The Cannes Lions event is a huge creative conference taking place every year. Trying to keep track of all the different lessons you can learn from this event can be quite a challenge – which is why we thought that we would make a note of some of the most important takeaways to occur at this year’s event. Although the things each person takes away from Cannes will differ depending on how they interact with the information at hand – this is what we learned in 2018.
1. Audio Marketing Grows More Important
During the Cannes 2018 event, one Pandora VP said that the rise of audio in user experience has actually lead to the death of screens. Although that suggestion is very highly exaggerated, it’s worth noting that voice and audio are getting a lot more popular in the marketing space. According to statistics, Ad revenue for digital audio saw an increase of 42% during 2017. Companies like Spotify and Pandora are going to continue pushing the audio marketing envelope, bringing more marketing spend to their side of the equation. In the future, digital marketers will need to learn more about audio too. This will mean learning how to use audio in their SEO strategies with semantic keywords and phrases – and embrace keyword-rich snippets in search.
2. Next Generation Video Marketing
Cannes Lions for 2018 also introduced YouTube’s Creative Suite – a new video tool which should allow agencies and brands to access more video marketing tools. This is part of a new way of insights into the video marketing space that comes alongside Facebook’s gamification and polling moves in the space with Facebook Live.
A lot of digital marketers in 2018 will need to start thinking about how they can start diving deeper into the opportunities that video brings. Any high-quality marketing or PR partner needs to know how to access a platform that delivers additional engagement through video marketing and even live social media streams. The way that people consume and react to information is changing, and there’s more focus on video than ever before.
3. Authenticity is Key
Finally, during the Cannes Lions 2018 event – Unilever called Influencer Marketing out as a problematic space for the digital world. The problem with influencer marketing isn’t that it doesn’t have an impact – it’s that a lot of the followers that Influencers claim they reach today seem to be from fake accounts. It’s hard to know for certain whether an influencer is for real or not. About 20% of the influencer followers for mid-tier accounts are fake.
There will always be a risk of fraud to deal with in the digital marketing space. The important thing for brands and marketing teams to remember is that they need to find ways to build trust through transparent partnerships and strong marketing strategies. When it comes to earning the trust of customers in a cynical world – companies that can put quality and transparent content first may come out ahead.
About the Author: Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a PR firm.
