Brand New World

Here are some deets fresh off the Croisette from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity—basically the ad industry’s Oscars but also the global epicenter of brand culture—that happened in mid-June. Brands, marketers, ad agencies, tech companies, platforms, people from entertainment and sports, and anyone and everyone part of the brand world ecosystem were there. To make sense of it all, or at least a good portion of it, I called up Tim Nudd, creativity editor at Ad Age and a journalist who’s been covering and commenting on this industry for longer than almost anyone. In a conversation that included inside scoops, gossip, and good stories, Nudd and I talked about what impressed him most, what surprised him, and what he’s hearing we can expect from major brands heading into the second half of the year. Then, I really wanted to find out how Expensify landed the real estate on Brad Pitt’s chest for the new blockbuster film F1. Expensify’s chief financial officer Ryan Schaffer, and Hannes Ciatti, founder and head creative at ad agency Alto, gave me the inside story of how the brand got such a prominent role, including a scene in which they shoot an Expensify commercial in the film. This is getting under the hood on 1,000-horsepower product placement.

The first iteration of Brand New World was a very specific look at how AI is changing how brands and marketers work. Now we’re back to talk about brand culture more broadly. Of course that will involve AI from time to time, but I’ll also be digging into sports, entertainment, music, comedy, and everywhere else brands squeeze their way into pop culture.For those who don’t know or are unfamiliar, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is part awards show, part industry conference, and probably the biggest annual gathering of brands, marketers, entertainment folks, tech folks, and media on the planet. Anything and anyone that touches a brand—from social platforms, to sports stars to celebrities—is there. This year, ahead of the festival that kicks off June 16th, Apple has been named the Creative Marketer of the Year. Now, Apple is an iconic marketer, an all-time, first ballot Hall of Famer. But in my opinion, 2024 has been a bit of a mixed bag. So why is this Apple's year? To discuss where this past year fits in the pantheon of Apple’s greatest hits, I called up Elizabeth Paul. A strategist by trade, Paul is the chief brand officer at award-winning ad shop The Martin Agency. You’ll know their work for major brands like Geico, UPS, the new Axe work with Pete Davidson, and much more. More importantly, she’s always up for some hot take banter about the work and culture around advertising and brands. Last month, a new doc called The Seat debuted on Netflix about how Mercedes’ Formula One team decided on a successor for racing legend Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton had announced his departure, so the racing giant was forced to strategize its next move quickly and discreetly. That’s where WhatsApp comes in. The entire process of evaluating and naming young Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli played out over the messaging app. “The Seat” is not only a feature doc, but an excellent piece of brand entertainment, produced in partnership with WhatsApp. This episode I was excited to chat with Meta’s head of global consumer marketing Eshan Ponnadurai to talk about the process behind the doc, as well as the role it plays in the brand’s overall strategy. Esh has worked on major brands from Ford and P&G, to Uber, YouTube and Google. He’s got a long history of finding compelling and authentic brand stories to tell in unique ways.

In this lively discussion, Kate Rouch, the Chief Marketing Officer at OpenAI and former CMO at Coinbase, dives into the evolving landscape of branding in the AI realm. She reveals the strategy behind OpenAI's groundbreaking Super Bowl ad aimed at demystifying AI. Kate also highlights ChatGPT's cultural impact, especially on the under-35 crowd, and discusses the challenges of building authentic connections in a fast-moving market. Her insights underscore the importance of clear brand values and engaging younger audiences through innovative marketing.

Lorraine Tuhill, the Global Chief Marketing Officer at Google, and AI strategy consultant Nilesh Ashra dive into the evolving landscape of marketing in this engaging conversation. They explore the challenges of promoting AI tools while keeping genuine human connections intact. Lorraine highlights the shift towards emotional storytelling in advertising, while Nilesh discusses how AI can enhance marketing efficiency and brand compliance. Together, they stress the importance of balancing technology with creativity, urging brands to embrace relatable and innovative messaging in the AI era.

This discussion features Zena Arnold, Sephora’s US CMO, Vlad Kuznetsov, Chief Information Officer, and Liz Siegren, a senior writer at Fast Company. They dive into Sephora's groundbreaking use of AI in beauty, emphasizing tools like SkinScan for personalized foundation matching. The guests explore how AI transforms customer interactions and addresses industry challenges, promoting inclusivity and innovation. They also highlight the importance of balancing authenticity and trust in an AI-driven landscape, ensuring a seamless integration of technology with creative branding.

Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola's Global VP for Generative AI, and Jason Zada, creative director at Secret Level, explore the brand's innovative use of AI in marketing. They discuss the controversy surrounding AI-generated holiday ads, reflecting on the passionate backlash they faced. Despite this, Thakar emphasizes Coca-Cola’s commitment to creative risk-taking and long-term investment in AI, while Zada shares insights on blending tradition with technology. Their conversation invites a deeper look into the evolving relationship between brands and the creative landscape.

If GenAI is the biggest technological advancement since the internet itself, then the creative possibilities are or will be pretty much endless. From a brand marketing and advertising perspective, we are still very early days, but there needs to be those willing and able to push the envelope, test boundaries, make mistakes, learn lessons, and evolve from there. Yet how far should the boundaries of brand content be pushed? In this episode, I look for some answers by talking to two founders of boutique creative shop Food Arts & Technology, industry legends creative technologist Iain Tait and designer Richard Turley. I also sat down with Jason Zada, founder of AI-focused production studio Secret Level, who has worked with major brands like Coke on utilizing these new tools. There are so many different perspectives on how this tech will and should be used creatively. Here you’ll get a glimpse into the perspective of people trying their best to push the tech and their own creativity for brands.

To paraphrase a great philosopher, brand ideas are like small intestines – everybody has one. But could you build something with that idea in less than an hour? In this episode, we meet with David Jones,founder and CEO of The Brandtech Group, a $4 billion company which invested heavily in integrating AI into marketing and advertising services by acquiring leading companies like Pencil and Jellyfish. Jones says GenAI tools tailored to brands make that idea possible, so we challenge him and creative director James Dow to make it happen, right here, right now on the podcast. While that’s happening, we also take a look inside a few of the large-scale tools being deployed by major ad agencies right now. Omnicom Advertising Group chief operating officer Deepthi Prakash gives us a peek under the hood of TBWA Worldwide’s CollectiveAI platform, which it has built working with companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Adobe, and more to create tools trained on decades of successful strategies, creative work and philosophies, then utilized to help inform and evaluate new work and ideas. I won’t spoil the brand idea we have, but by the end, you may just have a new favorite toothpaste.

David Droga is a legendary advertising creative and executive. He’s also CEO of Accenture Song, one of the largest advertising and marketing services firms on the planet. For those two reasons, we kick off Brand New World with Droga at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Why there and then? It’s the world’s biggest convergence of media, marketing, entertainment, technology, and brands, and a mirror of what's happening and a bellwether of what's to come, on a global scale. There’s no better time and place to start a conversation about how brands, and the marketing and advertising industries are approaching AI at this nascent moment.In this episode, I talked to Droga about what Accenture’s $3 billion commitment to AI means for his work, how it compares to the first digital revolution two decades ago, where it may be headed in the not-so-distant future, and the impact it will have on the art of persuasion and pop culture.

AI is everywhere, and no more is the hype as big and ambiguous than across an industry known for both chasing and utilizing new technology: advertising and marketing. In a recent chapter of the book ‘Our AI Journey,’ released in March, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that artificial general intelligence will be a reality in the next five years or so and, as a result, ‘will replace 95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today.’But we’re not there . . . yet. How brands and ad agencies use AI is already influencing what they know about us, how they will use it, and subsequently, how this technological shift will revolutionize consumer and pop culture.If brands are the connective tissue between business and culture, how will AI impact the ways in which they build meaningful—and profitable—connections with audiences? What are the lessons that are and can be used from the first digital revolution? How are the leading players in the industry not only using this technology today, but thinking about how it can, will, and should be used tomorrow? Join 'Fast Company' senior staff editor Jeff Beer as he embarks on a journey to find out.The result will be not only a snapshot of this moment in time, but an evergreen look at the AI philosophies, strategies, and work that will determine the future of brands.