Amy Still’s Post

We’re thrilled to celebrate the creativity at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week and wish all our agency clients the best of luck as awards are announced. 🦁✨ A recent study of agency data reveals a clear link between strong client relationships and the number of awards won, reinforcing what we’ve always known:  ✅ Stronger relationships lead to better work ✅ Enhanced team morale ✅ Significant growth and improved margins💡🤝 Here’s to recognising the power of relationship intelligence in driving creative excellence and business success. Best of luck to all the incredible agencies competing this week! 🌟 #CannesLions2024 #Creativity #ClientSuccess #RelationshipIntelligence #BusinessGrowth

“To Cannes or not Cannes?” There seemed to be a time when people celebrated success, rewarded creativity and banded together as a bunch of talented misfits, celebrating the great and good of the advertising industry, applauding each other whilst getting totally off their nut with only photos to prove they were there. Sadly (to me) it seems those times have gone. Yes, Cannes cost a lot of money. Yes, it’s all a bit pretentious, and yes, there will be PLENTY of folks who say it’s shite - however I bet if someone did a survey it would be those that didn’t get invited, couldn’t afford to go, couldn’t get time off, or are simply aren't that good that complain the loudest. Yes, yes, there will be those that hate crowds, don’t care about awards and think the whole thing is a bunch of irritating guff… If this was true let’s scrap all forms of awards then. The Oscars? Who gives a shit. Having had the pleasure to work with creatives at all levels (from interns to CCO’s) across the globe, and from all walks of life, I know so many of them care a great deal when their work is applauded on the global stage. It means a HUGE amount to them. If you don’t care, that’s fine. But I’ve seen so much negativity around Cannes on LinkedIn and ‘what it stands for’ it’s made my stomach churn. Choosing not to enter, to shy away from awards quietly is perfectly fine. Knowing who you are, what you stand for, and ensuring best in-class results for you, your team, your clients is HUGELY admirable. Honestly... that would probably be my style and approach. However, if I won at Cannes I’d be proud as hell. The recognition of my efforts, my teams efforts, my agencies efforts, my family for putting up with all my late nights and mood swings, etc. So, if you have won at Cannes, well fucking done. If you have attended for the event to rub shoulders with influencers, meet mates, or just to get pissed. Well done to you too. Here’s to the awards, the parties and the hangovers. Without them, what’s the point. #cannes #awards #opinions #winning #parties MCG Talent

It’s simple: Purpose is effective when purpose is done for a brand and company whose values and intentions are authentic.

Last Friday we celebrated the awards. Today, we celebrated the people behind the awards. A grand haul of 18 wins. 7 Gold, 4 Silver, 6 Bronze and 1 Grand Prix! Whilst holding bragging rights for ‘effectiveness’, we are beyond ecstatic to also be crowned as most ‘creative’ at the recent 4As Advertising Festival. We are in a business of ideas and people. And thus, these awards are a culmination in the strong conviction of belief in our ideas and pushing to sell through to the client. We salute the 4As for a brilliantly organized and concluded festival, our clients who believe in us, and the team that rallies together - rain or shine - to bring it all to fruition. We believe dissatisfaction is the mother of reinvention. That’s why our icon is the octopus. It’s the only organism on the planet that routinely edits its own genetic material to adapt, innovate, and thrive. It outsmarts the competition by constantly changing. It reinvents, repeats, reinvents, repeats. And so do we. #mullenlowesl #alwaysbeachallenger

💡 1/2 way through this incredible cMBA course with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Thoroughly enjoying becoming more educated and invigorated about how 'the work' is created and made to elevate brands and drive business performance through creativity. 💖 Learning how to judge creative with The LIONS cMBA Idea Toolbox | Creative evaluation tools has been truly amazing. My favorite approaches are FCB's 456 scale and AB InBev's Creative Spectrum. Judging previous work and 'acting' like a judge for LIONS categories is a part of our studies. Using these eval tools really helped me judge this week's creative work. New goal: BE a CannesLIONS judge 😎 . The live sessions weekly, with select chief creatives at agencies and brands, have shared so many terrific insights including "how to create brave and bold work". Nancy Crimi-Lamanna I will carry that phrase forward forever! Other highlights this week: "Think in Verbs, don't think in Nouns" for your brief's success, #love Ali Cheikhali and finally, what an excellent piece of advice sam southey to "Trust the fearless version of me!" 🤗 #canneslionscmba #cannelions #learnandgrow #creativity

Some gems here.

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, we need to talk… Year after year you have challenged me to be bold, be creative, be effective, be efficient. Immerse myself in the business, build strong agency partnerships, and fuel my strategic thinking. For a long time, I believed that self-improvement was the key to joining the elite conversations at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. After years of learning from industry giants like Peter Field, Mark Ritson Byron Sharp Orlando Wood James Hurman I felt ready to be part of that dialogue. But Cannes, we seriously need to talk. The reality is that attending to the “Athens of marketing and creative effectiveness” remains a distant dream for many of us as the cost of participation is prohibitively expensive. To my fellow marketers who feel the same: I HEAR YOU! We are expected to push the boundaries of creativity and effectiveness, yet we are often left out when it matters most. And to Cannes, you are truly an inspiration for many of us, but when talking about consumer centricity, you need to revisit your business model to give us some entry level. Common, be creative 😊! Until we can meet physically, I will continue to advocate from the distance the spirit of Cannes Lions—effectiveness’s, boldness, creativity—as a state of mind. Looking forward to meet in the upcoming years, Gaby #MarketingLife #CannesLions #CreativeExcellence #IndustryChallenges #StayConnected #MarketingCommunity

ICYMI: Cannes may be over, but the Adland is still buzzing with insights and debriefs on the groundbreaking work showcased at the festival this year. Ben Essen has shared some thoughts on how creativity thrives on reimagining the past, featured in his piece for Campaign. He states, "...all the ground-breaking Grand Prix winners contain recognisable fragments of great ideas that have come before." He continues, "A [better] question for any creative review is: "We know this worked before, so how do we twist it for a new context?" This lets us leverage the proven effectiveness of past campaigns while infusing them with contemporary relevance." Read his analysis and explore the trends and winning work that filled the Croisette conversation: https://lnkd.in/ecYZXVfn #CannesLions #Creativity #Adland

“we’re a better society and a better company when we have empathy”   Eaton’s CEO, Craig Arnold, communicated the importance of empathy – the critical ability to understand the perspectives and feelings of others. His message below is a reminder of how powerful empathy is and the role it has played in humanity’s evolution. “The concept of empathy is certainly not new to us at Eaton Quite the opposite, it’s the driving force behind our mission to improve lives and the environment. I’m raising the topic because we’re living in a time when there are growing and profound differences in our circumstances across society, and because the ability to see the world through the eyes of others is what we need to create the more humane society we all deserve. And the role that empathy plays in influencing our thoughts, feelings and actions has never been more important to the world we share and the company we lead.” If you have a couple of minutes, take a look at Heineken video with a similar message. It is a creative way to get the same message across. https://lnkd.in/gvXnm3wz

Cannes Young Lions 🦁 Inspiration and dedication are key ingredients to success in this competition, and participants must truly embody the spirit of creativity and teamwork. See below insights & tips on what it takes from the young media lions competitors. 🇨🇦