Memories of Dubai Lynx, a Cannes Lion marketing festival in the desert
Two weeks ago, the old rules of marketing were abandoned as speakers and the audience helped reinvent it all at the Dubai Lynx, the two-day marketing conference put on by Cannes Lions in Dubai. Dedicated to inspiration and insight, it brings together top creatives, the world’s revolutionary marketers and smart brands, fledgling start-ups, and everyone in between to learn, network and celebrate creativity in communications. The traditional advertising model is obsolete, knocked sideways by consumers who enact zero tolerance towards unimaginative brands. At Dubai Lynx, innovation in marketing and technology.
Ruzbeh Irani and Scott Goodson ahead of their keynote: Strange Power of Movements.
Participants heard from the leading minds in marketing from across the globe and in the region about the profound change by which brands conduct consumer relationships. The changes are fuelled by the sheer volume of content being put into the world by brands — and by us all — plus the sheer fatigue at the volume and homogeneity of traditional TV advertising, and changes in media consumtion, fickleness of the audience, generational shift in attention spans and other disruptions.
Speakers included Adam Kerj, the creative lead at global consulting firm Accenture Interactive, who spoke about the demise of the huge corporate advertising agency networks in favour of a different, better approach which includes a recolutionary new way of building creative departments and the use of AI. He pointed to the intersection where creativity and tech collide, which is where new elements are shaped that ultimately will push brands, societal issues, culture and the marketing industry forward.
On Monday, StrawberryFrog, the ‘movement marketing’ company took the stage. For marquee brands in the region, StrawberryFrog led the brand-fuelled “Hello Tomorrow” movement for Emirates Airline, the development and launch of the new master-planned city Dubai South, and the “Grow Stronger” movement that created FAB out of the largest bank merger in the world last year.
Joining Scott Goodson of StrawberryFrog on stage was Ruzbeh Irani, chief brand officer for the Mahindra Group, one of the most powerful companies from India to talk about the “Rise Movement” and how Movement Strategy and Movement Marketing helped transform the industrial group into an innovative global company, exemplified by the recent launch of the Pininfarina Battista the fastest luxury electric dream car.
Ruzbeh talked about how the Rise movement empowered new behaviours from Mahindra's leaders and employees who were focused on operational excellence and efficiency. It worked because culture change happened in a global work force of over 200,000 employees, where the Rise movement drove optimism, trust, conviction, and bold innovation.
On the other side of the spectrum were the large corporate advertising agencies represented by Rob Reilly of the McCann Worldgroup who spoke about the importance of purpose branding and the legendary chief creative officer of Ogilvy, Piyush Pandey took the stage Tuesday.
Dubai Lynx 2019 had a wide variety of speakers including Victor Knaap, the Main Monk of MediaMonks, regional marketers Suliman Alrumaikhan and Anas Alhumaid from the Ministry Of Health KSA talking about their breakthrough work with smoking cessation as well as Jodi Harris vice president, marketing culture & learning at Anheuser-Busch, who presented AB's dynamic new marketing approach and how the internal marketing department rengineered thinking and output to deliver better creativity.
Scott Goodson is the founder of StrawberryFrog, the movement marketing company
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StrawberryFrog is the world’s first Movement Marketing firm. We are a marketing, advertising, design and digital company based in New York City. Brand-fueled marketing...
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