Cannes Lions 2023 Day 3: AI - A Creative Catalyst For Marketers & Advertisers

Neel Pandya Jun 22, 2023

Observing the variety of programs at this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, I am glad to see that AI is a large part of the conversation. With AI being a core theme at the event, I want brands and agencies to view AI as a tool that can not only make their lives easier but also get them to spend the majority of their efforts on strategy and innovation rather than execution and establishment. That sort of encouragement can change the view towards AI from being a threat to a value-added factor.

AI is coming to the forefront of many marketing conversations lately. From data analysis and creative customisation to customer insights, AI offers the possibility to automate a myriad of marketing tasks. What marketers really get from AI is help in augmenting their creativity. Creativity is at the heart of marketing and the field attracts such minds as well, and creativity gets stifled when they have to focus on completing data management or analytic jobs.

By allowing AI to take on routine or repetitive tasks such as optimising advertising budget allocation, and cohort targeting, marketers can achieve greater efficiency, personalization, and impact in their creative endeavors. They will have more time to spark ingenuity and gain a more unique perspective, better intuition, and greater understanding of their target audience. It’s these aspects of marketing that can give brands, agencies, and marketers higher value. After all, consumers gravitate towards brands that have given memorable campaigns that resonate with them for a long time.

It was also encouraging to see social platforms like Meta, Google, and TikTok advocating AI throughout Cannes and discussing AI algorithms. These platforms are catering better towards marketers with the use of AI, and allowing them to create more optimised and personalised content and campaigns to more accurate customer groups. It provides further validation to what we’ve been doing at Pixis for 3 years now.