Kim Bartowski’s Cannes Diary #3

Kim Bartowski, creative director and associate partner at IBM iX is representing Australia on the Cannes Creative Data Lions jury. Bartowski, along with most of the other Australian and NZ jurors writes exclusively for CB.

A POV bigger than the product you sell

Today we got to a shortlist. It was a collaborative conversation about what is data in today’s world and how we manipulate that data to form creative intent and experiences. More importantly, we all knew the work we reviewed would set a benchmark of what’s expected for years to come.

The Creative Data Lions includes marketing campaigns, and it also includes charity work, product design and journalism. With the past year’s conversation around fake news and the newsfeed bubble, what people understand as real content versus advertising created the grounds for a heavy debate. 

A.I. was also prevalent in much of the work submitted. It was almost as important as Photoshop to create many of the case studies. Both established and developing countries are all huge adopters of technologies that could solve problems for the people. Agencies and independent brands highlighted a range of political and societal problems that tried to bring transparency and democracy to issues around crime, government and social acceptance. They weren’t selling products they were using their media opportunities to give a voice to the people.

We can all appreciate great creative work with good storytelling and a unique twist. But what we collectively accomplished today is an agreement on the communications industry’s unique ability to use creativity as a superpower to tell a good story with a human purpose.