How to call the big cat – Brand Wagon News

By Leena Gupta

“The best work in the world received feedback, survived, and then won a Lion,” read an announcement at the festival of creativity and commerce, Cannes Lions 2024. But what does it take to think about this Lion-worthy work in the first place? ? Armed with my takeaway croissants and a petit cappuccino, I set out at 9:30 on a Tuesday morning to find out what it takes to summon the big cat.

The day started with a pop-in at the Glass Lion presentation (work that addresses gender inequality). It’s not every day that a communications brief is responded to with a product idea – but Ogilvy’s pitch for Vaseline, and today for the jury, was just that: Transition Body Lotion – to soothe dry skin for when you’re taking hormone therapy during the transition. This case study is a good model for queer announcement it happens at home – LGBTQIA+ inclusion isn’t a box you check off after including a token gay character in your film, it’s about solving subtle problems for the community that can only come to the surface when you employ queer people. It’s also a good plan for customers – the folks at Vaseline didn’t just buy into this idea as a Pride month gimmick, they committed to developing this idea with trans beauty experts over months of research and development.

Next up was a talk on decoding pricing models in the creative business by Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya, co-founders of my independent agency, Talented. “Clients ask agencies for details like salaries, overhead costs and profit margins before onboarding them – isn’t that absurd? You don’t go to a restaurant and ask the chef’s salary before paying for your bolognese!” Everything that’s wrong with our industry – the hours, burnout, minimum wages, everything can be resolved through price conversations where we consider ourselves equal to the customer.

The next session I attended had a line that would put Dadar station to shame – it was at VML’s Return of Comedy, Hellman’s and SNL star Kenan Thompson. “85% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product after seeing a funny ad,” they said – and with the addition of 13 new categories at Lions this year, it’s safe to say the industry is ready to treat laughter like serious business. Humor tickles you, humor brings you together, for a brief moment it also disarms you.

Hellmann’s Mayo Cat, a funny no-brainer, was born out of a real problem to combat food waste, which just goes to show that purpose-driven advertising can exist without black-and-white visuals and sarangi music.

My last panel of the day was the Indie Forum at LBB Beach – independent agency executives from around the world explaining what it means to be in the “people” business. With the looming irrelevance we face post-AI automation, OKRP’s Matt Reinhard had a fun tip: “We use AI for every new pitch. We headed over to ChatGPT and asked him to spit out five ideas. And then we use those five as white space – if AI can think about it, anyone can, and we wouldn’t even think in that direction.”

So until the next time the industry rallies across the opal waters of pink and our collective quasi-artistic fury, advertising will continue to be a people business, solving real problems with real human creativity.

The author is a founding member and creative, talented

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