The Cannes Advertising Festival takes place next week. According to the press and the list of registered delegates, more advertisers than ever before are attending. More proof of an industry in flux.
The fact is that an industry that depends on originality for its success has been fearful for too long of change.
Fear is creative kryptonite. It makes powerful creative businesses wilt under problems that they would quickly solve if they belonged to someone else.
For the next week, Cannes provides the creative industries with a lead box. One formed by a combination of conversation, exploration, exhortation, celebration and a good deal of rosé. And for a few days the absence of fear will remove the fog, clear the air and open a horizon of possibilities.
The truth is those possibilities are always there. Waiting, silently, for those with vision and courage to walk through them armed with simple truths.
That the way forward is not barred by economics or by rules or by others.
That the way forward lies within our grasp.
We need only a destination that is important to us and the means by which to get there.
Which makes it a practical journey. A journey guided by Purpose and powered by known practices.
This is not esoteric optimism. Or fanciful philosophizing.
It is the foundation on which to build a business that, as Jeffrey Katzenberg said at Cannes last year, “sits at the intersection at which Art meets Commerce.”
It is an intersection that offers endless choices for where you take your business.
Picking the right one should not be based on hope. Or a guess.
It should be based on a map.
Does your company have one?
