Note from jim Stengel, Creator
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Thank you for attending the pilot CMO Accelerator Program at the Cannes Lions 2013. It was a new opportunity for leaders in the
marketing world to come together and learn from each other and from some of the industry’s most respected names. Your openness and participation were the program’s greatest asset, and I look forward to seeing how you use your learning and inspiration from the week to transform your companies.
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We kicked off the session on Friday morning with a video courtesy of The Guardian, recapping the themes of this year’s festival with input from thought leaders. The major themes that emerged were the importance of creating great content or storytelling, and the rise of big data in marketing. We followed the video with
introductions from each of the participants, and you all shared what you hoped to gain from the session. Almost everyone mentioned inspiration.
Jim then discussed some
background on the marketing presence at Cannes and what inspired the creation of the CMO accelerator program. He presented key themes, based on input from you, the
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participants. The five “burning issues” from preliminary research were:
• finding the right purpose/why for your brand
• advancing communication planning
• measuring marketing impact and success
• working differently in a big data world
• integrating the role of the corporate brand and those of individual brands within the company
These concepts were the guiding principles for the program.
HIGHLIGHTS & Insights
JUNE 20-22, 2013
Contact Information Jim Stengel [email protected] Steve Latham [email protected]Lorem Ipsum
Mobile devices and the technology surrounding them are a new frontier in the marketing world. How can marketers use this platform to benefit both consumers and business?
Marketing through mobile devices is a very personal channel, allowing a one-to-one relationship. It is all about the user experience and adding utility value to the consumer. Nike is a great example of a brand that uses mobile technology to give their consumers something useful. Their free apps, like Nike+ Running and Nike Training Club, help people reach their fitness goals and make life better. They also make Jim’s daughter buy
new running shorts. Marketing really does work.
Marketers need to reach the emotional core of why and how people use their mobile devices and find the context for using mobile technology. With this information, you can target your marketing and integrate content with location. But be careful. Just because it is possible to reach people at all times does not mean that you should. It is easy for a brand to become annoying – like those Dove banner ads with the girl who frantically waves at you from every single website.
Mobile Marketing Now and in the
Future
How Big Data &
Technology Will
Shape the Future
Role of the CMO (or,
the Scientific
Revolution Comes
to Marketing)
Abbey Klaassen from AdAge moderated a panel discussion with Wes Nichols (CEO of Marketshare Partners), Daniel Morel (CEO of Wunderman), Mel Varley (Chief Strategy Officer of MEC), Carlos Cata (partner at Heidrick & Struggles), and John Kahan (GM of Business and Consumer Intelligence at Microsoft). The panelists discussed the rise of big data and analytic technology in marketing, and the impetus to make decisions based on data.
Senior marketing leaders must determine the key questions about their business and consumers, and then find the answers using the available data. The field of analytics is constantly changing, so it is necessary for CMOs to work with the best people and partners to optimize their results. The panel noted that banks and automotive companies leverage big data the best; CPG is lagging behind. Companies need to view data as a
corporate asset, as opposed to holding it in various disciplines. All departments should have access to big data, with common rules for usage.
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Marketing 2020
Marc de Swaan Arons, founder and chairman of EffectiveBrands, shared
preliminary findings from Marketing 2020
– Organizing for Growth. This study is a collaboration between EffectiveBrands, the Association of National Advertisers, and the World Federation of Advertisers, and it looks at the CMO and marketing influence on business growth.
Many key differences were identified between overperformers and underperformers. Overperformers are more likely to leverage big data. Second, overperformers identify creativity as an important force for growth in their companies. Finally, winners have a strong societal purpose, and employees and consumers are both engaged with brand purpose. According to Marketing 2020, winning CMOs have “business leadership combined with the magic of marketing.”
Creative Marketer of the
Year
Joe Tripodi, CMO of Coca-Cola, spoke about the path to becoming Creative Marketer of the Year. He cited three major factors that have made Coca-Cola a marketing success. The first is company culture. He emphasized core values of passion, selflessness, continual improvement, and taking risks. He also believes in developing strong partnerships, not only with agencies but with government and NGOs, as Coca-Cola has done with their water stewardship program and the campaign against obesity.
Finally, he shared that Coca-Cola strives to be “best for the world, not just best in the world.” This ethos is reflected in their marketing work, from hiring Mary Alexander, an African-American woman, to appear in print ads in the 1950s, to their campaign for happiness and this year’s Small World Machines, promoting interaction and understanding between the people of India and Pakistan.
Congratulations to the Coca-Cola team on their well-deserved win, and to Joe for having the guts to dress like a member of the Rat Pack for the awards ceremony. He walks the risk-taking talk.
What do Agencies Want from CMOs?
Creatives from three top agencies visited the program to speak about their award winning campaigns and to share their insights on agency-client partnerships. Nick Law, Global Chief Creative Officer at R/GA, discussed how agencies should be a collaboration between storytellers and system designers, using the Nike Fuelband as an example. It is important for marketers to find the overlap between entertainment and information and for great agencies to “get just ahead of culture,” so that culture will “run up and embrace” the creative work.
Rob Reilly, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, emphasized the importance of having a common ideal for both agency and client, as with the Small Business Saturday work for American Express. A shared ideal of helping small business powered all the work and started a movement in the USA. Agencies want CMOs to be honest about their pressures and enlist the agencies to help them succeed in their jobs. Rob says that they will “kill themselves to do great work.”
Joe Staples, Executive Creative Director at Wieden + Kennedy Portland and probably the coolest dude on the planet, presented W+K’s work for Chrysler, and how truth inspires great work. (For your daily dose of creativity, follow this guy on Instagram. He also has an unbelievably cute hipster baby.) He believes a more accurate title for CMOs would be Chief Truth Officer. It is sometimes necessary for agencies and clients to have awkward conversations. By being honest and admitting the truth, “you get to make work that responds to it.”
Creative Directors’ Advice for CMOs
• Be open – don’t worry about being laughed out of the room.
• Care about what you do.
• Use normal language, not marketing buzzwords. Be plain-spoken.
• Briefs should be interesting and legible. See above about normal language.
• Put the creatives near the problem and let them solve.
• Go to the pub. Spend more time with regular people.
Rob Malcolm, former CMO of Diageo and current professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, made a cameo at the end of the first day to share his marketing wisdom. He advises CMOs to “deliver today, disrupt tomorrow.” Marketing leaders set the culture for agencies to do their best work, so it is key for CMOs to foster strong relationships and put the advice from the creative directors into practice. He urges CMOs to ask themselves, “What is the legacy I leave?” and to let this question guide your choices and actions.
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Laurie Coots, President of Disruption Works, and Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED, discussed the concept of lateral learning and how TED can be applied to marketing and business growth. TED’s goal is to “find people who love what they do and turn them into rock stars.” The organization promotes lateral learning, or sharing knowledge and creativity across disciplines.
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Through corporate
relationships, TED breaks down silos and encourages this type of learning within companies. Employees are a great source of knowledge, and TED can help to create an internal knowledge library. Laurie suggests using TED talks to create shared discussion between levels of management, or teaming a TED speaker and a facilitator with business expertise to discuss parallels between TED content and your company.
Disruption: Ideas Worth Spreading
Young Marketer
Perspectives
To start off the second day, a panel of bright young talent from Jim’s Cannes Creative Academy for Young Marketers visited to discuss what junior-level associates would like to see from CMOs. They represent companies from all over the globe, and they had plenty to share. The week at Cannes was “fuel” for them, and they ask that CMOs give young marketers the freedom to push back and change culture within the company. They feel that there is sometimes a gap between senior management and what happens on the ground. Young marketers want more room to be creative; they noted that senior management talks about creativity a lot, but in practice there is less emphasis or reward for creativity.
Young marketers want to know what inspires their CMO. Millennial hint: Tweet about what you’re reading,
watching, thinking, etc. Get on Instagram, too. If you’re really brave, try Vine. They ask that you evaluate how accessible you actually are to more junior people, and suggest reverse mentoring as a way to stay in touch with what is happening at all levels within your company. Promising young marketers value purpose, accomplishment, and growth in their work, and they ask that CMOs give them the opportunity to realize these values.
A Conversation with Jean-Marie Dru
Jean-Marie Dru, Chairman of TBWA Worldwide, joined the seminar to share his assessment and recommendations for marketing leaders. He explained that CMOs are responsible for the growth of the company and must be visible and well understood. A great CMO will break down vertical barriers and integrate internally and externally. As leaders, you manage so many different actors and interactions, and the challenge is delivering “an integrated, engaging, 360 degree communication program for a brand.” He cited the Adidas Neo window shopping and McDonald’s wifi networks in Spain as prime examples.
Jean-Marie discussed the marketing strengths of luxury brands, which prioritize experience, content, trendsetting, and attention to detail. He proposed that all marketers should emulate the luxury brand approach. He emphasized the importance of building and giving more value to brands, “a company’s biggest asset.” Corporate social responsibility must be core to every brand, not only a company effort.
Action Planning
The program closed with a session on personal action planning. Jim encourages you to create a headline for your week at Cannes and to consider what you will do back in your office to transform your company and your brands. Here are some of the concepts and goals that participants suggested.
• Find a social purpose.
• Make creativity king.
• Become the Chief Truth Officer.
• Live with purpose and speak the truth.
• Remember that human insight is more important than big data, but not mutually exclusive.
• Surround yourself with people you love and admire.
• Ask the right questions, and ask the right people.
• Build an ecosystem of creativity.
• Strive to create ideas, not ads.
• Treat consumers like people, not dots of data.
• Aim higher for creative excellence.
Our goal for this pilot program at Cannes Lions was to dramatically accelerate your capability—as leaders, as senior marketers, as standard-setting creative partners with your agencies. From your feedback, it looks like we accomplished that objective. But this program was just the beginning—it is now up to you to bring back the passion and energy of our two days in Cannes to your consumers, customers and associates. That is how you will grow your brands faster and grow your potential as a leader.
