
- AI
Lots of discussion on the impact of AI on our industry in the broadest sense. From the optimists who are already experimenting and using AI as if it comes naturally to them, to the pessimists who are worried about the impact on their jobs and on ethics. There is overlap between the two cohorts of course (optimistic about transformation, anxious about chaos) but once again it feels like the sector is taking sides, as it did over the metaverse, as it originally did over the internet itself. And there’s the lesson. Stick it in the “one day in the future” pile, as some organisations did then and you consign yourself to be one of the crew that lose out. Over invest and you splash cash unnecessarily. Find the middle path of conscious and careful development and surely there’s the breakthrough.
2. Diversity and purpose mean action.
There’s some outstanding work, and some excellent discussions. Everyone now is looking for action and outcomes as well as intent. Author, activist, cultural innovator and founder of MuslimGirl.com, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh on the superb Inkwell beach spoke about the importance of doing something, anything, to help change – explaining that however limited your impact is, it might have the butterfly effect of encouraging one other person, who might open up action in another and create a movement that is unstoppable. Something that Conde Nast’s Chief Business Officer Deborah Brett said at “The Female Quotient: Lift As We Climb” panel stayed with me too: “Don’t apologise, everyone is afraid to speak and take a stand, in case you get it wrong. But you don’t have to apologise all the time, you’re on a journey, everyone is on a journey. You don’t have to fake it till you make it, because if you are not learning on the job you won’t have a job.” As EssenceMediacom global creative chief Stef Calcraft puts it too, you have to unlearn, because everything is changing and the old rules don’t apply. The peerless Aayati Dash (who is 10, and therefore might have been the youngest speaker this year at Cannes), made it clear that her generation are expecting action, and won’t settle for fine words. I was thrilled to share a panel with her at the World Woman Foundation session on the power of advertising to create an equal future.
3. Humour
After what seems a while, humour is back at Cannes. This was however evident more in the bronze and silver Lions wins than in the Golds and Grand Prixs leaving some wondering if humour travels well in such a global competition. We know that sex sells, and that purpose sells, but so does humour. So it was great to see some light hearted twists on creativity for instance the chickens with pedometers and Oreo’s restoration of 2011. The playwright George Bernard Shaw said: “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”
4. Relevance Rules
The challenge is clear. Without relevance reach is nice but outcomes lag. In the new communications economy people spend time gaming, shopping online, chatting and socialising as well as with media that can frequently interrupt them ads they don’t want to hear from. In my 2012 book on marketing, Tell the truth, honesty is your most powerful marketing tool, I dedicated some space to the importance of cutting through by communicating in the right space, at the right time and with the right message. That if you could find the right moment then focusing effort there with the right message, would transcend simply reaching people at scale in terms of empirical evidence based growth. Being relevant in this way informed some award winning campaigns that drove real growth for brands in Cannes. So, Samsung’s Flipvertising turned the rules of media on their head by persuading the audience to search for their ads instead of chasing after their attention. Heineken sold beer to people working late in the office by partnering with cleaning firms. WAOO “killed” for love, getting partners of gamers to nominate them for targets to get them to take a break.
5. Big brands and partnerships
There were significant big brand winners at Cannes this year with real business challenges solved. Many people were saying this was about time, and good to see. Dove took the Grand Prix for media with a campaign that everyone was talking positively about, and that tapped into their long-standing purpose agenda and demonstrated real action. All of the winners required a team to deliver the work. Rob Reilly, ECD at WPP, stressed the importance of understanding the huge energy that is needed to create work like this, and that the partnership of multiple agencies and clients is crucial and should always be celebrated. I heard one Creative agency ECD celebrating work on a stage that I know the media agency were instrumental in delivering without crediting them, or any of the wider team. That’s why I’ve only named brands in this blog, not agencies. For full credits please see the Cannes Lions winners page. I know it takes a village to win a Lion. I hope we can always acknowledge this in future.
Have you transcended the Umwelt today?
August 21st, 2023Transcending the Umwelt
If you’re wondering what that is and why it matters, the Umwelt is a way of thinking and feeling that is specific to individual brains of different species, (and artificial intelligence). Transcending your own Umwelt to understand others is crucial to being a planner and creating great communications for brands. Understanding the Umwelt of power is crucial for your career. Empathising with the Umwelts of others is the key to creating diversity of thinking in your organisation. Being clear about the Umwelt of AI is important to maintain your edge.
Jakob Johann von Uexkull was a German biologist who first coined the term Umwelt to explain how different organisms perceive life because of their particular biological characteristics and their environments.
For instance, as animal behaviourist Con Slobodchikoff explains, bees and some birds see in ultraviolet but humans don’t. Dogs have a million times better ability to detect different smells than we do. Bats, dolphins, dogs and cats can hear ultrasonic sounds that we can’t, or at least most of us. If you are under 25 then you can detect sounds that older people cannot and as a result of understanding here there exists an anti-loitering product on the market that makes noises undetectable by most people to deter teenagers from hanging about and behaving badly in public spaces.
Uexkull called the worlds that every organism exists in their Umwelt.
In The Book of Minds, Philip Ball shows how different umwelts transform how we react to things. For example, if you are in a dark and sinister forest, and are a bit lost, a woodland path is a relief, a sign of civilisation. If on the other hand you are a vole the path is an open space, and therefore dangerous, as you might be swooped on by a predator, whereas the more vegetated areas are safer. The Umwelt shapes how you react to things, and even how you imagine things. A teacup placed to close to the edge of a table will make most people instinctively reach out to prevent it falling. A gerbil is unlikely to be bothered by this.
The Umwelt that you belong to differs not just between species but also from human to human.
This starts to explain how one person may instinctively, and perhaps incomprehensibly, react differently to another person to the same scenario.
The craft of planning relies on understanding signals and interpreting them to connect with audiences. The skill of leadership requires empathy, listening and understanding of people who are gloriously different from each other.
If we fully embrace the concept that we each have our own Umwelt, based on background, circumstances, our friends, family, level of privilege and education, regionality, gender, age and sexuality (and all the other things that make us different), we will become better at communicating both commercially, and in creating a sense of belonging and inclusion at work.
We don’t resent the octopus for having a different outlook and Umwelt from our own. We don’t disrespect dolphins for their differences. The popularity of David Attenborough proves our innate curiosity and love of different worlds.
Sharing the workplace with diverse teams of people and creating work that different audiences will respond to is rewarding.
As the Economist writes, thinking of AI in human terms is understandable. But it is wrong. ChatGPT doesn’t “hallucinate” when it gives an erroneous answer to our questions – it follows the logic of how it has been programmed. Hallucinations happen to people, not robots.
Love the Umwelts, transcend your own Umwelt.
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