Drumming up the future of advertising

Look into the future of advertising with Simon Cook, CEO of Lions, organiser of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

ChatGPT is the latest buzzword and people are keen to test its capabilities, from writing emails to taking bar exams. But can it be used to create campaigns?

Hear from Simon Cook, CEO of Lions, the organiser of Cannes Lions – an annual festival that celebrates the best brand communications effecting change in business, culture and society – on whether generative AI has a place in advertising. 

Carla Buzasi, CEO at WGSN, hosts this podcast as the pair explores branded destinations from traditional commercials to in-game worlds. We also cover the marketing need-to-knows that are key for this year, including the transactional nature of data sharing and how to capture the attention of younger audiences as compared to older generations.

Data sharing enhances user experiences

“People are getting comfortable with the transactional nature of parting with your data and habits because it will get you improved access to different platforms and expose you to advertising which, arguably, is becoming increasingly relevant and less intrusive. It’s not interrupting in the way that it used to, but being designed to enhance the experience of the programme that you’re watching or even feature in it.”

In-game brand messaging

“People will increasingly see integrated types of messages in games. We’re moving past the phase of traditional product placement, although it’s still a massive thing. But rather than inserting themselves into specific platforms or existing games, brands will design games and worlds so the ad becomes the environment that you’re in.”

Generative AI in advertising

“If you chuck a few briefs into ChatGPT, you will get some passable ideas. But as one of our community members said to me, if you want to celebrate mediocrity, use AI to generate your ideas. And why would anyone in our industry want to celebrate mediocrity?”
– Simon Cook, CEO of Lions

Head to Apple or Spotify to hear the full discussion on our Lives of Tomorrow podcast episode, Drumming Up the Future of Advertising.