The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’s 2024 extensive content programme will showcase more than 150 hours of content, with around 500 speakers from across the spectrum of creativity. The Festival runs from 17 to 21 June, in Cannes, France.
About this year’s line-up, Natasha Woodwal, Director of Content, LIONS, said: “Our open call for content gives us unparalleled insight into what matters most to the industry right now, and we’ve used this to design a programme filled with a diversity of voices offering different perspectives of global challenges. Speakers include creatives, monks, comedians, artists, filmmakers, scientists, economists, trend forecasters and Paralympians – it’s reflective of the multifaceted world of creativity.”
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, added: “We’ve identified the key areas that are top of mind for our industry and community and used these to create five core content streams that will run throughout the Festival. This line-up of world-class talent will share the thinking, processes and techniques that led to the most successful and most awarded work and provide our community with the ultimate tools, insights and knowledge they need to drive personal and business growth.”
The content programme’s five streams are:
Insights and Trends:
Strategic challenges, consumer behaviours, cultural shifts and creative thinking driving the industry forward are the spotlight in this stream. P&G’s Marc Pritchard reveals how everyday insights can become creative ways to unlock growth. The much-misunderstood topic of obesity has dominated headlines and polarised society, and so Tejal Vishalpura, SVP, Commercial Strategy and Marketing, Novo Nordisk, with Queen Latifah, Artist, Actor, Producer and Entrepreneur, take the stage to address how creativity and community are changing the way the world thinks about weight.
Innovation Unwrapped:
Providing an unmissable guide to the pioneers, technologies and transformations set to revolutionise tomorrow, the Innovation Unwrapped stream will welcome Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice-President and General Manager, Advertising, Google, and Alexander Chen, Director, Creative Lab, Google. They will demonstrate that engineers and creatives will construct AI to make it more helpful for brands and agencies. VCCP’s Clare Hutchinson will join Sound Designer Oriol Tarragó for an immersive sonic experience that expresses the often untapped power of sound, and R/GA’s Tiffany Rolfe and IPG’s Jeriad Zoghby will urge delegates to embrace commerce as the next creative frontier.
The Creativity Toolbox:
The ultimate portfolio of craft, processes and techniques to help you achieve creative excellence – explained by award-winning creatives and brands. An interactive Meet-Up session with Trevor Robinson OBE, Founder and Executive Creative Director, Quiet Storm, will analyse the power of humour. In an intriguingly counter-intuitive session, Dentsu Inc. will make the case for abandoning the pursuit of specific goals in the quest for creativity. They will illustrate this with ‘The Tokyo Toilet’ project, which eventually led to the creation of the Oscar-nominated film Perfect Days. Koji Yanai, Group Senior Executive Officer, Director of the Board, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., will be joined by Takuma Takasaki, Growth Officer, Executive Creative Director of Dentsu Group Inc., who also co-wrote and produced the film.
Talent and Cultures:
The people and practices behind creative organisations that thrive. Ali Rez, Chief Creative Officer, Impact BBDO, and Nayla Tueni, Editor-in-Chief, AnNahar Newspaper, will examine how courage, creativity and resilience are essential to leading the media in one of the world’s most volatile regions. In an iHeartMedia session, Jay Shetty, Global Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Storyteller, Former Monk and Host of On Purpose with Jay Shetty, will compel brands and creators to support each other in pursuit of positive mental health. In an interactive session, Lynne Biggar, BCG Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group and Former Global Chief Marketing Officer, Visa, will divulge the things she wished she’d known before becoming a CMO.
Creative Impact:
Proving the value and effectiveness of creativity, speakers include Marcus Collins, Professor and Author, University of Michigan, and Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer, e.l.f. Beauty, Keys Soulcare. They will investigate the evolution of branding while challenging Galloway’s contention that the ‘brand era is over’. In a Cannes Lions exclusive, Guinness and Born Social will share the highs and lows of the brand’s unprecedented growth achieved by the inversion of its marketing model. Chief Growth Officer for Kraft Heinz, Diana Frost, will reveal how a 150-year-old brand can modernise and spark consumer obsession by tapping into its unique irrational truth. The Creative Impact stream is co-curated with WARC, the authority on marketing effectiveness.
As previously announced, Cannes Lions has launched LIONS Creators. This new experience includes a curated mix of exclusive learning and networking opportunities for creators and those in the wider creator economy. The programme will include a full day of creator-centric content on the Terrace Stage, recognising the creator economy as a rapidly growing and increasingly important part of the marketing mix.
The Festival programme is now available to view on the website here.
