Lions, advertising, and Cannes, oh my!

What will win a Lion? Our top creative picks?

By Travis Clark?

It’s that time of year again. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — aka advertising’s prom — is bringing brands, agencies, and tech companies from around the world together at the Palais. At the center of the parties and panels are the awards, and?The Current?team has your list of campaigns to watch.?

Winning a Lion is the highest honor in the creative arena, one that can often propel individual careers and industrywide trends. Our team spoke with industry experts to round up some of the best campaigns eligible for prizes at this year’s festival, honoring the best work from February 2022 to this April.?

While every year brings healthy debate about what constitutes “the best,” hallmarks of strong contenders include a clever premise, a strong stance, emotional resonance, and the ability to spark cultural conversations. From Apple’s “The Greatest” to Tubi’s “Interface Interruption” during the Super Bowl here are seven campaigns that are well-poised to take home top honors this year.

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Just briefly?

This week on The Current Podcast , Klarna CMO David Sandstr?m shares how the Swedish buy-now-pay-later company is conquering the U.S. market.

We also explore how AI isn’t just the latest buzz term in tech; it’s played an?essential role ?in programmatic advertising for some time.

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British advertising leaders on 5 lessons from 5 years of GDPR?

By Zac Wang?

Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?turned five ?at the end of May. “Large, far-reaching, and fairly light on specifics,” GDPR was created to protect European consumers and define how companies could handle their data in the modern internet age.?

The landmark legislation has been behind some of the global advertising industry’s?most onerous fines ?to date for privacy violations. Meta was?hit ?with a record 1.2 billion euro fine just days before GDPR’s fifth birthday.?

British advertising leaders who witnessed their industry’s evolution after five years of GDPR paint a picture of cascading changes brought on by the need to rethink how to acquire customer data. Challenges still abound, they say, none less important than the potential disruption brought on by the rise of generative AI, which people are pouring untold amounts of personal information into.?

“It’s in part due to GDPR that people are now so keenly aware of being tracked and the data trails they leave behind them,” says Steve Taylor, joint chief strategy officer at VCCP Media, an advertising agency. “Nevertheless, it can be credited with a role in driving marketing innovation.”

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