Cannes Lions Day 2

            Day two of the festival was a much different experience for me than day one. Day one was pure seminar for me with no contact to important industry people. Day two on the other hand was a tiny bit seminar and the rest mingling with cool people at the Google beach area.

            I kicked off my day with BBDO Worldwide and their “Your Next Billion” seminar. They focused on how to reach consumers when they are constantly stuck behind so many screens. These screens are TVs, computers, cell phones, and tablets. They defined the psychological archetypes of each and explained how advertising could be tailored to each screen. I found them interesting, but what they had to say was common knowledge. My next seminar was Kraft Foods with Malcolm Gladwell. He was incredibly engaging and easy to listen to. He stressed the importance of being the tweaker rather than the inventor. Great companies and products are late to the game, but typically the most successful because they take the time to fix the flaws that the inventor made in the original product. I had never thought about it in this way and what he had to say really made me think. My third seminar was PHD “Beyond the Horizon”. It’s focus was on technologies that would be implemented by 2016. These technologies were completely crazy. I don’t truly think that they will all be implemented in 2016. If they were the world would be way too overwhelmed. I think the only way to be successful with new technologies is to introduce them slowly so that they seem natural to society. Lastly, I stayed for AOL. Arianna Huffington was a great speaker. She really seems to care about what she does.

            Once the seminars were done I wandered down to the Google beach area with everyone. I must say that that was the best decision I could have made. I met more people there than I think I ever would have in seminars. They are all incredibly eager to chat. The most eager of all were the Angry Birds guys. They must have given us a million business cards. I am excited to see their presentation tomorrow now that I have actually met them.