McCann Worldgroup UK & Europe’s Post

2023: No.1 in the Middle East, No.9 in the world. 2024: No.1 in the Middle East, No.7 in the world.

So proud but still so driven.

So proud but still driven.

The best strategist is always the company CEO. I pride myself on strategy but the truth is - I mostly vocalise in either a clearer it more entertaining way - what I hear other people say. In that way, - I am a hypocrite - albeit a fairly elegant and non malevolent one. 😃 What I admire about intelligent men, women or children is "their habit is to be disarming - to state their fulcrum case with simplicity and humility - admitting the thorough impossibility of their achieving their goal without their audience's assistance. "Michael McEwan, CEO, M&C Saatchi said, "We all rely on the kindness of strangers to become donors and save lives. Most people agree with the premise, but need help to act. There are motivations to be found, myths to bust and barriers to overcome to shift that positive change in behaviour. Attracting 100,000+ new biological donors each and every year is a well-defined mission and one that requires each of our specialist capabilities and the team at Lifeblood to rally behind. We have co-created a diverse team of talented and passionate people to achieve this mission.” pat: blood is spirit, without it, we lose the ability to heat and cool our bodies (homeostasis) and the end comes rather quickly after that. it is what feeds the brain and every one of our 11 other organs the intelligence they need to carry out their function.

Thanks, Aian, for allowing me to share my thoughts on the use of AI in marketing/advertising to your followers. Headline to future creative practitioners: learn it, master it, be an AI pilot... but, in the short term, watch out for prevailing biases, copyright issues, and confidentiality problems.

This is WPP picking up Creative Company of the Year at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week. In this weird and wonderful world of ours, this is the biggest prize of them all at the biggest show of them all. Now look at the guy holding up the trophy. He's surrounded by some GREAT people - some of the very best ever to do what we do. I'll pick out Rob Reilly, Liz Taylor, Devika Bulchandani, I bet the legendary Pandeys are up there, and Debbi Vandeven, and leaders from across all the group's agencies. Mark Read of course. They're obviously very happy. They're also saying thank you to the guy with the trophy. That's the orchestrator, connector, assessor, right-hand, left-hand and all-round creative excellence mastermind who played a role no-one outside the group will see. WPP won 160 Lions last week. That needs an extraordinary volume of great work of course. But that's not enough. It can't happen without the kind of intelligence, planning and diligence that Eric brings to that team. He and his team have done it before. They'll do it again. And while he might not be as 'visible' as a Rob or a Nils or an Anselmo or a Piyush or a Rob'n'Lol or a Colleen or a Jeff or a Dave or a Liz or a Margaret or a Cindy - everyone on that stage knows it it wouldn't have happened without him. I love the visibility of this industry, and our collective ability to make change happen. I love many of those leading the charge at the front. I also love that there can be less visible heroes too: the quiet influence and the soft power. Eric Monnet - chapeau mon ami.

The 71st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity concluded with the penultimate awards night. The awards were presented for the Film Lions, Glass: The Lions for Change, Sustainable Development Goals Lions, The Dan Wieden Titanium Lion, and The Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Good categories. Special awards were also announced to demonstrate Cannes Lions' dedication towards transparent and accurate results. Creative Company of the Year : 1. WPP 2. Omnicom Media Group 3. Interpublic Group (IPG) Network of the Year : 1. Ogilvy 2. Publicis Worldwide 3. DDB Worldwide Independent Network of the Year : 1. Rethink 2. Edelman 3. Serviceplan Group Agenturgruppe Agency of the Year : 1. Publicis Conseil, Paris, France 2. Rethink, Toronto, Canada 3. Ogilvy, New York, United States Independent Agency of the Year : 1. Rethink, Toronto, Canada 2. Edelman, London, United Kingdom 3. Klick Health, Toronto, Canada Palme d'Or : SMUGGLER, United States Creative Brand of the Year : 1. The Coca-Cola Company 2. The HEINEKEN Company 3. Apple Wieden + Kennedy | Superette | DoorDash | Marcel, Paris | Orange | The Monkeys | Accenture Song | Sydney Opera House | Ogilvy Singapore | Vaseline | Publicis Conseil Paris | Renault Group | INNOCEAN Berlin | Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Congratulations to all the winners! #Creativity #CannesLions #Advertising #Winners #Adtechtoday

Absolutely love this 🫶🏼 It's what effective planning is all about. Really getting under the skin of what makes different people tick. Delving deeper past statistics and demographics into people's challenges, motivations and beliefs. When was the last time you dug deep into what your customers' lives are like and positioned your product or service to really speak to them? Taking the time to do this can turbocharge your results. I'd love to talk to you about how.

Inflation, rising food costs, and AI-generated budget recipes. It's rare that brands actually have the ability to be 'relatable' to their consumers, but this campaign absolutely nails it! "The Inflation Cookbook" campaign by Dentsu Creative x Food Banks Canada | Banques alimentaires Canada is a great example of the creative way data can be utilised to create a stronger emotional connection with consumers through their everyday, real life struggles. Gen AI beautifully integrates into the app with custom recipe generation aided by #Midjourney visuals that allow the user to truly feel listened to about their specific needs and concerns. Definitely warrants a Gold Media Lion at the #CannesLions2024! #artificialintelligence #digitalmarketing #advertising #generativeai #dataanalytics #inflation

I have a love-hate relationship with advertising and marketing. That feeling about Commercial Creativity is never closer to the surface than at this time of the year, when Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity comes around again. By Commercial Creativity I mean the loosely defined name given to a group of activities from the marketing function in a business, to those who help those marketers do what they need to do, the advertising, media and branding agencies and everything in between. I was for a long time of this world: Chief Strategy Officer of EMEA, Global EXCO, Global Creative Council for the then named Y&R - VMLY&R (and now VML!) and then Chief Marketing Officer for the United Nations World Food Programme. I did lots of things in those roles, some of those are still part of my life, but they are no longer all of my life. This is an exploration of the good, bad and ugly of the industry, the importance of metas and what you might do if you want to try something different. (A shorter version of this was first published by my friends and colleagues at BeenThereDoneThat - thank you. David Alberts, Nikki Crumpton and Marielle Kouroushi-Phillips). Saïd Business School, University of Oxford #marketing #branding #advertising #careers #personaldevelopment #growth