Stephan Loerke de WFA
Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA, considers that one of the positive tendencies he observed at Cannes this year was the return of importance to the message, not the media. “This year it seemed we were focusing once more on the reason why the festival ever existed in the first place…and it was great to see Cannes rediscover its roots as a festival of creativity rather than a celebration of advertising technology,” he said. Equally important in his view is that agencies and brands also came to the rescue of that intention. “We know that it has a powerful impact on the commercial results when it is authentic and integrated through a company. We’ve seen that with Dove, which won the Grand Prix for Media for Unilever, but too many other companies have tried to maintain proposals that don’t last,” he said.Among the trends he found diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as sustainability. Finally, artificial intelligence (AI), in which, he said, the ramifications must be understood. Some brands are more advanced on this trip, but all of us must pay more attention to the potentially enormous impact of the AI on society and our industry in the coming years,” Loerke said.
