Piotr Adamczyk is part of MEC’s Talent Thrive Team – 13 young people from around the MEC network who received an invitation from MEC global CEO Charles Courtier to join him at the Cannes Lions Festival for a week of creativity, inspiration and learning.

The Cannes Lions Festival has always been an inspiration. Every year, a couple of weeks after the festival, we were all like kids on Christmas morning: watching the work, the cases, going through the presentations, ploughing through all the great stuff.

And each year there was something fresh, something revolutionary to see, like MINI’s getaway in Stockholm or the Pay Per Laugh campaign years ago. Those somethings always proved to us that the sky really was the limit.

The great work showed us how there are no limits at all. That our creativity and our possibilities are endless. It is even more so now where ultrafast progress in technology is changing consumer’s behaviour at an unprecedented pace. It also expands our capabilities. However, there is a trick.

When it comes to marketing, we can’’t be technology-first; we have to understand the consumer’s problems, and then use technology to solve them. Based on this belief, we operate with a ‘mindset over handset’ mentality. It is about understanding the challenges consumers face in an increasingly frenetic digital society and using technology to decrease the friction in their daily lives.

Digital reality

It’s not a digital revolution. It is digital reality. It is happening now. To keep up with this transformation, we need to be one step ahead. To find the ‘whys’ behind the ‘whats’. We need to understand our consumers. We need to gather data and forge data into insights and free up our creativity. We need to combine new technologies with a deep understanding of human behaviour.

In this context creativity means something that brings us all results, and is not just for sake of being non-standard. We can’t afford useless fireworks. Consumers need appreciation and recognition and advertisers need effect. How do we cope with that? We certainly need a dose of inspiration. What can be a better school of ‘doing it right’ than the Cannes Lions Festival? It’s a place where data and technology meet with creativity, it’s the mix-up to what we all search for, the holy grail of advertising.

I’’m sure that most companies are aware of this, but only a few are putting action behind the words. Emphasising the role of technology, innovation and creativity is one thing, letting your people experience it first-hand, is another.

The Cannes Lions Festival has been seen as something for senior leaders. But in today’s media industry, where the competition for talent is getting fierce, Cannes is the perfect place to educate young talent. The Cannes intensive ‘doing it right’ course will pump young professionals full of inspiration, fresh ideas and learnings – and give their agency the competitive advantage.

Key takeaways

Attending is so much better than going through the key takeaways and trends. It’’s like the difference between watching a movie about Disneyland and playing there for an entire week. But the devil’s in the details. The point is to get deeper understanding of what is happening in media and in the consumer’s head.

By watching great cases, we can get excited about technology and innovation. Absorbing loads of experiences at Cannes can also help us understand the background. The ‘why’ behind ‘what’. The true value of Cannes is the knowledge-building experience.

I believe this shot of inspiration will fill me with excitement and with a ‘doing it right’ approach for the work to come, and I look forward to proudly share, teach and cascade what I’’ve experienced, touched, felt – and not just seen on a screen. I truly expect that the week in Cannes will open my mind: to bigger thinking and to a better perspective on how to combine technology, data and creativity.

I think that the Cannes Lions Festival will become the place to forge new media talents. It will become one of the most important steps in their career. A place where it all starts  as a delegate and then, later on, a place where their career can be crowned with a Lion.

Cannes, here we come!