Cannes Wrap-Up

Its Saturday, and I have one day in between events back in London so this post will be short and sweet! Below is the Cannes Event Recap which I've just finished and sent company-wide, as well as some great photos from the week. The event was really great - very hectic and crowded at times, with lulls in the mid-day. An overall great success for the whole core team!!

Be sure to check out the video below to get a real feel for the event!

Event Highlights
Both the Google beach and the YouTube zones were huge hits. Check out the video that captures the essence of it all.  Other highlights:

• 3,000+ visitors joined us at the Creative Sandbox to enjoy the festival’s only open, free beach space. They cherished free wifi, interacted with 11 demos, gulped back more than 7,000 smoothies, re-energised themselves at our daily yoga classes and produced 700+ Androidify t-shirts
• 3,000+ attended Eric Schmidt and Andy Berndt’s main stage session
• 1,800+ attended the YouTube hosted ‘Good Work’ plenary with Publicis CEO, Craig Davis
• 2,000+ engaged with our two YouTube zones in the festival hall to relax with smoothies or star in their own YT ad remake.
• 5,000+ unique visitors engaged with our Cannes mobile site and heat map
• 14 official Cannes Lions Awards won, including Award for Media Man of the Year for Eric, Wilderness Downtown, 
• Chrome, Voice Search, Life in a Day, Art Project and Demo Slam campaigns

Cannes-O-Rama!

The past week has been the busiest and most intense in my entire career. We are in the depths of finalizing Cannes production and there are so many minute details going into this week-long event. From registrations and accommodation to technical demo testing, delivery of devices and artwork approval, to specially branded deck chairs (pictured above), the workload has been barely manageable with many late nights spent in the office.

What I've really taken away from this experience is the importance of attention to detail. My manager on this project is extremely detail-oriented and has organized several spreadsheets for the project. Each area - whether it is accommodation and passes or food and beverage or napkin and tablecloth delivery for the week - has its own spreadsheet with minute details. I consider myself an organized person, but this level of detail is something I find difficult to achieve. It was my job this week to write the Project Handbook, which contains every bit of information about the festival and our presence there. At this point it is about 52 pages long, and I will continue to update and add things over the weekend. After working on this document, I can see that with an event of this size, it will be crucial to have all of the details on site, organized and at the ready for the entire team.

I will be heading to Cannes on Sunday for the week and I'm very excited to see all of the hard work come to life. The planning process has been daunting but also very rewarding, and I'm sure being on site will be amazing.

New Projects - Cannes Creative Sandbox and SAVE Event

This week Google have expanded my role for the Creative Sandbox and YouTube presence in Cannes as well as brought me into the demo planning for our SAVE event.

The first is Google's presence at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival which takes place June 19th - June 25th in Cannes, France. Similar to the Cannes Film Festival, this event brings together an average of 10,000 ad agency executives and directors from across the world each year, with media awards, workshops, lectures, keynotes and plenty of media presence. In past years, Google have not had a strong presence apart from their YouTube area inside the Palais because Microsoft are the official partners of the festival. This year, however, they will occupy a beach just outside the Palais along the Croisette for the entire week with a Creative Sandbox. The Creative Sandbox idea is not new and has been used in several spaces across the world as an interactive marketing tool. The official description that we've tweaked for our agencies for Cannes reads:

"Creative Sandbox is an interactive and immersive event designed to open the creative agency community’s eyes to the possibilities afforded by Google’s various platforms and tools. The program combines product awareness and education with socializing, networking, and experimentation. Creative Sandbox has a very distinct look and feel, relying little on formal presentations and heavily on hands-on demonstrations and exhibits. The program treats a raw space as a museum, in which several areas are curated as individual galleries, tailored to highlight Google product innovation. Attendees to Creative Sandbox represent some of the most influential names in the agency industry, along with up and comers who are continuously pushing the digital edge. They come to the event to learn about new technology developments at Google, make new relationships, and rub elbows with the industry’s elite."

Needless to say, its very difficult to visualize what these demos will look like on a beach, which is what I will focus on this week. We need to narrow down those demos that we will use with our external production agency and focus on mapping of visuals for the build, which will begin in London next week.

My role for Cannes will be two-fold. I am responsible for entertainment and run of show for the client party on the Thursday evening which means booking the artist and executing the night on site. Its a lot of responsibility but I'm confident I can handle it - these are they types of events I've done in PR and Music and I know that the skills I've gained over the years will prove extremely useful. I really do believe that the skills needed in events are the same across the board and can be applied to any type of conference, gathering, party or off-site. Ability to deal with pressure, patience, team work, thinking and acting quickly but not in a rash manor, and a certain level of decorum are all essential.

I've also been briefed very quickly on the Summit Against Violent Extremism which is an event in Dublin on June 27th and 28th. First thought of by Google Ideas head Jared Cohen, SAVE will bring together over 70 former violent extremists from across the globe, in addition to survivors of violent attacks (including 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings), politicians, NGOs and small businesses to foster conversation and action against violence. I will be handling the demo area which will be rather small in comparison to our Cannes undertaking, and we will bring most of the demos with us from Cannes to Dublin so the transfer should run smoothly.

More details on these events to follow shortly as I'm looped into meetings, etc!

YouTube and Prosumption

Now that Zeitgeist is over, I've been looped in to help at Google's largest event of the year - the Creative Sandbox and YouTube Zones at Cannes Lions Festival in France. It sounds like an amazing event and I'm still learning about each aspect. I'm currently working on some of the creative content for the YouTube Booth. Pictured to the left, the idea is for visitors to recreate a famous ad which will be uploaded to YouTube.

Working with the YouTube team has been really interesting and has got me thinking about the idea of prosumption and the produser. Theorists including Alvin Toeffler (1990), Mark Deuze (2002), Jan Van Dijk (2006) and Henry Jenkins (2006) have spoken extensively about convergence culture and the blurring lines between those who produce and those who consume. Deuze argues that the relationship between the media producer and consumer has changed along with the structure of firms and the content of communication. We can see this structural change in the very fact that Google has acquired YouTube. This represents the trend towards media convergence - the merging of two media giants has had a major impact in the industry.

Nowhere is this argument more evident than in the case of YouTube - the entire idea behind YouTube is to allow the consumer to become the producer. There is no hierarchy on YouTube. Anyone with the ability to hold a camera or use a laptop can post a video which can be seen by millions of people. However, I would argue that YouTube takes this a step further by allowing for video interaction and discussions - fostering creativity and open communication amongst consumers and creators. Although social networking sites allow this as well, YouTube is home to the videos that are discussed on places like Facebook and Twitter. No one is posting Facebook status updates onto YouTube - it is the other way around. I believe this is due to the great creativity that goes into these videos and the strength of visual aspects over written words.

Either way, we can see that the interactivity and freedom allowed for by YouTube is creating what Toeffler calls 'Prosumption' - production and consumption blurring into one entity - and I would argue that YouTube is one of the best platforms for producers to consume and consumers to produce.

Zeitgeist 2011 - Branding in the Digital Era

Last week I was at Zeitgeist 2011 which was truly an amazing gathering of great minds. It was so impressive to see 400 world leaders gathered in one room, and to be a part of it was phenomenal. Speakers included Stephen Hawking, Martha Lane Fox, Maurice Levy, Rory Sutherland, and many, many more.

You can check out the event including videos of keynotes and panels here: http://www.youtube.com/user/zeitgeistminds.

I found the panel discussion called 'Building and Managing Brands' extremely relevant to the CCI courses and the work that most of us want to do. Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe and Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, discussed their branding strategies with special attention to the digital movement in advertising and promoting a brand.

Below is the moderator briefing that I created for the panel, which gives a good overall background to the careers of these two industry giants, and I think gives us some insight into how to brand in the current digital climate.

Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe

Maurice has said ‘I think that sharing is probably one of the most important words in the world of business’ (CNN Interview 2005) Given the last 6 years in the digital world, with issues of copyright infringement and file sharing, how does he think that word has taken on new meaning in terms of branding?

He invested in Digital early on, earlier than any of the other big agencies by purchasing Digitas in 2006 and Razorfish in 2009. Then gained Microsoft as a client last month. Many people said the effects of the digital revolution and recession would kill paid-for advertising but instead, it has driven growth. Competitors at Omnicom have lagged but still made close profits. Why is this? What about the digital revolution makes branding more or less successful in his eyes? What drove him to invest so much in digital so early on?

In interviews, he has touched upon the issue of advertising and branding via social media, saying he doesn’t think it will be as successful as expected, but has not explained in detail. Does he still feel this way? If not social media, what does he think will be the next big step in branding via digital platforms?

Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry

Comes from rural Indiana in the US and has spoken a lot about her roots, coming from a small town, etc. Now, as the CEO of a major fashion company, how does she think the digital revolution has helped to strengthen brands in more rural areas that may be considered ‘off the map’? Has digital infrastructure allowed Burberry and other fashion brands to reach a broader geographical audience?

She has led Burberry to be at the forefront of technological innovation, ahead of all of the competitors, in one instance simulcasting fashion shows in 3D (a fashion first) in NY, LA, Tokyo, Dubai and Paris with the ability for viewers at home to stream over the internet and post comments in real time. What impact do these cutting edge technologies have on the ability for branding in the fashion world?

She has taken great steps to modernize the brand through social networking and mediated outreach to a younger audience (facebook campaigns, twitter and other social sites). In forming youthful online communities around the brand, is there a fear of ostracizing the older, more traditional clientele that may not be as digitally savvy?

Zeitgeist 2011 is Upon Us!!

This week I'd like to give a brief overview of exactly what I've been working on for the past month, since I've mentioned Zeitgeist in previous posts but not had the chance to explain in detail.

Zeitgeist is one of Google's biggest events, held each year in the US and in Europe with keynote speakers and panels over a two-day time period. The term Zeitgiest is outlined as "the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time". As such, 'Google invites you to hear perspectives on global issues from the leading thinkers of our time - from business leaders to statespeople, renowned writers and bloggers, professors and publishers, inventors and humanitarians, activists and musicians. Explore the ideas and phenomena that affect our social, economic, political and cultural surroundings. Learn from leading innovators and discuss topics that influence the global economy, creativity, digital technology, leadership and human rights. Join the debate, contemplate the views which shape our world, and most importantly, be part of the Zeitgeist.'

The sheer scale of this event is enormous, with everything from production to speaker management taking nearly an entire year's worth of planning and execution. I have been working on speaker research for each panel discussion for briefing calls with the moderators. For example, finding that the two people on the Branding Panel are known for their digitally savvy marketing campaigns and suggesting some questions on that topic. I have also organized the on-site briefing documents for each speaker and the on-site speaker management schedule, which I will help to implement with my team making sure each speaker is prepped, mic'd and que'd promptly.

Although I've only come on to the project in the final stages, the team has been very inclusive and have given me real, tangible projects to contribute to the overall event which takes place next week.

You're Only as Good as Your Last Job

This week I've had the chance to actually speak with people on the events team - have lunch with them in small groups and get some background on their experience and expertise. Its come to my attention that several of the team members are contractors and are not official employees of Google. They are freelance event producers who have a short-term, project-based contract with Google. They use our office space and facilites and have Google email accounts, but cannot attend special meetings that discuss sensitive, private information.

In having a conversation with one team member, I couldn't help but think back to Helen Blair's paper "You're Only As Good As Your Last Job", which focuses on the film industry and the flexible specialization framework to explain recent changes in corporate and market structures in the CCIs. This particular freelancer had been brought onto the events team in May of 2010 to work on our Zeitgeist event for 4 weeks. She was then asked to stay another 4 weeks to work on a different marketing project. This cycle continued for 4 months until they no longer needed her on projects. She took some time off to travel and then was called back for work on Zeitgeist 2011 for 4 weeks. She has currently been at the company for 8 weeks and has no clear distinction of her next project or if/when employment will be terminated (Blair, 2001).

This is a constant theme in the CCIs today where an employee is only as good as the last job they did, the portfolio they've created over time and the network they've made for themselves. It is very individualized and responsibility lies mainly with the employee and not the employer to guarantee work. To quote Blair's article, "People need to continually resecure work and maintain positions within groups and contacts" (2001).