Matty Burton, group chief creative officer at DDB Group Aotearoa is representing New Zealand on the Cannes Brand Experience & Activation jury. Burton, along with most of the other New Zealand and Australian jurors, writes exclusively for CB.
Day 2. Honeymoon.
It was short and it was sweet but it is some distance in the rear view mirror now. We are closer to co-habitants, some sort of flat mating situation, the closest thing I can think of is the last desperate throws of a pitch, where everyone has been on the same mission together and a mix of sleep deprivation and pure adrenalin creates this slightly chaotic rhythm to everything and I feel at home in this space.
This is the natural habitat of creativity and it doesn’t make sense to most people.
Most of the people here are drinking wine at the beach or having long lunches while we’re trying to stop other juries from raiding the one fridge we share. Some of the C-suite attendees who have never made an ad are air kissing each other like subprime fuckwits. Some of the smarter people are filling their minds with new ideas in the Palais. Or, sadly, even more are filling their minds with the well trodden sales pitches of big tech masquerading as a speaker panel in one of the many gross takeovers of what was once a nice looking beach. Others who don’t have the euro for the pass are pretending they are rich and looking in shops, some of them buying shirts or hats that only work here and are in for a rude shock when they try and wear the same outfit back home.
Our industry desperately needs a new story and this sure as hell isn’t it.
But all of that is a side show and a conversation for a later time. It’s a side show that has been built off the back of what we do as an industry. It’s been built off the back of creativity. And I am here for that. I am so fucking here for it.
In between judging yesterday, Nayaab, who is sitting next to me, lent over and asked me for an opinion on how to structure a sentence. Like this I suggested and then looked at what she was showing me. Just her pitch for Titanium tomorrow on stage. The people in this little room. My flaties.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for you Nayaab you witty little legend. And fingers crossed for all the Aussie and Kiwi work in the show this year, we should all be holding our heads very high. And yes, that’s a little bit of permission for those back home, the real talent in this industry, to act a little bit like a wanker today and get your winning struts on.
