Dai Lijuan/Text
2024 The Cannes International Festival of Creativity has come to an end, and this time the voice from China seems to be "weaker".
The winners of this year’s Lion Awards in China are one silver and three bronze. In addition, there was only one speech from China at this creative festival, and no Chinese brands or companies were held in Cannes. Only 6 judges from China participated in the on-site final judging of the Lion Awards. Official statistics include the number of registered participants from China. The lowest ever.
As we all know, 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and is also the year when the Olympic Games will be held in Paris, France. Due to the superposition of double buffs, this year's Cannes International Festival of Creativity failed to catch up with the wave of Chinese brands going overseas, which is why Cannes has lost its charm. Yet?
01
Why is there no Chinese brand landing event?
This year, big brands such as pinterest, meta, linkedin, reddit, tiktok, spotify, and netflix have been in the limelight, creating eye-catching and immersive experiences; of course, the biggest gimmick is the arrival of Elon Musk, which detonated the entire Palais des Festivals.
However, there are no Chinese brands on the Cannes stage where major technology companies gather. The primary reason is of course that Cannes is too expensive.
There is a row of white tents on the beach east of the Palais des Festivals, the main venue of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, commonly known as the "White House". Many China Day activities were held here before. Now the price of this venue has soared to the point where the rental price of a white house with the smallest unit of only 25 square meters is 90,000 euros (approximately RMB 700,000), and this price only includes the basic construction. Since this venue is located within the main venue of the Festival Palace, staff still need ID cards to enter, and each ordinary participation pass card is priced at 4,095 euros, which are all hard costs.
And this is only the smallest event venue in the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Like the well-known open-air venue next to the Amazon Port outside the Festival Palace, the rental price for 150 square meters is 400,000 euros. This year, a mobile phone manufacturer's marketing platform finally gave up on holding an event in Cannes because the cost of the venue was too high. After all, a budget of several million requires multiple rounds of discussions within any company, and ultimately requires the SVP level leadership to make the final decision.
Especially for many Chinese brands, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is more of an international creative award, and the festival's attribute as a global display platform is not valued. Therefore, many brands have only one appeal to Cannes, that Just get the prize. This year, I asked many domestic companies about their plans for Cannes, and most of the answers were, "We applied for the Cannes award, but the specific activity arrangements need to be decided after the finalists."
02
Why is it so difficult to win the Cannes Lion Award?
In 2024, the number of submissions for works from China is 386, which is basically the same as the 388 works in 2023, and is still lower than the three sessions from 2019 to 2022. In the end, the results of one silver and three bronze medals in China were not ideal, so there were many voices in the industry that said "China and Cannes are drifting apart." Chris Reitermann, CEO of
wpp China and president of Ogilvy Asia Pacific, said, "Of course, the economy is not in a good situation and agencies and clients have more pressing priorities, so it makes sense that the number of entries will be reduced. China is now 85% digital. , 70% of which are concentrated in the field of e-commerce and short videos. This is a highly performance-oriented market that emphasizes 'light creativity' and pays less attention to works that can change behaviors or promote cultural changes." Jenny Chan, China Bilingual Editor-in-Chief of
warc. "In recent years, anxieties surrounding growth and sales have prompted local marketers to pursue direct, aggressive goals. In addition, in past epidemics, harsher market conditions have also prompted many to focus on survival rather than survival," he said. Creative excellence. Therefore, the Cannes Lions sometimes support entries that do not translate directly into commercial results, but these marketing campaigns that involve brand purpose and social value often get the thumbs up from Cannes judges. Recognition. In domestic marketing discussions, these elements are almost non-existent. In the recent changes in the general environment, Chinese brands have always focused on cost-effectiveness, and the primary goal is to obtain immediate return on investment.The speed of business pursuits greatly outpaces brand affinity, resulting in a utilitarian approach. "
Indeed, domestic brands have always focused on cost-effectiveness, with the primary goal being immediate return on investment. "The main issues are huge economic pressure, ruthless competition from local brands, and stimulus/market uncertainty, resulting in short-term success for global brands in China. mentality, thereby hindering the birth of Cannes award-winning works. Chinese brands think they don’t have the leisure time to invest in works that won awards at Cannes. Instead, brands are prioritizing seasonal and tactical activations, cliche celebrity endorsements, casual brand collaborations and live influencers to drive e-commerce performance,” said Roger Bikker, managing director of Greater China at media.monks. “Perhaps We've been spoiled after years of rapid growth, and the reality of the past few years has hit us hard. We tend to focus on immediate results, often measured by vanity metrics to meet unrealistic expectations. This may change as brands realize that single-digit growth in China has become the new normal, while their most valuable intangible assets in the world's largest consumer market are being ignored. "This is indeed the case in the
environment. The "traffic-only theory" has become the bible of the current domestic marketing industry. Some brands ask big anchors to bring goods, and even one stream can reach 40 million. This approach can really improve conversion rates and user participation. Degree? Such reliance on traffic leads brands to ignore user experience and service quality, thus affecting long-term customer loyalty and brand reputation. But in Cannes’ works, we see more cases based on consumer demand. A creative approach to build momentum for the long-term development of the brand.
Of course, many brands are already waking up and want to break away from the low-price, traffic-heavy marketing methods and try to make a fuss about improving their brand power. Kelly Pon, Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Communications. Said, “Since this year, many brand clients have told me that they want to win Cannes. "It is not difficult to see from the statistics of award application companies in China that more and more brands are taking the initiative to apply for awards, such as Kuaishou, Nestle, Oppo, Kraft Heinz, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Casetify, Procter & Gamble, the north face, and Tsingtao Beer. , Zhichu Milk, Dong'e Ejiao and Diageo, etc.
What makes these participating brands a little disappointed is that unlike the "pork-sharing" system of the domestic industry's complicated and numerous awards competitions, Cannes' awards are composed of awards from all over the world. Selected by judges, the judges also cover various backgrounds such as brand owners, agents and influencers, and the 2024 Cannes Health Lion Judge, Li Chao, Vice President of Brand Marketing of Alibaba and Ant Group’s Macau Tong Group, said, “This time. The judging experience made me feel the fairness and openness of Cannes. The organizing committee invited the winners of the previous Cannes Lions to participate in the new year's judging, and let new experts participate to ensure that the awards keep pace with the times. And a fresh understanding of innovation, rather than always staying in the past inherent thinking about innovation. Moreover, every reviewer in each category puts forward their opinions equally, and the review chairperson will listen carefully and adopt them, unlike in domestic reviews, where an authoritative expert does not approve a word and others do not dare to raise any objections. . "
In fact, I have heard many explanations for China's performance at the Cannes Lions Festival over the years, Reitermann said, "For example, the judges are Westerners and do not understand Chinese culture; it is difficult for Chinese works to be disseminated internationally due to language barriers, etc. But similar problems also exist in countries such as Japan, Honduras, Pakistan, Armenia and Nigeria, but the latter two won their first Lion Awards respectively in 2023. The industries in these countries are eager to succeed, and they understand that excellent work can spread around the world, but ordinary work cannot. "
Indeed, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a stage for the competition of the world's best creative works, promoting industry innovation. Just like the Olympic Games, Oscars, Paris Fashion Week or Art Basel, relevant industries in China will participate in and compete for these events or awards. Celebrates success due to successful performance."So why not perform well at Cannes Lions? Why not participate in categories such as business or social that China is good at? Why not showcase works that drive the success of Chinese industries and customers?"
According to statistics, Chinese companies are concentrated The top three categories for award submissions are brand experience and activation, social networking and influence, and public relations. This is also a relatively fiercely competitive category among all works submitted for awards around the world. At present, the domestic industry is focusing on marketing effects and creative business. There are few choices to apply for awards. Choosing a suitable track for your work is undoubtedly an important step in applying for awards in Cannes.
Xiong Chao, winner of this year's Cannes Industry Craft Lion Bronze Lion, also said, "In the past 12 years, although I have been shortlisted for the final review of the Cannes Lion Award many times, it has become increasingly difficult to win the Lion. Among the four major international advertising awards, I I think Cannes is the most difficult, because the works in Cannes are becoming more and more diverse, and it represents the most prestigious benchmark for commercial creativity in the world. So as long as Chinese creativity remains, we are still in an international communication environment. We still need a global stage like Cannes.”
03
What do we look at when we get an award-winning work?
Although there are endless negative voices in the industry during the current Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, domestic industry media are still working tirelessly to spread the grand prix works of the Cannes Lions Awards, so that more audiences can learn about Cannes award-winning works. level.
As the vane and benchmark of global creativity, Cannes Lion Award-winning works are undoubtedly of high value. So what should you look for when you get the work?
"We need to look at the spirit of cooperation behind each work. We should not attribute all responsibilities to the creative people. Every excellent work must be the result of the efforts of the client and the entire creative execution team." Health Lion Jury Chairman Edelman said Chen Liyun, creative head of Asia Pacific.
Li Chao also said, “Looking at all the award-winning works in Cannes from a brand perspective, it can be said that none of them have poor communication effects. Whether it is marketing effect or brand effect, it can be said that these works have maintained one bottom line requirement, which is communication. "So, it's not that the works in Cannes are only creative but not effective. In fact, in addition to the grand prizes in various categories, all the gold medals, silver medals, bronze medals and even the works shortlisted for the final review are the best of the best. It is worthy of careful analysis and study as a model.
Chen Liyun, who is the chairman of this year’s Health Lion jury, has a deep understanding of the birth of award-winning works in Cannes. “In fact, Cannes is paying more and more attention to the effect of works, and the judges are also very strict when discussing. We will look at The entire communication path of the case consumer journey, even if the case application only corresponds to categories related to brand experience, we will also check whether the platform on which the work is placed is reasonable, and carefully evaluate the true effect of each work. "
2024 Medical Lion Judge, Mai. Luo Peihua, executive creative director of Ken Health Greater China, said, "Cannes is a creative festival after all, so the first criterion for measuring works is whether they are creative. It is undeniable that the creativity of these award-winning works is obvious to everyone, and it can also help brands. The results are great, but the ultimate goal of creativity is to change the world and make it a better place. Therefore, the themes of many award-winning works are saving lives and fighting for the rights of disadvantaged groups. "
can certainly win. The Lion Award is a huge recognition, but don’t be too utilitarian about the award. Li Chao believes, “Cannes’ standards for creativity are new, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t win the award at Cannes. Creativity is not excellent, this is a misunderstanding. Cannes is always updating its standards for creativity, but it does not mean that creativity that does not meet Cannes standards is not a good idea. I think it is better to relax a little."
Xiong Chao will not only The Cannes Lion is regarded as a personal honor, and this international award is also regarded as a communication medium. "In my opinion, winning these internationally renowned awards is not a purpose. I regard it as a larger communication platform that can enable Your work reaches more people around the world.Don't think of awards as a vanity fair, but as a media platform, just like an outdoor billboard. ”
04
It’s not that advertising is useless, it’s that bad advertising should be abandoned
The Cannes International Festival of Creativity is now in its 71st year. During this period, it has witnessed the ups and downs and changes of the industry. The only constant is the belief in creativity, just like this year’s St. Mark’s Jacques Séguéla, honorary lion winner and one of the founders of Havas, a legendary figure in the advertising industry, said, “Advertising is, has been, and will always be about ideas. Money doesn't mean creativity, but creativity can make money. Ideas are like sperm, there are millions of them, but only one can win the race and be transformed into a small idea. "Advertising is, has been and always will be about an idea. money has no ideas. but ideas make money. ideas are like sperm. there are millions, but only one wins the race and converts to a little baby idea." Jon Evans, chief customer officer at
system1, said: "The biggest challenge the industry has to overcome right now is that people feel very hollow when they see ads. 50% of B2C ads and 60% of B2B ads are boring and fail to evoke emotion in people. "
Creativity is not a niche thing at any time. Even if the general environment is reducing costs and increasing efficiency, creative advertising is still a surefire way to help enhance the value of the brand." If a company wants to increase profitability, the benefits of increasing prices are far greater than cutting costs. If your advertising can increase your prices by 1%, then profits can increase by 8%... This is what we are doing in advertising. "Secret superpowers that are not mentioned in the world," says economist Dr. Grace Kate.
Stop clamoring that "Cannes is useless", maybe it's been a long time since you've been able to come up with something that can be called creative. It’s not that Cannes is getting further and further away from us, but the impetuous marketing environment makes it difficult for us to calm down and figure out how to serve the brand with real good ideas and tell good brand stories.
(The author of this article is Dai Lijuan, chief local representative of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in China)
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