Connected Goes to Cannes!
June 17, 2018
By Tim Bettridge, Dhruv Guliani, Peter Chow Wah, Polly Cherkashyna, and Guy Tonye (with help from Eli Burnstein)
Considered the largest gathering of advertising and communications professionals in the world, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is basically the Oscars of the ad world, attracting upwards of 16,000 registered delegates from over 4,700 companies. At the heart of the festival are its Lions awards, considered the most highly coveted in the industry. So, what are we doing here? Of all the brands and organizations competing at Cannes, a tech company doesn’t seem a likely candidate — especially not a B2B services firm specializing in software-powered products, if we’re being completely honest. But software is eating the world, to borrow a phrase that keeps ringing true, and this year the advertising world is embracing that fact in a way that goes well beyond “digital advertising.” For the first time ever, Cannes Lions is hosting a full-on hackathon devoted to worldwide betterment. Called “Change for Good,” the hackathon is the brainchild of digital marketing agency Huge Inc, tech giant Amazon, and the international advocacy platform Global Citizen, who have invited teams from across the globe to innovate and build solutions that will further one of Global Citizen’s six campaigns, namely No Poverty, Food & Hunger, Health, Education, Gender Equality, and Clean Water & Sanitation. After a rigorous international application process, our 5-person delegate team was selected to compete alongside 6 other groups to validate, design, and develop a voice-first product addressing one of Global Citizen’s campaigns. Taking place over two days (June 19–20), the Change for Good Hackathon is sure to be action-packed.
So, why Connected? Though “creativity” is traditionally the preserve of the ad world, innovation is at the heart of what we do. Our product development process leverages emerging technologies, user research activities, and rapid prototyping to build products that people love.
And that’s exactly what we hope to do at Cannes.
Wish us luck!
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