#cannes2010

Ideas with Legacy @ Cannes Lion 2010

Looking through the winners @Cannes2010 it’s as clear as ever that good advertising has always created a sense of value:

Charm (John Lewis)

Humour (Old Spice)

Inspiration (VW Fun Theory)and more recently

Interaction (Wrangler Europe)

Education (We Choose The Moon)

Certainly successful, and great work. I wish i had made each one. However they are mostly a fleeting exchange, episodic, stay tuned for the next episode. There is little tangible reward beyond the initial emotional high. What’s perhaps missing is legacy. A platform for ongoing exchange and reward.

London won the 2012 Olympics bid because of legacy. They asked the question what else can the Olympics do for you?

I’m always much more excited by advertising when it asks the same question.

Nike Livestrong & Chalkbot are doing all they can to cure cancer.

Gatorade Replay inspires a whole community to come back together.

Pedigree Adoption Drive saves dogs lives.

Support Scent gives support to a minority.

Twelpforce fundamentally changes the BestBuy business model.

Levi’s/Goodwill CareTag recycles your jeans and helps save the planet.

Ikea Showroom ingeniously gives you a new bed.

Samsung Shakedown gives you a free phone.

VW Real Racing gives you new episodes and upgrades, which you pay for!

It’s a fantastic trend which we’re seeing more and more of. Here Levi’s set their advertising in a run down city with the promise to help it back onto it’s feet (an example from elsewhere of things they may do here), Pepsi Refresh commits $1.3m towards the Gulf, Starbucks surprising crowd-sourced answer to replacing the disposable cup wasn’t a cup at all and at the other end of the scale Green Giant tomatoes help you grow virtual tomatoes in Farmville. All have legacy of sorts. Sure there are plenty more examples out there if i could think of them right now.

Also if you look further afield into social innovation with ideas like Sidekick’s tweeting Buddy radio, or this fantastic wearable tech by Calum, a student at Dundee, or this study in mobile health tools it’s clear that brands can have a big part to play in this kind of thinking. Then there is random ideas like Cupidtino a dating site for Apple fans. It’s a platform not an episode. It’s an idea with legacy too, if not actually by Apple or really advertising… just yet. Or perhaps Gatorade’s war room which could easily shift from an immediate view of now, to an ongoing platform of next.

It’s the shift from being a broadcaster to a service provider. From being a talker to being a doer.

Legacy doesn’t have to be worthy. Or mutually exclusive to values such as charm and humour. In fact perhaps if it is worthy it still needs a buff man ‘on a horse’ to front it. It can be integrated through any channel. Legacy can be simply creating some tangible value from the idea, as shown by some examples above. However, it’s nice if it is worthy too. CSR and CRM have never been closer. It’s the bigger picture i get really excited about. The world’s kinda fucked. It’s hard to fix. Do brands and ultimately advertising have the power to help make it better. I think so.

Exciting times. It’s clearly not always possible or perhaps right to create legacy. But there are plenty of chances. Lets get on with it.