Cannes Lions 2019- Day #2

Today I had to get up early to meet a group at the Martinez Hotel at 8:30 AM for a breakfast with the COO of PHD, Stacy DeRiso. The breakfast was a nice change of ritual, opposed to my usual pan ah chocolat, and the conversation was so inspiring and uplifting. Mrs. DeRiso even invited me to come by their office in New York some time, once we both get back to the city. After breakfast, our group of six headed over to the Havas Cafe to catch the end of the larger breakfast with Havas Health. The CEO of Havas Health approached our group and explained to us what exactly their company does and how she ended up in her current role, pretty much on accident. While I would have liked to stay longer, I was excited to go to the Coca Cola session, “It’s the Real Thing.” I walked from the Havas Cafe and waited in line outside the Audi A Theater, only to be told that the space was over capacity. Since I couldn’t go to that session, I decided to kill time by looking through the Young Lions School and then headed over to Palais II for a presentation on CBD and the Marijuana Revolution by Epidiolex and The Bloc. The presentation was not only informative, but also enlightening. The Senior Marketing Director of Epidiolex pretty much pitched their product to us, as if we were potential clients or consumers. They showed videos of stories from real patients and provided eye-opening statistics about the severe effects that seizure disorders can have not only on the patient, but also their family. Then, they explained how hard it has been for them to fight against the stigma toward CBD and promote FDA-approved Epidiolex in a market diluted with fake or mislabeled CBD products. Near the end of the presentation, they showed us the VR tour of their facilities that they created to show doctors just how transparent they are when it comes to their product and how it’s made. This technology has helped them convince skepticals that their product is authentic and by virtually touring the facility, the doctors get a first-hand experience, seeing exactly how the product is grown, harvested, and produced. After the presentation on CBD, I went straight to the Lumiere Theater to hear David Droga speak with Brian Whipple in a session called “When Two Worlds Collide: The Evolution of Creativity.” I got in the already-long line about twenty minutes before the session was scheduled to start and then the line quickly began to grow, eventually wrapping around both the third and fourth floors. In the session, David and Brian answered questions about Accenture Interactive’s acquisition of Droga5. All in all, it was more of an interrogation for the two men, as Suzanne Vranica from the Wall Street Journal pushed them with leading questions about the futures of their two companies. To sum it up, Brain Whipple explained that Accenture has no intention of changing anything about Droga5, however, they will use this partnership to collaborate on a much larger scale by combining creativity with media. As David Droga put it, this is a chance for Droga5 to “work on a bigger canvas” and use Accenture’s assets to to get more creative and think further outside of the box when it comes to their work. After that session, I went to Facebook Beach to get some lunch and stumbled upon an interview with John Legend. Instead of eating, I went and sat by the stage, listening to John Legend discuss everything from how he uses his platform to bring awareness to social injustice, to how he came up with the idea for the Pamper’s “Daddy Diaper Duty” ads, to his new wine label that recently came out, LVE. After hearing John speak, I stopped by Pinterest Beach before heading up to the Female Quotient Lounge to #SeeHer’s panel on “GEM’s Global Influence on Increasing Gender Equality in Media.” The patio was pretty full when I got there so I opted to stay inside to network with some of the women that were spending their day in the lounge. I met one woman who works on monetizing Spotify’s free version of the app, who also brought up their internship program and how it works, and another woman from the UK that owns her own community building start-up. Overall, I think the networking was much more valuable for me than the panel would have been, as I got to have one-on-one conversations with these women. When I left the Female Quotient Lounge, I headed back to the main Palais to get a seat in the “Pushing Culture Forward: The Gucci and Dapper Dan Story” session with Steve Stoute of Translation and Robert Triefus of Gucci. The two men spent about thirty minutes discussing Gucci’s blackface scandal and how the company used that moment to completely recreate their entire brand and then elevate it to the top of luxury by using aspects of different cultures as inspiration to appeal to the masses. I really enjoyed how they did discuss the difficult and controversial areas of Gucci’s past in this session, as most companies tend to avoid discussing their scandals altogether. After I left the Palais, a group of us went to the Terrace to hear the end of Camila Cabello’s talk with Spotify then we headed to Google Beach for an afternoon mixer with YouTube Music.