Festival Day 3 (Tuesday 6/21)

The day started out early by taking the 8:40 train to Cannes. We stopped at a great little coffee shop and I got a chocolate chip muffin to jump start my day. Our day of seminars started out with AgenciaClick Isobar and Fiat at 9:30. This seminar wasn’t very interesting to me, but we did sit next to a Yahoo executive from California. He was really nice and gave us some insight on how to go into the workforce. It wasn’t a big surprise that he got his job through a relationship he had formed years ago. Networking and your contacts really do matter when it comes down to it! One thing I did learn from the seminar, though, is that Brazil has the fourth largest car market in the world. The picture he showed of rush hour looked a lot like Atlanta!

            The next seminar was IPG and Women’s Leadership Network. Martha Stewart was on this panel and this was my favorite seminar of the day. They shared that less than 10% of the jury members for the festival are women. Also, women only hold 3% of top creative positions, but influence 85% of purchases. I found this statistic really astonishing and kind of sad for the industry. As a woman studying marketing, this is a challenge for me to try and get to the top. I find it really strange that so few women are at the top in this field when all of our marketing and advertising classes are primarily women. It was very encouraging to hear the panel of very successful women talk about how they view the glass ceiling and how they got past it.

            I also enjoyed the Yahoo seminar with Robert Redford. He talked a lot about taking risks and that they are an adventure and not a negative thing. Risks give you the chance to explore new territory, so risk and freedom are aligned. I think it’s important for a brand to take risks so that they can learn from it and continue to move forward. He also said that one of his favorite movies was “A River Runs Through It” because he got to fly fish and he loves the sport. I think I want to try fly fishing someday.

            Digitas Vevo was a great seminar as well. I really like music so I enjoyed hearing about the marketing side of music. Just like any other product, they talked about understanding your customers and not just trying to sell records. They stressed that it is about what the people want and not about what you’re selling. I was very impressed with Pharrell Williams during this seminar. I think he spoke with a lot of class and really reflected nicely on the music industry, particularly the rap and hip hop industry.

            I’m excited for the young lion’s party tonight as well as a big day tomorrow packed with seminars and the Microsoft party!