An Insight on Insights from Lions Health

Despite having closely followed the Cannes Lions festival for years from afar, I still somehow managed to underestimate the impact of the work and creative spirit. I had a chance to experience this during my first actual trip to Cannes to give a talk on embracing the patient experience gap. I did not expect the sheer force and magnitude of the ideas I had a chance to discover this week.

And as I write this post on my plane ride home from Lions Health, I feel re-energized in the belief that creative can actually make an incredible impact in the world (wow, that sounds weird as I type it and the cynic in me is surprised I’m not deleting that last line immediately…but it’s true). And after years hearing about the pursuit of global insights for big brands that could be locally applied in individual markets, I found that I was most moved by ideas built on top of powerful cultural insights that were inherently local. In fact, breakthrough cultural insights enabled simple ideas to have massive impact and possibility in my favorite work – and I think that is a theme we can all work to leverage.

Check out P&G’s Intimate Words campaign for a powerful example of how this can come together. Shows how a core insight about a place or a group or a tribe that beautifully comprehends context can push towards an idea that can be truly life changing.

Want more insights from the Cannes Lions Festival? Read our white paper Cannes guide to buzzwords: 8 newbies on what’s real and what matters to brand experience to learn about the marketing trends you can’t afford to miss.