Media overlaod versus personalized experience. If you skip the Ushers, Will Smiths and Iggy Pops, you might get the chance to learn something that is easy, far away from the big show offs, but rather effective. That´s what happened to me one day in Cannes. Trying to find a good and calm place to work outside the Palais, I tried Youtube Beach. Sat down in a funny beanbag in the sand, grabbed a healthy smoothie in exchange for a high five („that´s what it costs…!“) – and suddenly found myself listening to a quite interesting talk. A small crowd, no celebrities, but people who report about research and their very own experience in their daily business. And a very simple topic: What works best for people these days? Two elaborate  versions of an advertisement, one slow and emotional, one really fast and straight – but even more emotional. No question what works better – the latter obviously. You feel trapped, as you react like all the other „normal“ people in this world. But that´s how it works. And it´s still interesting to experience it yourself.

But sometimes things work even much more effective – when encountering the unexpected.

And that´s what happened to me in the afternoon the same day. The companies „HeLo“ and „Enfants terribles“ attracted my attention, just by their names and the title of their workshop: „This is an Immersive Experience.“ It was. After a few minutes of answering a (useless!) questionnaire people in weird costumes crashed the workshop, stating that they needed this room for a wedding, immediately. What happened: The participants had to calm down the crying bride, find the hangoverish groom, still in his cockroach costume, crawling over the terrace outside the palais – and prepare a  last minute wedding party plus decoration. I was doomed to  design new wedding rings out of aluminium foil, paper clips, modeling clay and Sven Kratzsch´s keyring carbine (applause for the BW Lions’ very German hands-on attitude!). At the end: A (almost perfect…) hilariously entertaining wedding party in the conference room. The target: Showing that people need something new, something that sticks to their minds, pops out in the sea of negligible commercials, news and information we come across day to day.

It worked. Along with all the intellectual, technical, very professional, shooting star-driven input you absorb in one festival week, this quite silly experience will probably always come to my mind when I think back to Cannes 2016.

The learning, once again: If you believe in things, they will work. If you trust your own idea, you will reach others. And don´t forget giving them some real and honest, sometimes silly, but at least memorable stuff. Easy does it!

So: Just immerse – thanks to Sven Kratzsch’s video collection:

(To watch 360° video content you have to use the latest versions of the browsers Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera. Or your smartphone – even with Google Cardboard)

Live from Stuttgart, aprés Cannes – Valérie Hasenmayer