What real women really thought about this year's Cannes Lions winners
While many in the industry were sipping rosé in the sun during Cannes week, I was stuck inside our Great Portland Street office, with a cup of tea and piece of cake.
More precisely, I was in our agency’s Experience Lab, speaking to ‘real women’ about their views on the marketing campaigns that punctuated this year’s Cannes Lions Festival.
These sessions formed part of our 21st Century Woman initiative, which looks at how brands are speaking to and representing women in advertising.
Because our findings earlier in the year discovered that, despite women being responsible for 80% of consumer spending, 76% feel that brands do not represent them – which we all know is not good enough.
So, this week we decided to get some of our research group back – recruited from all backgrounds and corners of the UK – to see what they thought of the work that the Cannes judges had deemed the best of the best.
What can we learn from the ways that the crème de la crème portrays women? Do the Glass Lion winners truly break the mould or are they just created so brands can feel good about themselves? And does the award-winning work only resonate with trendy creative directors, or actual customers too?
Across a number of research sessions, we learned a hell of a lot…
Diversity in advertising is being noticed…
Embracing diversity in advertising is a hot topic at the moment, but it can often feel like brands are still doing it just to ‘tick a box’. So it was heartening to see that on more than one occasion our research group – unprompted – identified the diversity in the casting of actors as one of the main reasons they liked a spot. Step forward John Lewis in particular, whose ‘Buster the Boxer’ Christmas spot was singled out by one black panellist: “When the family appeared and they were black, I did immediately pick up on it and think ‘that’s different and nice to see’.”
…But women are still being represented poorly all too often
We all remember the Bayer ad from Cannes last year that was withdrawn for being sexist. Luckily we’ve not seen anything of the sort this time around (yet), but in conversations with our group it seems that women are still poorly represented by advertising in general. Our initial research found that 85% believed that brands should be doing more to represent women, and though some of this year’s candidates should be applauded for doing just that, our group identified that “it just makes it more obvious that there are hundreds of adverts for things like cleaning products that still feel very sexist.”
Subvert the sector norms
After singling out cleaning ads as sexist, our panel then took another sector to task – perfume advertising. Which may explain why one of the most successful ads we showed our panel – particularly amongst the younger demographic – was Kenzo’s Spike Jonze-directed spot. “Perfume adverts are women walking through fields in glamorous dresses feeling lovely. I love that this is not that,” one panellist rejoiced.
Be future focused
Cannes is always about ‘what’s next’, but it’s usually from a tech perspective. The campaigns that scored particularly well with our panel this year were leading the charge for cultural change as much as digital innovation. Work that encouraged and celebrated the next generation, such as Fearless Girl and Audi’s ‘daughter’ ad were warmly received for consciously laying the foundation for our young people’s future. “I’d hope this is how my husband would speak to our daughter,” one panellist said of Audi, whilst another remarked “I could see (Fearless Girl) going down brilliantly with Dads.” Speaking of Fearless Girl…
Fearless Girl wins our Grand Prix too.
It’s the campaign you simply couldn’t avoid during Cannes week – and why would you want to? When asked to vote for the piece of work that made the most impact on them, Fearless Girl was a standout among our panellists. It showcased empowerment – a theme that seemed to run throughout Cannes and was a pertinent topic for our research panel too. That’s why Kenzo was so revered, why Channel 4’s ‘Meet the Superhumans’ was so revered – and why the Fearless Girl was described by our panel as ‘the most perfect message in the strongest place it could be’. The brands that should be celebrated are the ones that go beyond just ‘avoiding stereotypes’. They’re doing things that genuinely liberate.
With the future of Cannes up in the air and the usual accusations that the festival lives in a bubble, here’s hoping that brands take notice not just of what’s doing well, but why. It’s not just what our creative leaders want, it’s what the actual target market is demanding too.
Erminia Blackden is head of strategy at Partners Andrews Aldridge