CANNES LIONS -> It’s one of the world’s biggest creative festivals. And no one says it’s about advertising. Good! Because advertising itself changed in the last 5 years. It disappears actually. At least the classic version of the advertising we know: One-way TV commercial breaks, one-way printed static ads, … Creativity stays! Today, creativity is used to connect brands with people. A dialog instead of staged brand messages.

The first day oft the festival is a proof of my theory.

“Our audience has an overload of content and a deficit of attention” is the key element oft he first presentation I attend. There is no get through to the people without a relevant message, without an information in the right context and without and offer to connect in an interactive way. Playboy Perfumes offers therefore the possibility to become a ‘real queen’ and gives you animated ‘gifs’ to make a statement on your social media channels.

Airbnb founder Brian Chesky wants to connect travelers with residents. In real appartments instead of neutral hotel rooms. And to communicate the fascination of this idea he doesn’t use a commercial – he just offers a booking experience in a ‚real’ room of one of Van Goghs paintings on his platform. Sold out on the first day. Spread all over the world.

Japanese designers from Dentsu used the abstract illustration of the functionality of a contact lense packaging to create a corporate identity which is used as the base for the playful connection with people: online games, art posters, videos, etc..

No talk about a TV ad today. Why? Read this text again.

Tobias Ulmer, WERBEWELT