Unilever’s marketing leaders unveil creative trends from Cannes Lions 70th anniversary
12 Jul 2023 --- In honor of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’s 70th anniversary, Unilever’s chief marketing officers (CMOs) have shared insights and trends about the campaign, including an outlook on its beauty, personal care and home care’s future.
Six of the company’s CMOs reflected on the trends that shaped this year’s campaigns, what’s to come and the takeaways they plan to implement.
Unilever’s Health & Wellness category engaged various issues from make-up to pharma, described as one of the “best things” about the festival.
“Increasingly, we will see brands using the latest technology to move diversity and inclusion forward in product offerings. The See My Skin campaign from Vaseline is one example of how to address the lack of diversity in images that dermatologists use for diagnoses,” says Priya Nair, global CMO of beauty and wellness at Unilever.
“It’s just one example of how smart tech combined with great creativity can drive positive outcomes for different groups.”
Landslide victory
The multinational’s marketing teams raked in 28 Lions awards globally, its most robust performance in a decade. They ranked second in the advertising awards, with six Gold Lions, seven Silver and 14 Bronze.
Dove received the Grand Prix prize for its #TurnYourBack campaign, which challenges the impact of social filters on self-esteem. Unilever was shortlisted 58 times.
The Self-Esteem Project, hashtag DetoxYourFeed released findings from a study of 1,551 girls between 10 to 17, flagging that one in two US teenage girls finds social media advice and content can contribute to low self-esteem. Two in three girls spend more than an hour on social media daily. This is more time than they spend in person with friends.
The Grand Prix prize was awarded to Dove for its #TurnYourBack campaign.
“Marketing has made good progress in diversity and inclusion, but it’s still a work in progress. Engagement can help us understand unmet needs from communities we seek to reach, but brands must ensure they incorporate those insights authentically,” says Nair.
Dove was shortlisted for 50 awards and converted 15 to Lions comprising one Grand Prix win, three Gold Lions, four Silver Lions, seven Bronze Lion and a Glass Lion.
On trends shaping the future, Alessandro Manfredi, global CMO at Dove, says: “ As marketers, we need to connect personally with our partners and give them a seat at the table. We also need the courage to let them leverage their creativity and power to connect authentically with their audiences on our brand message.”
He described the key takeaway as the unique ability of influencers and creators to help build trust for brands.
“It is important to embrace this phenomenon by creating communities of influencers and creators that share your brand’s belief system,” Manfredi explains.
Creator economy takes shape
Samir Singh, global CMO of personal care at Unilever described “creativity and the power of disruption” as the best thing about the festival. Successful brands disrupt themselves “before they get disrupted by others.”
He identified one of the significant trends as the growth of the creator economy. “We have some iconic brands. People increasingly trust what others say about our brands much more than what we say about them, and we need to make that a bigger part of how we engage with consumers,” says Singh.
Authentic value exchanges between brands and creators will allow brands to bring value to creators and their followers. “They may even go so far as building long-term relationships with them rather than just transactional ones,” explains Singh.
The TikTok movement, known as #CleanTok, allowed the home care division to showcase a new content partnership highlighting the trend where more campaigns harness the power of influencers to engage social-first communities with brands, according to Eduardo Awada Campanella, global CMO of home care.
Earlier this month, Unilever and TikTok partnered to leverage #CleanTok, tapping into the fast-growing trend of home cleaning hacks, tips and tricks about cleaning and related products.
Edited by Inga de Jong
