Cannes Lions - My tips for B2B marketers

Cannes Lions, the world's largest annual creative festival, is the best opportunity for me every year to get an overview of the trends in the industry for the coming years. Even though the B2B sector is not yet characterized by particularly creative or emotional campaigns, a lot is changing here. The Cannes Lions for General Electric, Norton and Lockheed Martin last year showed that. The festival therefore also promises B2B marketing experts numerous suggestions and insights for future campaigns.

Exciting supporting program

This year, numerous high-profile representatives of the B2B industry will be giving presentations - such as Jason Heller, McKinsey, John Rudaizky, Ernst & Young, and JPMorgan Chase's Kristin Lemkau.

But also and especially the lectures, which take up unusual aspects or other professional perspectives, could offer B2B marketers interesting suggestions: Neuroscientist Beau Lotto will talk about the extent to which human perception should influence marketing strategy. Charlotte Beers, one of the great pioneers of the industry in her own right, sheds light on the state of women in the creative industries. And data scientist Dr. Michal Kosinski explains current developments in segmentation and targeting.

Burger King success story

Burger King knows that its main competitor is the world's top-selling fast food company. All the more reason for the company to have internalized the importance of generating attention, or buzz marketing for short. Time and again, the restaurant chain therefore amazes and surprises with innovative campaigns such as the Proud Whopperwith which it sent a signal against homophobia. Her not-so-serious actions with which the company directly countered the industry leader, such as the "peace offering," were also in the same vein. McWhopper or the creative response to the Billboard action.

Such buzz marketing is more characteristic of the B2C sector, but should also provide B2B marketers with ideas for creative campaigns. It's okay to be completely different - even playful or provocative. Adobe and General Electric, for example, have shown that this can work.

Incidentally, the innovative and creative expertise behind these campaigns earned Burger King the "Creative Marketer of the Year" award this year.

Marketing landscape in flux

In view of the changes in the marketing industry, which are mainly due to technological developments, a number of new award categories have already been introduced this year. Thus, the new "Creative Effectiveness Lions. the increasing use of analytics technologies to evaluate the impact and results of campaigns more concretely. In terms of measurability, B2B has had a clear advantage over B2C. It should be interesting to see how this aspect can be applied to creative campaigns. I hope to see examples of how this can be applied to everyday life!

Three new subcategories of the Creative Data Lions also go in the technological direction: "Data Strategy," "Data-Driven Targeting" and "Use of Real-time Data. There is a reorganization in the Cyber Lionswhich now also cover cross-device campaigns.

Last year, several B2B brands already won lions. There is much to suggest that this trend will continue in 2017. This is shown not only by the growing presence of the "big four", but above all by the new confidence and innovations to be found in B2B marketing today. At the very least, it does not seem entirely unlikely that a special B2B category will perhaps also be introduced at the Lions as early as next year.

Important topic: Diversity

The gender and diversity debate has arrived in the creative and media industries and plays an important role at the festival. One example is Airbnb, which in its Diversity Report has recently seen a decline in the proportion of women. According to CMO Jonathan Mildenhall he plans to personally visit top talent venues in Cannes to recruit new employees from previously underrepresented groups.

Agencies and companies that also want to increase diversity among their employees will certainly follow this approach with interest. It is also to be expected that further activities on this topic will be launched at the festival this year.