Unruly / Blog / #CannesYouFeelIt – 3 Tips From P&G’s Global Marketing Officer On Raising The Creative Bar

#CannesYouFeelIt – 3 Tips From P&G’s Global Marketing Officer On Raising The Creative Bar

Cannes Lions may be over, but before we put the cork back in the bottle of rosé for another year, we thought we would share some insights from a presentation we watched last week from P&G.

The consumer goods giant pulled out its marketing heavyweight, Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer Marc Pritchard, to entertain the crowd with a session on “Raising The Creative Bar” last Thursday that was smoother than a baby’s bum (presumably after using Pampers).

Filled with branded videos, some hands-up honesty, and a couple of world exclusives – the talk certainly didn’t disappoint the jam-packed auditorium.

Pritchard proclaimed it was time for advertising change. For years brands have peppered the world with ‘content crap trap’. He even went as far as to show some of P&G’s worst-ever ads (in his opinion, of course). “Embrace your hall of shame. You must in order to understand your content,” he added.

He also apologised to consumers who have been forced to sit through awful content over the years. So it’s no surprise, people “vote with their fingertips and vote to block”.

So how do brands make better content? Well, Pritchard laid out his 3 top tips on raising the creative bar:

  • Tip 1: Express the brand as a masterpiece across a broad creative canvas. Express the brands personality – if you’re marketing to humans (which we hope you are), you need to be human;
  • Tip 2: Elevate the craft – advertising is art. Never accept mediocrity. Every piece of advertising matters – mediocre work makes up the ‘content crap trap’; don’t settle for second best. If you’re not deeply proud of your work, then it shouldn’t go out;
  • Tip 3: Embrace creativity as a human endeavour. Turn insight into ideas – the world is rich with data, but it’s about the effective use of that data. Things need to be tried and tested.

It’s also worth noting that Pritchard also exclusively announced that, as a result of the very popular #LikeAGirl video campaign, P&G, in partnership with Facebook and Google, is releasing a new set of emojis aimed to break down barriers and gender stereotypes.

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