For a slew of reasons that I shall not even attempt to go into, Day 5 was pretty much restricted to recovery from Day 4 festivities and meetings with the team on what we've learned from our participation in Cannes, our collaboration with Twitter, our blogging and live-tweeting, our networking, and general miscellany.

That said, there was one session I had no intention of missing: and that was DDB Worldwide hosting David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama, who inspired the packed crowd with his recollections of what worked and what didn't, what's changed and what agencies and clients should be thinking about as they seek to harness social media for their campaigns.

Memorable thoughts from Plouffe:

• Debates are no longer happening in DC only, the grassroots is now empowered to participate - and will expect to be able to participate
• In today's world, real change will happen when Americans at grassroots level demand it, thereby creating an obligation to keep in touch, directly with those audiences
• On memorable viral videos such as the Great Schlep and Will.I.am's mash-up of an Obama speech, these  happened outside the campaign, people doing this on their own. if virals had come out as Obama product, there would unquestionably have been given far less credibility 
• For all that is said about the power of social media, the big drivers of the campaign were old-school - email and web married with local grassroots activity    
• Of course, in the same way we advocate for compelling content as the foundation for any campaign, so too did Plouffe suggest that none of this would have mattered without a spectacular candidate
• With 10 million registered, OBama can now send out a message via email and reach a larger audience than the major brodcast messages - and do so in a way that the message can be shared - individual to individual
• Video became a vital element of the campaign to give a voice and to communicate directly on the issues - nothing more valuable that a human being talking to a human being
• Campaign alignment was essential - meaning, focusing all communications on a single idea or theme, issue or location. If not, multiple voices and multiple messages will only confuse.
• Grassroots and digital was married... had to make people want to own campaign... vs soundbites and media 

Day four was perhaps the best to date in terms of the quality and diversity of sessions in Cannes. It included a discussion with musician and actor Steven Van Zandt  and Grey Group's Tim Mellors on the changing role of music and marketing, and what it means for artists and the music industry. Even better it ended with a performance from the Cocktail Slippers, a band represented by Van Zandt's Wicked Cool label. Of the many interesting soundbites from that discussion, the most interesting (from my perspective) was Van Zandt claiming that he often found better music on TV commercials than on radio... and that he envisioned a new kind of partnership emerging between brands and musicians.

Introduced as a 'battle of the sexes, now in cyberspace', Andrew Robertson of BBDO entertained the crowd with a slew of fascinating and (in some cases) humorous statistics on the online behaviours and expectations of men and women. Key findings:

• Men are about destinations, women are about journeys    
• Men interested in fantasy women interested in reality - 84% of virtual reality game players are men
• To reach women... don't add messages, MAKE FRIENDS
• Women like to use the net to listen, to empathize, to learn and to find a voice 
• 56% of women think life would be impossible if they couldn't use the web to keep touch with family friends

Other miscelany: 

• For 25% of women, blogs have reduced time spent reading magazines     
• 40% of men feel more attractive online    
• Women were more than twice as likely as men to be photographed with friends in their FB profile than men    
• 63% of Facebook users are women, 36% are men... (1% undecided)   
• 70% of men would not know how to entertain themselves without the Internet
• 73% of french men are convinced that women can't keep a secret when they're online

Leo Burnett and Contagious had a rousing session on Wildfire stories and the elements that make stories relevant and memorable such that the word spreads faster (online and off). You can read more about that session here.

Finally, Hewlett-Packard CMO Mike Mendenhall took the stage with R/GA to talk about marketing in the age of cloud computing. His premise was that consumers have already adopted many elements of the 'cloud' through their use of sites such as YouTube and Flickr, and their ability to store and access virtually any content - images, video, and songs - from any device. What does this mean for marketers: in essence, it means moving from a 'one to many' model to a 'many to many' model in ways that harness virtually unlimited data, and the people who are accessing and sharing it. Key benefits of the cloud: it's easy, it's accessible, it's social... and, in many cases, it's free.  

Clearly the most interesting session that I've seen to date was the Dark Knight case study presented by 42 Entertainment. A monster campaign on steroids, it demonstrated the potential to create powerful brand interactions through what they define as Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Through the case study, Susan Bonds and Alex Lieu recounted how the campaign combined both offline - scavenger hunts, skywriting, ringing cakes, and fake newspapers - and online elements to reach over 10 million people and turn them into passionate citizens of 'Gotham City' and partcipants in the alternate reality that they created during the lead-up to the launch of the film.

Some of the key points they highlighted: as the digital landscape changes, so do the expectations and behaviours of the audiences - companies and agencies need to react to it. The web becomes the focal point of all offline elements and the intersection of online and offline; at the same time, ARG is not just a random series of sites or viral videos or disconnected games... rather, it's the sum of a sustained, integrated campaign. It's clearly an indication of the future of multi-discipline, multi-platform communications and something we should all be looking at carefully... that said, it means that we need to think two steps ahead instead one, and I wonder how many of us are actually doing that.

Haven't seen the video on the canneslions site, but definitely look for it. It'll change the way you think - no matter which discipline you gravitate toward...

I have a headache. I am surely dehydrated. And I am broke. The perils of Cannes. And we are only on Day 3. Standout moments from day two? Clearly, H&K's chat with Biz Stone in front of the largest and most energized audience I've yet seen, showed the extraordinary level of attention being given by agencies and marketers to the phenomenon that is Twitter. You can read more here, and watch the video here, though I'll leave you with what I felt was one of the most appropriate descriptions of the power of Twitter: information can take a very simple form... and yet have profound impact.

Other notable moments? GoViral, in discussing the shift in consumer mindset and behaviour, articulating the fact that companies must move from peak & valley campaigns to "always on" distribution, elevating the importance of sustainability as well as creativity. Immediately after, PricewaterhouseCoopers, in presenting their Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2009, effectively stated that advertising, as we know it, is not coming back (at least not to 2007 levels - globally), that if you are not exploiting multiple platforms in your campaigns you are not respecting the needs and behaviors of customers, and that the move to digital accelerates in economic downturns as customers go online to find better deals. 

More to follow...

Given the enormous visibility and exposure of Twitter in recent months, H&K was delighted to be able to sponsor a Cannes Festival Tweetup featuring none other than Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. This morning, Biz was interviewed for Cannes TV and offered up some useful insights into why Twitter has suddenly become as popular as it has, and glimpses into his vision for the future. In all, an enlightening 8+ minutes. More to come tomorrow. Be sure to ask a question for Biz in the lead-up to the session by either commenting here or signing off your tweet with the #hkcannes hashtag.

You can watch the video here:

On a day when the last thing anyone wanted to do was sit in an auditorium - with sunny skies and beach beckoning - the opening sessions largely reflected the day and condition of most delegates - many who were either jet lagged or in Saturday night recovery mode. And yet, while not all sessions proved worthy of the Festival's reputation (with one being nothing but a sales pitch), a few nuggets emerged that offered some insights into the thinking of agencies and marketers in today's uncertain and rapidly evolving business climate.

In talking of the "Death of the Creative Director", LBi's Chris Clarke and Lorenzo Wood captured the re-newed focus on the need for compelling content, compelling stories and awesome creative if one is to capture attention in a world where attention is at a premium: "Do something interesting if you want to say something interesting", they posited. "(It's) not enough to be clever... you need to be clever with impact." . Instead of defining the experience, brands today must create spaces where consumers can interact and create, and then identify opportunities to intervene in ways that add value. All of this was positioned in the context of the social media (r)evolution and the oft-stated fact that individuals are now both consumers and producers of content.

Further down the docket, Sapient moderated a discussion with members of the Coca-Cola team talking about how interactive technologies are transforming their campaigns. Carol Kruse, VP Interactive Marketing, discussed the challenges of running global digital campaigns and their success in taking ownership of, and transforming, their fan-founded Facebook page which now counts 3 million-plus fans. Perhaps the most interesting point raised was the shared consensus of all panelists that mobile will be the next 'big' thing for marketing - particularly in emerging markets where, Kruse stated, Coke has in fact bypassed the web and gone straight to mobile.

With the addition of Richard Rosen's discussion on the convergence of brand and direct marketing, and a reinforcement of the power and potential of social media to enhance both personal and corporate brands from the good folks at LinkedIn (more on that later), the day - which began in a booze and jet-lag fuelled haze - ended up quite enlightening.

Much like Dell on the day it launched its first corporate blog to a cacophony of the 'righeous', Skittles faced off against the wrath of the (m)asses and (barely) endured. Trent Reznor, on the other hand, is calling it quits. And can you blame him?

I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it's now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule.

Without question, the social web is a toxic place - often filled with vitriol and hate and the desire of a vocal few to knee-cap anything and anyone attempting to elevate the conversation (or at least keep it civil). And it's often why marketers are afraid to play in this space. Which would be wrong. As wrong as it is to attempt to jump in with no understanding of the "rules" and "customs" of the communities they are seeking to target and engage.  

In the social web, it's not only the brands that need to be thick-skinned, it's the people behind the brands, or those that represent them. Are they prepared for what they might face? And are rules in place to ensure they know how to respond - whether to silence the attacks that are flung at them without merit, to walk away, or - and dare it be said - to fight back.

So according to a recent Ipsos Reid study, "ONLY" about one out of every 100 Canadians is using Twitter (which apparently translates to "ONLY" 1.45 per cent of the Internet population in Canada). Is it ONLY me, or am I reading too heavily into the implied message here?  

Granted, my Cannes colleague Niall recently blogged about several other studies that likewise attempted to give pause to the echo-chamber / media hype. Methinks I see a trend emerging.

The Globe's conclusion? "... the rest of Canada hasn't exactly warmed to Twitter just yet ... It's certainly no Facebook". Of course, if the measure of a technology's influence was based solely on reach or 'popularity' - the 'perspectives' being provided might, in fact, be useful. However, when it comes to Twitter (and many other social networking tools), reach and popularity are often far less important than other characteristics of the micro-blogging tool - namely (and for the sake of brevity let's make up some words shall we?): content amplificability, micro-nichification, organizational humanification, and - erm - competitive intelligence gathering... all elements that when combined with its immediacy, its capacity to enable multiple-party dialog, and its growing search potential, forces us to view 'perspectives' such as those presented in the article through slightly more contextualized lenses - about how it's used and why, and the value that is derived based on the right mix of understanding where it fits within the communications mix, who is being targeted, with what content and by whom, and expectations on benefits - be they personal or business-related.

Thankfully, Mr. Laver (the report's author) concludes his study with some concessions to the business or corporate value of Twitter, if only to validate the current hype. However, what the study fails to show is that Twitter (and most social media) is often much more than a numbers game.

The always thought-provoking Karen McGrane argued recently why "Web ads suck", She cites a litany of usual suspects: lack of investment compared to other channels, questionable measurement, size and technical constraints and, most interestingly from my perspective, the fact that advertising should be "about more than awareness". As a career PR professional, this last point caught my attention - particularly her citation of Bob Greenberg of R/GA in Art & Commerce: Funnel Clouding:

... Real engagement requires entirely new teams of people—like information architects, data analysts and an army of technologists of various stripes. The traditional teams found at agencies simply do not possess the skill sets needed to tackle areas that are deeper inside the funnel, where purchase decisions increasingly take place.

She complements this by suggesting:

You get flashy, glossy microsites because you’re dealing with an industry of advertisers and publishers that haven’t had a chance to develop and assimilate a new set of values.

While we may be coming at this from slightly different tangents, the point itself is valid. As consumer expectations change with respect to interaction, transparency, and as they look for ways to engage more meaningfully with brands, new types of expertise will be required at the table - to drive forward the opportunities as well as to manage the risks. Moreover, and where this debate seems to end at the purchase decision, increasingly brands must now consider what happens post-purchase - to encourage evangelism, to address issues, to build community and loyalty, and to deliver a "sustained" brand experience.

If advertisers can't do it. Who will?

In this blog's inaugural post, my colleague Tony asks the question "Does the involvement of PR signal a fundamental shift away from ad agencies?" It's a question that has been debated ad nauseum throughout the blogosphere for years with no clear resolution and with responses, for the most part, clouded by obvious self-interest. But it's an important question - albeit one without a clear black or white answer.

It's important because, as another colleague recently posited when discussing a communications campaign of one of the "big 3" automakers: the aspiration should be a symphonic approach - meaning, one that unites all of the instruments of communication - advertising and PR, digital and social - in such a way that the collective impact is significantly greater than the impact of each individual discipline.  And that's the crux, at least from the perspective of this blogger. Which begs the real questions: Who will conduct such a symphony? Who will bring to bear the best and most relevant elements of each discipline and channel in a way that addresses the new realities and expectations that define the current communications environment? In many areas - social media being just one - disciplines are already overlapping. And as new imperatives emerge - transparency, engagement and interactivity, authenticity, and "brand experience" - and as we re-think age-old imperatives around story-telling and word-of-mouth, so too are agencies being challenged to think beyond the box that defines their core competencies, to re-think how experiences are defined, messages communicated, and conversations created and sustained. In the not-to-distant future, and as we are all forced to play in an increasingly 'grey' space, will we even be able to judge the real impact of a campaign when viewed from the perspective of a single discipline?

Representing a company with a number of campaigns in contention at this year's show, perhaps I'm not one to speak.  And yet I wonder if an award celebrating an individual discipline will very soon be akin to celebrating the work of a single violinist at the expense of all the other players in the orchestra.