The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has wrapped up for 2023, with the event having brought together those that work in creative communications and advertising from every corner of the planet.
Mediaweek has been on location in the South of France, and spoke to some of the most influential people in both Australian and global media. Today is Rose Herceg, ANZ President of WPP.
For Herceg, there are many reasons for the appeal of WPP making the trek to Cannes. As well as seeing clients in person and networking, she says that one of the core factors is that “it’s all about the ingenuity of the work.”
“This is one of the few times in the world where what gets awarded and what gets talked about is the stuff that changes an industry. I’ve been judging for the last few days, and I’ve seen work that has changed legislation, saved a life, created a new revenue stream – it’s the kind of work that would make any CFO go, ‘I now get why I have a marketing budget’.
“As much as its networking and all of this business bottom line, this is one of the few places where you get to focus on the magnificence of good work that changes stuff.”
On the ground, Herceg says that she has noticed people all over the Cannes Lions Festival have artificial intelligence on their minds. Whilst there is no shortage of pessimism about the technology, she says that she’s excited about what AI can offer.
“A really good understanding of how AI scrapes data gives you a baseline – it doesn’t and can never compete with imagination and originality.
“We use it at WPP all the time, and we’re going to use it more and more. Our biggest clients use it, and we’re doing a lot of work with it in Australia, but in the end, nothing beats lateral thinking. That’s been a big theme, and I love it.”
Judging in Cannes
The trip to France has been extra busy for Herceg, who was one of this year’s jury members judging the Creative Strategy Lions award. As one of 290 experts from across 46 markets that were tasked with whittling down the winners, Herceg says that her time on the just was incredibly positive – if not somewhat hectic.
“It’s actually been great,” Herceg says of her time on the jury. “It’s been really fair, and incredibly diligent. I didn’t know what to expect, I’ll be honest. There are 10 voices in the room from around the world, there are different nationalities, and English isn’t the first language for a lot of the judges, which is great.
“I’m stunned and actually quite admiring of how seriously it was taken, because they have to be credible – these awards should mean something. Spending two days in a room looking at 429 pieces of work to get a shortlist of 104, then down to 25 awards, it’s serious stuff.”
She noted that one of the most inspiring parts was “that all these people from around the world can be in the same room and be able to change their minds.”
With so many pieces of work to look through and assess, there were certain themes popping up again and again. Herceg says there was one particular emerging theme that took her by surprise.
“I thought there would be a lot of sustainability work and purpose-driven work, the obvious catchphrases, but the work that we saw was very much about hard metrics. I was really surprised by the very sharp focus on sales. One of the judges Josy Paul [chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India] – who I just thought was a terrific bloke – said ‘we’re going from point of view to point of do’, and I thought that was great.
“I’m loving that we’re becoming a really substantive, serious business industry, where you could go up against any of the consultancies, any of the analytical thinkers, and you can take them on. I was really beautifully, surprised by there being less vanity metrics and more hard business metrics.”
Looking Ahead
With so many balls in the air, Herceg says that the present focus of WPP is “getting our networks to work really well together,” all the while keeping an eye on what’s on the horizon.
“We have examples like KFC, Suncorp, Mondelez, all these incredible brands where we’ve got several of our businesses working hand in glove, and it’s simple to navigate. We’re a far leaner business than we’ve ever been, we’re working really well together and a lot more quickly.
“My history has been in a small business, self-employed. We’re a lot more nimble, and I’m running it like a small business – scrappy, entrepreneurial, gutsy, fast. That’s my focus for now, my focus for tomorrow is seeing around the corner, to try to get there before our competitors get there so that we can keep our clients incredibly happy and growing.”
As for what is around that corner? Whilst nobody has a crystal ball, Herceg predicts that the future will involve highlighting humanity and an increasingly tech-driven world.
“I think one of the huge things around the corner is really deconstructing humanity and technology in a way where the technology doesn’t get in the way of the deep humanity. That universal insight or that human truth is what should be driving the technology, not the other way around.
“The future of a lot of our business is going to be just pausing and looking at AI, looking at all the technology available and saying, ‘Where is the real humanity in all of this?’. That’s absolutely where we’re going. The pendulum has swung one way, it’s got to come back.”
Overall, Herceg says that the future is bright and that if technology is used to its full potential, “the best years of our industry are ahead of us.”
“AI is going to really help us – when people say we should be afraid for our jobs, I disagree 100%. Half of the jobs that are at WPP right now didn’t exist a decade ago, so there are going to be a bunch of new industries and new occupations that technology will invent. That’s exciting.
“We’ve got to do a better job of communicating that to get the people coming into this industry recruited out of university and the kids who are 15 and thinking about what to study.”
See Also: Cannes Day 1 Recap: AB InBev, Louis Vuitton, Snapchat, Reddit, and Cheeto art
See Also: Cannes Day 2 Recap: WeAre8, Dentsu, Yahoo, WSJ, and a surprise drone show
See Also: Cannes Day 3 Recap: Havas, AI, GroupM, Sprite, and real humans
See Also: Cannes Day 4 Recap: Mindshare, Macca’s, Disney, and Deadmau5
–
Top Image: Rose Herceg, ANZ President of WPP