Monday, June 26, 2017

Cannes Lions 2017: Diversity Takes Center Stage

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Cannes Lions Tina Brown Madonna Badger and Sheryl Sandberg

In one of the most talked-about sessions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer, Marc Pritchard; former Vanity Fair chief Tina Brown; Badgers & Winters’ Madonna Badgers and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg took the stage to discuss gender inequality and possible solutions during the session.

The panelists and data confirm that brands that use their voices for gender equality are rewarded with greater consumer respect, loyalty and purchase intent. Consumers vote with their wallets and take values into account.

“We know that men still run the world,” Sandberg said. “I am not sure it is going all that well.”

It’s a ripe opportunity for brands as 67% of consumers believe brands have more power to create change than the government.

Case in point, P&G’s Always #LikeAGirl campaign, which is now entering its fourth iteration:

The iconic campaign has received more than 550 million views across Facebook, YouTube and beyond, and is the most-viewed P&G brand marketing campaign ever.

However, sexist images scantily clad women, serving as props, air-brushed to unrealistic standards, or lusting after men still abound. “Objectification still exists,” said Badger. “It is easy and quick.”

According to the panelists, men have to be part of the conversation.

Sandberg continued her case: “We made the case for men that it is good for the world, but it is also good for them. Don’t buy flowers, do laundry,” she said.

Brown suggests marketers co-opt the “men space,” i.e., making alcohol and beer commercials from a feminine angle and buying time during traditional man-hours.

The panel followed yesterday’s launch of The #Unstereotype Alliance where Unilever CEO Keith Weed said, “Our job isn’t done until we never see an ad that diminishes or limits the role of women and men in society.”

marc-pritchard-cannes-2017

Pritchard had announced at the beginning of 2017 that the digital ad industry needed to grow up and embrace standard measurement.

He said at Cannes, “We found we were producing ads constantly in order to be in the real-time digital age. Rather than cutting through the clutter it was just adding to the clutter. And it was adding to the noise. Stop the noise and focus on raising the bar of the creative craft.”

“We want to explore the edges of what a brand can do or at least its point of view on the society, its point of view on the environment, on cultural issues like women and gender equality.”

Pritchard said P&G is “about 40 to 50%” through a massive review of its media agency contracts and is seeking greater transparency in its media buying. Halfway through the year, those 40 to 50 percent of P&G’s media, agency and ad tech partners meet minimum standards.

The company has also instituted a new measure where every media adopt MRC-accredited third party verification during 2017, and that any entity touching digital media must become TAG-certified this year to help ensure that it is free from fraud.

“The players in the digital industry have stepped up and they understand this and they’re making progress,” said Pritchard.  “It needs to happen. They’re long overdue. And we need to keep going. So hopefully by the end of this calendar year we’ll be at a place….but then the hard part starts. Once you have transparency across all platforms then you can evaluate more clearly how one medium compares to another.”

He added, “before [the industry] invests $72 billion on digital we need to know what we’re getting and how many people we’re reaching, and where and how they are engaged.”

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