Accenture Song’s Adam Kerj on “Moment of Truth” Brand Experiences

 

Adam> It’s such an inspiring, fun but also creatively important category as it’s a battleground for many brands and businesses today. With technology constantly reshaping behaviour and growth getting harder in many markets, this is an innovative category where brands meet real people. I see this space has changed over the years from more tactical, one-shots to crucial brand building. An ambitious, meaningful and well-orchestrated brand experience can really move the needle on a brand or societal issue. It’s the moment of truth, which is why next level creativity is essential. It’s also a very human, playful space where in many cases you invite the consumer to take the first step or put their own thumbprint on an experience or idea and evolve it. 

 

The Brand Experience & Activation category is probably one of the most creatively diverse categories because the idea can be almost anything and it’s about embracing creativity as the powerful multiplier it is. There’s so much impressive, inspiring work, making it a very competitive category. We always hear that you should be proud getting on the shortlist, and I can assure you that is certainly the case in this category. 

 

Adam> Because of the state the world is in right now I would say Titanium, Glass and SDG. They’re always important categories pushing the industry and our clients forward. The best work is the truly audacious, impactful, category-defying ideas at scale that solve genuine real-world brand problems and positively impacts societal issues at scale.

 

Also, for us at Accenture Song, I’d say Creative Business Transformation, Creative Data and Creative Commerce and Innovation because we’re at an inflection point where every business and brand must reinvent for growth and the only way to do that is through human ingenuity and tech-powered creativity. Celebrating creativity is far more interesting than just advertising. What they all have in common is that creativity is the critical multiplier and differentiator between success and failure.

 

Adam> GenAI is a force unseen before and an opportunity, but that’s an obvious topic this year. I’d hope that we celebrate what creativity and human ingenuity can do today. Here and now. We’re always in the future of marketing rather than the present and I understand why. But let’s not get stuck in a constant superposition of the many possible marketing multiverses. I think the one we live in today, the present, is by far the most exciting one, and the one that matters most for most of our clients, CMOs, CEOs and brands. We’re a creative industry and creativity will always be the answer to every question. Today our clients, brands and society have plenty of challenges to solve right now. I’m sure we’ll have many unknown, amazing opportunities that creativity will tackle in the future, as it always does. Solving for the urgent here and now, I’d like to see more of that.  This is also what I see in the best, thought-provocative and groundbreaking work in our category. Solving complex commercial challenges and urgent real-world problems with human ingenuity, creativity, data and technology. 

 

Adam> I think the world needs more laughter. It’s the most powerful universal language. It also puts the fun back into the celebrations for agencies around the world to get the opportunity to submit humorous work and participate at Cannes Lions. The more humanity and empathy we celebrate the better. It’s a true art in itself and it’s really hard to do something which is universally funny. I remember my first Gold Lion I won in the mid-nineties was a hilarious commercial we made with the legendary Swedish feature film director Roy Anderson, and it’s still really funny today. Humour is what makes us human and so powerful. We need it. It’s a good thing for a brand not to take itself too seriously. Will it impact the festival or the industry materially? I doubt it. But maybe it’ll inspire a craft comeback for copywriters. Or will ChatGPT 4.0 create next year’s Grand Prix? No joke. 

 

Adam> I know I’ll always leave inspired, a little jealous of all the great ideas and an overall better creative. What I’m most excited about is being locked up in my jury room most of the week. That might sound strange but the discussions we will have together and hanging out with all the brilliant people on my jury is a masterclass of so many things at the same time that you learn so much from. You get to hear many different points of views and fresh perspectives discussing and dissecting our work. It’s such an honour, a privilege, and fun. Also, I’m really looking forward to meeting friends and colleagues I only get to see once a year from all over the world. Lastly, from what I see in my category and our work in the making at Accenture Song, I feel we’re entering the age of a creative renaissance, and I couldn’t be more excited and hopeful for our industry.