CANNES DAY 3: Of Fandom and Liquid Death

Finally getting into the ebb and flow of Cannes and deciding to catch the panels that offered not only genuine insights but some intrigue (for me at least), as well.

That was certainly the case today at the Amazon Port this morning for a discussion on Finding Community in Fandom.? A nifty title and given how fandom is ever present, after all consumers are going deep rather than wide when it comes to content, brands and programming that they truly adore and love.?

MrBallen, digital storyteller on all things strange, dark and mysterious who has amassed double digit of millions of followers was joined by Wonderly’s CEO Jennifer Sergeant and Latasha Gillespie, Head of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility for Prime Video, Amazon MGM Studio, IMDb & Freevee.?

MrBallen is someone I’ve religiously been listening to over the past year.? His stories center around the macabre - weird and sinister happenings, tragic circumstances and even more tragic outcomes - and his storytelling style is simply mesmerizing.? I was disappointed that he didn’t wear his customary plaid shirt and baseball cap worn backwards but barring his distance from his brand aesthetic on this occasion, his advocacy on real partnerships really brought it home for me.? While Captain Puffy yesterday claimed that brands shouldn’t push key messaging and verbiage, MrBallen tasked brands to go further and look into a content creator’s previous campaigns and collaborations and assess how they made it their own and ‘translated it into something meaningful’.

‘Brands look at how big they [content creators] are, the subscriber count, but really, they should ask if creators have translated a brand’s campaign in a meaningful way asking ‘how can I make this relatable to my audience.’’?

On a whim, I decided to visit the Tubi area, asking my millennial (I’m a Gen X-er by the way), colleague Meghann Eleazar what Tubi is.? It’s a free, ad supporting streaming service with movies and TV shows.? But what was interesting was that they hosted the folks at Liquid Death; namely, Andy Pearson, VP of Creative and Dan Murphy, SVP of Marketing.? Both were candid in revealing the brand’s secret sauce which boiled down to the following: ‘how can you be the best thing that someone has seen that day,’ said Pearson, adding, ‘it’s simple but so hard to do.”

Liquid Death is large part of the undercurrent throughout this year’s festival and conversations abound on how they really seem to be destined for Lions greatness.? Maybe what makes them refreshing is their straightforward and matter-of-fact approach to creative – according to both panelists, coming up with a creative idea shouldn’t take months and month, it should take only 15 minutes.? ‘If the idea doesn’t work, you move on to the next’. When asked about those who disparaged their work and on social, they responded with three music albums pressed on vinyl called the ‘Greatest Hates’ summarizing the negative comments in heavy metal format and other music genres, providing a satirical (and effective) response to their critics.

At the RTL AdAlliance beach, the discussion surrounded the topic of the Lions awards and if brands and creatives should even seek one.? Justin Lebbon of Mediatel Events posed this question to Adam Morgan of eatbigfish, Leoda Esteve, Marcel Worldwide and Sasan Saedi of VML.? All answered yes, claiming the recognition paid dividends and was a meaningful nod towards best-in-class, purposeful work.? Morgan took it a different direction and rallied against campaign dullness, citing that he ran a 30 second video of cows eating grass which outperformed mainstream ads.

‘How much does it cost a company to be boring?’, he asked.

This is certainly a key takeaway if ever I heard one.?

And that wraps up Day 3.