Sports & AI at Cannes: Embracing Fresh Advancements
Between June 17-21, over 12,000 creatives from 90 countries converged on Cannes, France for the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The festival brings together the best minds in the advertising and communications industry for a week to celebrate their most creative work, networking events, speeches, and award ceremonies. The event features awards, known as the Lions, which recognize outstanding work in various categories such as film, print, digital, and more.
Image via Heinz
AI trended throughout the show (no surprise there) capturing awards such as Rethink’s (Toronto) Smack for Heinz, Heinz AI Ketchup campaign. Heinz AI Ketchup Campaign brilliantly incorporated the budding technology with the ketchup brand. With people wondering how AI will take over the film and advertising industries, we saw Heinz use AI creatively to showcase AI as a featured tool in the advertisement rather than a tool to simplify the process of creating the campaign all together.
(Unrelated to Cannes but on the subject of Heinz, have you seen the Kate Spade New York and Heinz Ketchup-inspired Capsule Collection?)
Tom Morrissy, chief growth officer at New York-based media agency Noble People, stated, “If the drinking game was called ‘AI,’ we’d all be passed out by noon.” Despite the creative industry’s projected growth from $250 billion currently to $480 billion by 2027, AI’s increasing capabilities are instilling fear around industry job security. During the festival, Elon Musk was a key speaker who, according to the Wall Street Journal, discussed how “he didn’t want to be a “downer,” but suggested that AI will have the ability to be creative and at some point do what the audience members do for work.” Heinz, however, showcased that AI can work hand in hand with existing creatives at the company by using AI buzz to ask AI what it believed ketchup looked like–a uniquely futuristic use of the emerging technology.
Another festival focus was sports. With athletes now promoting their personal brand and the intersection of fans from other industries, sports is a hot campaign topic. Rethink (Toronto) reeled in another major win with the Coors Light, Coors Lights Out campaign, which became an overnight sensation. Major League Baseball player Shohei Ohtani hit a foul ball which damaged a LED Coors ad screen which quickly went viral. Coors jumped on the opportunity and sold cans with the same damaged square and sold out in under 24 hours. The cans became limited edition baseball memorabilia, and the narrative of the embarrassing broken screen became an iconic moment in sports with fans even making their own merch.
Image via Coors Light
The Coors Lights Out campaign had no official sponsorships or partnerships, however with baseball a hot topic, Coors swooped in to combine their brand with Ohtani’s diehard fans. Individual players boast immense fan followings and engaging in athletics enables brands to capitalize on eager consumers. With the popularity of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese dominating the WNBA and Taylor Swift bringing “The Swifties” to sell-out football games, there are more intersections than ever bringing diverse devotees together, giving brands an easy audience for sports-inspired campaigns.
Looking for more content on Cannes and the winners, check out more here:
Did you attend Cannes? If so, what did you enjoy most? What trends did you see play out? Any favorite winners? Feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below.