Written by Jamie Tolentino-Deludet
About 2.7 billion people are online, and how we use technology continues to change everyday. Tanya Dua, Senior Reporter from Business Insider interviews senior leaders on the issues surrounding Facebook and the creative industry today at the Facebook beach in Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2019, France, including issues on hate speech, and the social media giant’s relationship with businesses and agencies present on the platform.
Carolyn Everson, VP Global Marketing Solutions says that Cannes Lions has changed a lot, and although Facebook was born after the festival was made, it has taken a hold on the pulse of the industry to adapt and change as cultures dictate. Meanwhile, Mark Read, WPP CEO says holding companies themselves are also evolving, and that there are new things we need to learn and old things that we need to remember.
Carol Everson tells us that there was a massive cultural shift over the last 2 years. Privacy is now embedded into everything. Facebook has admitted to making mistakes in the past, but the other thing to consider is consumer education. The Digital ecosystem has grown up so fast, making the call for better responsible social media use and education more urgent, and it’s on Facebook to teach the users how to teach proper use of privacy settings. However, there are also unintended consequences due to privacy laws. GDPR for example, makes it a challenge to measure the effectiveness of brand campaigns.
Regarding the advent of performance-based marketing, Mark Read claims they are on board for delivering results to clients. The world is becoming more metric driven so it’s natural that they want to deliver performance.
On the other hand, Giuseppina “Giusy” Buonfantino has launched a digital disruption program at Kimberley-Clark. She claims that brands should have a direct relationship with the consumer and that it’s not just about the data, but it’s about how to be usable to the consumer. However, some metrics aren’t available in emerging channels like voice or sound format.
New formats are not always immeasurable though. Carol Everson shares that when the New York Public Library was struggling to inspire young people to read books, they recreated some of the most important literature through Instagram stories. It delivered around 10,000 new readers into their library. Conversational commerce, where businesses talk to consumers, is also going to grow in the next 12 months.
