While all speakers on the Cannes stage present their best work, Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer, Proctor and Gamble started by screening their Hall of Shame. He showed their ads for Pepto Bismo and Oral B –Devil’s Children to drive home the point of how advertisers are falling into the “content crap” trap.
“Advertising is a noble, beautiful craft, and we need to treat it as such,” he said. “Too often, brands choose to produce ‘crap’ instead of focusing on the craft. Technology and digital platforms have had a role to play in the churning out of bad work.”
In a session alive with a showcase of the best of P&G work, he offered his perspective on how raising the bar on creativity is needed to create value for consumers and realize the potential of a brand and P&G’s efforts in this direction. “We decided to step up our game. We made the choice to raise the bar on creativity, because our customers deserve it”
He offered 3 guide posts to help do this:
•Express the brand as a creative masterpiece
•Elevate the craft
•Embrace creativity as a human endeavor
He gave examples of Pantene, Tide, Ariel, Always, Gillette to drive home the point he was making.
He also premiered two unreleased campaigns at Cannes Lions – Old Spice, #SmellThemWhosBoss and Gillette Body.
Pritchard elaborated on the Indian campaign for Ariel – Dad’s Share The Load. He explained how Ariel tackled a social issue – the belief that laundry was women’s work. Ninety per cent men and 75 per cent women believed this to be true. This resulted in 75 per cent of children growing up with the same perception. This campaign made Ariel the fastest growing brand in India for P&G, he added.
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Another campaign that he was proud of was of the brand SK-II, a high-end skincare brand. The brand which uses the tagline Change Destiny wanted to now expand the term to mean not just ‘change beauty’ but ‘change life’. Through a campaign called Marriage Market Takeover they helped build the self esteem of Chinese women referred to a Sheng Nu or leftover women (women who stay unmarried post their mid-20s in China) and helped them find pride in their careers. The film has been viewed over 50 million times and has helped start a conversation on this social issue.
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Why do emojis not depict professional women? Do women relate to how emojis portray them? Pritchard spoke about their brand Always that took up this issue on behalf of their customers and worked with Google to create authentic emojis. Google will soon launch emojis that project women in roles like doctor, fire fighter, etc.
Do you want to produce “crap or craft” asked Pritchard as he ended the presentation, urging all to raise the creative bar.