify Beach just before lunch. The podcast powered its way to the top of the charts earlier this year after its May 3 launch and soon became the largest Spotify Original fiction podcast global launch of all time. The series began a larger partnership between Spotify, Warner Bros., and DC.
To celebrate the success of Batman Unburied, Spotify chief content and business advertising officer Dawn Ostroff led a discussion with two key cast – Winstone Duke (Bruce Wayne/Batman) and Hasan Minhaj (the Riddler) – plus Peter Girardi from Warner Bros Animation.
Spotify released the series one episode at a time after its double-episode premiere.
The virtual world has virtual influencers
If you are ever annoyed by influencers, skip this next item. An early after session hosted by trend forecaster WGSN featured a discussion about virtual influencers.
The session featured a live interview with leading virtual influencer, Zero, created by Offbeat Media Group.
WGSN addressed why the VR influencer economy is on the rise, how it can offer new ways to drive engagement, and which talent agencies are paving the way for this industry shift.
What types of virtual influencers exist?
What do brands need to know to create or work with a virtual influencer?
Where should brands invest when it comes to virtual influencers?
In its ranking of the top virtual influencers, the Influencer Marketing Hub explained the Brazilian virtual influencer Lu do Magalu topped the poll with more than 14.6 million followers on Facebook, 5.9 million followers on Instagram, more than 2.6 million YouTube subscribers and over 1.3 million followers on Twitter and TikTok respectively.
Lu do Magalu has, of course, also had a Vogue Brazil cover.
See also:
Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity: Day 1 and Ukraine’s fight for freedom
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: Day 2 starts to heat up