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What are your favorite millennial traits?
Tips on landing entry-level strategy?!
Chief
Rising Star
That Ram Ad??? 🙄
Pros and cons of working on an auto brand?
Mccann creatives - what are the good groups?
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Rising Star
Definitely spend a decent amount of time with the work and the talks. Go for people and subjects where you can learn something. The celebrity talks are often disappointing. You will not become a better ACD by listening to will.I.am.
Don't expect to do everything. Banish your feelings of FOMO. Nobody can schedule everything. Many of the fanciest events are reserved for big spending CMOs.
Pace yourself. It's hot, humid and crowded. Have a glass of water. Perfect the Irish goodbye. Don't be the person who becomes a liability at 3am. If someone else is paying for your flight and your pass, you represent them.
Going out: the spotify party and the Young Dog parties are the best ones.
Build an international network: Contrary to what is being said here, there are a lot of young creatives (and not just C suite). You’ll meet great creatives from all around the world.
But most of all: You’ll see some of the best advertising that’s made this year. Not just good ol’ American advertising (comedy 30s tvcs), but great thinking from different cultures. Open your mind, get inspired, get jealous and frustrated, take all that motivation home and you’ll come back next year to pick up a gold lion. That’s what Cannes Lions is.
I second the comment about younger creatives. I exchanged Instagrams with dozens of incredibly interesting and fun people while I was there. I’ve even stayed in touch with many, and I’ve even met back up with a few. Not only are they much more accessible, these are the people who will give you the real insights about their agencies (while still having the power to enthusiastically refer you).
The talks and the work in the pallais. Don’t spend all night in the gutter bar or at parties if you won’t get up to see the reasons people wait their whole careers to go.
Dive into the work, network the heck out of every event. Try to experience some things you’d never normally do
Go to The Carlton. Have a couple of drinks—enough to work up courage but not too much to get sloppy. Approach the people you recognize; all the big wigs will be there or the Martinez throughout the week. Say a quick hello and hope it turns into a slightly less quick hello. It’s incredible how often telling a recruiter “oh yeah I met them at Cannes,” changes the course of a conversation.
Get on every list possible. Ask people what parties they’re attending. Yes, there’s a lot of amazing work to admire. You should. But you just might have dinner at Hotel du Cap, for free. And personally, that’s not an opportunity that comes up often enough for me to pass up.
If you’re there and you win something—anything—celebrate. Take the rose glasses and the dozens of pictures. We’re never guaranteed a return trip. So don’t be afraid to do it up big—especially if it’s not on your dime.
The food. And if you win, hang the Lion(s) from a chain around your neck and take them wherever you go…but be casual about it.