Cannes! The place to be...
Atul S. Nath, Co-founder & Managing Director, Candid Marketing India
Excited - doesn't completely explain the emotion I feel. It's not every day that one is selected to be on the Cannes Promo Lions jury – to judge the best promotional campaigns in the world. To put it simply, I am looking forward to Cannes 2009!
Regarded as the Oscars for the advertising and promotions world, Cannes is where the brands of the best brains in the world clash for the highest honours.
The Cannes Lions International Festival is not just a mere awards function. It's an event wherein various experts from different fields share their experiences with their peers coming from different ends of the world. Like music, communication too has no language.
Brand Activation is all about giving creating experiences and engagement for consumers. It's two-way communication, where consumers get a feel of the brand and product helping helps them to make more sensible buying decisions. There isn't much time to toy around so the message has to be direct and clear in the limited period of time.
Being at a festival like Cannes gives one a different rush. A responsibility to judge the best amongst the best, a responsibility that I am really looking forward to. This isn't the first time that Indians are being called on the jury board; before me there have been stalwarts like Prasoon Joshi and Piyush Pandey who have been there and done that.
On a personal note, since I am from the field of activation, I am looking forward to interact with some of the leading names from all over the world in the activation business and seek an in-depth knowledge of the business in their countries. It will also give me an exposure into some of the best campaigns from around the world.
I am on the board for judging the Promo Lions and when compared to some of the international advancements, I believe we are still evolving though we are catching up very fast. This is in comparison to developed markets like the US and Western Europe, especially in the creative, content and engagement platforms.
Cannes describes sales promotion as an "activity designed to create immediate activation and/or offer for the sales of a product or service." This may be done through sampling, tie-ins, competitions, events, in-store advertising (display and point-of-purchase material), PR, exhibitions or direct marketing. I am in this industry from last 13 years and having that kind of experience as a background, I am excited to see some campaigns that are clutter breaking and have had some community impact.
BTL (below-the-line activity) is one of the toughest forms of promotions. The attempt here is to take the product/services closer to the customer to experience or buy. For e.g.: food samples given to taste at a retail store or getting a consumer's computer problem discussed with the vendor at the gas tation, etc. So it is the level of engagement (closer to customer) that you do with the channel/ customer/product with specific objectives.
Here you do not have a celebrity endorsing the product; it is the idea and the way the promotion has been planned that will pull the crowds. One of the best advantages of doing BTL is, it becomes easier to know customer responses on the product because you are engaging the consumer to try your product.
And at Cannes, I am excited to see what the world does and how they do it.
I look at going to Cannes 2009 for two main reasons; one being the obvious that it will have world’s best brains coming and sharing ideas. It's a place where one can learn a lot about Communication. It's a conglomeration of communication professionals, so you can imagine the knowledge one can attain from there.
Secondly, the economic slowdown has taken the world by storm. It is THE global issue today. Communication, I believe will drape a new definition in the coming few months. The future will be 'value for money'. The global economy was a on a high and so was everybody. Everywhere people where splurging money; salaries hit the roof, spending too was enormous and so was advertising. But decision making will now have a stringent approach. People hardly thought about security and not living tomorrow. This slowdown has shown us all that we have to think of the future too. So, budgets will be rather, have been tightened. This wouldn't mean shoddy quality of work, in fact, I see the work getting better. There will be a necessity to work on tighter budgets, stop the extra spending and produce quality work that would deliver results.
In Cannes, I believe this would be one of the major topics of discussion in one of the 50 odd seminars planned. The other topics might be on the current topics that are plaguing the creative professionals around the globe; to be delivered by the most innovative thinkers from the industry.
I am also looking forward to the interactive workshops which will be held to address issues that are transforming the marketing communication industry today. Experts on current trends and best practice will be offering insights and solutions.
Cannes 2009 is likely to be one of the highlights of my career thus far and I look forward to it with great anticipation.
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