Thank you, creativity...

Days 6 and 7 picked up where day 5 left off with a huge array of talent on display. On the agenda were Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, legendary creative David Droga, Under Armour’s Kevin Plank, VICE’s Shane Smith, acclaimed director Spike Jonze, Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein, and the secretary general of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the award winning director of The Revenant, discussed the exploration and expression of emotions through art. “I think we as humans have a vast emotional territory to work it out. There’s a way to express stuff emotionally. The most precious and straightforward human expression is music. It’s invisible and intangible in a way and hits the right emotional chords,” he said. 

The director, who found his start in advertising, also explained the role of the creative and the difficulties he encountered in filming the movie that finally won Leo an Oscar.

David Droga took the stage with Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank to discuss continuously striving for greatness. “I think we all want to be good and we want to do great stuff but it’s an ongoing and evolving thing,” Droga said. 

In his mind, and quite possibly the reality of it, greatness wasn’t a destination to be reached but a journey to be on. It was a practiced existence that evolved daily. And what was most important for this journey was to never buy your own “bulls**t”.

Vice’s Shane Smith, who was named the Cannes Lions 2016 Media Person of the Year, and Spike Jonze spoke about creating content that resonated and the skillset required to do so in a visual medium. The key, as explained by Spike Jonze, was to start with things that they cared about, hire people that are smart that have young minds (whether they’re young or not), and not be afraid. “We try and we are not afraid of failure and if it doesn’t work we learn from it,” Smith said.

While Day 7 had its share of inspiring speakers, we found the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s session with the heads of the “big six” advertising and marketing services groups to truly be the highlight of the day. 

Visionary director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu

The CEOs of WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, Dentsu and Havas joined the Secretary-General to unveil “Common Ground” – global collaborative initiative in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The alliance will be launching a global advertising campaign to set the Common Ground programme in motion. The six ad majors also agreed to provide a development fund for each of the winning ideas in the Cannes Young Lions competition, which was devoted solely to the SDGs this year. 

We believe that in partnering with this initiative, we as members of the advertising and marketing communications fraternity have proven yet again to the world and ourselves that we have it in us to set our fierce business rivalries aside and come together as a force for greater good.

Day 8 saw awards handed out across several categories including the Integrated Lions, Titanium Lions, Film Craft Lions, Film Lions, Holding Company of the Year, Network of Year, and Agency of Year. The list was so exhaustive that even the festival’s organisers have a dedicated portal for it. Soak in the creative excellence of the award winners at http://www.canneslionsarchive.com/winners/.

Au revoir, Cannes. Until we meet to be inspired yet again next year.

(Hari Krishnan is Chief Executive Officer, MullenLowe Sri Lanka and Dilshara Jayamanna is Senior Vice President/Executive Creative Director, MullenLowe Sri Lanka.)

The coveted Cannes Lions

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with the heads of the Big Six