Content, community and experiences? It all feels a little 2015 again, but I’m here for it, says MG OMD’s chief creative officer.
What did I take away from Cannes Lions? Except for heatstroke and one of the Spotify beach staff T-shirts (butter yellow with an excellent neckline), what I took away was that everything is media.
A pitch can become a barcode. A sponsorship can become a shopping journey. An everyday symbol can save lives. Both the Outdoor and Media Grand Prix Winners, Mercado Livre’s “Field Barcode” by GUT São Paulo and Uber Eats’ “Build Your Own Super Bowl” respectively, thought about the central role of media in a really expansive way and created full-funnel consumer experiences that not only drove creative excellence but also delivered off-the-charts business results.
They are perfect examples that great creative media is rarely just about the idea in isolation. It is about whether the brand, the audience and the medium are all pulling in the same direction.
Whilst judging, I saw too many entries with an interesting piece of tech or a brilliant idea, but lacking the authenticity of the brand that delivered them. If it does not make sense for the brand or does not give the consumer something relevant, the ideas start to fall apart quite quickly.
Content is king, again
Another takeaway was that, possibly for the third time, content is king. You couldn’t move for conversations about content and how quickly that space is changing as creators become ever more influential and LLMs start to shape the way people discover brands and products.
The idea of community media is seeing a huge uptick thanks to Reddit moderators playing an increasingly influential role in shaping how brands show up online, and subreddits surfacing the niche into the mainstream thanks to AI.
Finally, fandom, formats and franchises continue to fuel content and audience demand.
This is none more evident than the recent move by Goalhanger, which has propelled The Rest is Football from audio into social and visual formats, and now into longer-form content on Netflix with The Rest is Football around the World Cup for a limited run.
We had a great chat with Spotify and Dominic Sandbrook about The Rest is History, the podcast’s wild success in engaging a younger audience with history, and how this is now evolving into tours, live experiences, and beyond.
This model is fascinating for brands in terms of scalability
Something can start with a very specific audience and a relatively low production investment, but get it right and the audience grows, the investment grows, and suddenly what began as a niche passion point can generate mainstream interest and attention and begin a whole second life in new places and spaces.
Content, community and experiences? It all feels a little 2015 again, but I’m here for it, especially because all these things are reliant on and champion the media environment in which they exist.
The point of Cannes is to leave feeling inspired and optimistic about the industry, rather than just dehydrated with blisters. And although I have both these things, I am also energised that creative media brilliance is still alive and kicking and is maybe supported by AI but not yet – and won’t ever be – replaced by it.
Tamara Cross is the chief creative officer at MG OMD
