Lions Daily News 2024: Sunday 16 june

LIONS DAILY NEWS CANNES LIONS

Creativity,

algorithms

and

‘eye-popping innovation’:

Lions Nº71 gets under way

AS THE curtain rises on the 71st edition of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, delegates can look forward to a spell-binding conference line-up. Industry leaders, social visionaries and A-list talent will share insights on everything from AI and the environment to the nitty gritty of client-agency relations and data-driven creativity. The speaker line-up has never been more diverse and inclusive and as ever includes a strong line-up of big names. Queen Latifah, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are jetting into Cannes, along with

a line-up of US football stars with NFL EVP Tim Ellis. Directors Agnieszka Holland and Romaine Reid; Poor Things production designer James Price; actor, writer, producer and director Sharon Horgan; and Hacks co-creator and Golden Globe winner Lucia Aniello, alongside the combined talent of agencies the world over, will ensure Cannes is the creative epicentre of the universe for the Festival’s duration.

Commenting on this year’s line-up, Natasha Woodwal, director of content, Lions, said: “Our open call for con-

tent gives us unparalleled insight into what matters most to the industry right now, and we’ve used this to design a programme filled with a diversity of voices offering different perspectives of global challenges. Speakers include creatives, monks, comedians, artists, filmmakers, scientists, economists, trend forecasters and Paralympians — it’s reflective of the multifaceted world of creativity.”

The conference comprises 150 hours of content, with around 500 speakers. It is divided up into five streams to help signpost delegates

towards their own particular passion points. These include Trends and Insights, where Tejal Vishalpura, SVP, commercial strategy and marketing, Novo Nordisk and Queen Latifah will address how creativity and community are changing the way the world thinks about weight. The other streams that make up an action-packed Cannes Lions 2024 schedule are Innovation Unwrapped, The Creativity Toolbox, Talent and Cultures and Creative Impact, in which Guinness and Born Social will share the highs and lows of the brand’s unprecedented growth — achieved by the inversion of its marketing model. Not to be forgotten are the numerous well-established strands that weave their way through the week. These include CMOs in the Spotlight, which

THE CLIMATE CRISIS THROUGH A CREATIVE LENS

ALONGSIDE DEI and AI as the most critical issues facing the industry, Cannes Lions is also turning its attention to the intersection between creativity and the environmental crisis. In an intriguing session entitled Four Climate Supertrends That Will Shape the Future of Creativity, Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, will argue that the creative industry needs new stories and strategies to respond. He will ask — how will climate supercycle trends transform the economy and culture over the next decade? In tandem, he will explore how agencies and brands can ensure they are ready to promote climate solutions and adapt to new social pressures. Climate change is also the theme in What Will the Weather Forecast Be In Cannes in

Shailja Dubé

John Legend

Sharon Horgan

Deepak Chopra

Queen Latifah

James Price

Trevor Robinson

Lucia Aniello

Madison Tevlin

provides a mainline into the thinking of marketing decision-makers from firms including Coca Cola, Mars Wrigley, Lenovo, TikTok, Moderna and General Mills. Other popular tracks are Future Gazers, Secret Speaker and Changemakers. The latter, led by Futura Collective founder and chief creative officer Madonna Badger, spotlights women who champion underrepresented voices and ignite business, cultural or social transformation.

A key part of the Changemakers programme is See It Be It, now in its 10th year. Every year, 16 women and non-binary people are invited to Cannes Lions for a four-day programme — which includes mentorship opportunities and private masterclasses with industry leaders. Since launch, 100 people from 33 countries have been supported.

DEI takes centre stage

DEI is a key pillar of Cannes Lions 2024, and manifests itself through numerous sessions. For an overview of the subject, delegates can attend Impact over Intent: How Can You Drive Authentic Representation? Led by Madeline Di Nonno, president and CEO of The Geena Davis Institute, this session will provide tools and insights on the representation of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, age and body type in the crea-

tive work from the Film and Film Craft Lions categories Other DEI-themed conference highlights include Breaking Barriers, Redefining Disability Representation in Original Content, in which US Paralympian and disability advocate Ezra Frech will talk about the work his organisation Angel City Sports is doing to break the systemic barriers that exist for people with disabilities.

Another DEI-powered session is Creative Brav ery Starts with Culture, which features actor and broadcaster Madison Tev lin alongside TikTok global head of business marketing Sofia Hernandez. Tevlin is a high-profile advocate who strives to shatter the expectations people have towards individuals with Down syndrome. She took the world by storm in Co orDown’s ‘Assume That I Can’ ad in honour of World Down Syndrome Day 2024, which accumulated over 150 million views.

The LGBTQ+ dimension of the DEI debate will be ad dressed in a workshop enti tled Getting a Queer Eye on Your KPIs. Here, Kate Wolff, founder and CEO of Lupine Creative, and co-founder of Do the WeRQ; and Ro Kalonaros, global director, growth and experience, Om nicom, will argue that, in the kaleidoscope of creativity and connection that defines

the LGBTQ+ community, tracking success goes beyond conventional metrics. This session will offer a new approach to measuring the impact of queer initiatives, built around community-led metrics and value.

The danger of playing lip

The climate crisis through a creative lens, cont.

Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

Darren McKoy

Tim Ellis

Ali Hanan

addressing the disruptive capabilities of AI is about its heart. Arguably the biggest topic in business right now, numerous sessions will seek to unlock insights and deliver practical guidance regarding the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) and large-language models (LLMs).

During the Innovation Unwrapped stream, delegates will be able to hear from Vidhya Srinivasan, vice-president and general manager, advertising, Google, and Alexander Chen, director, creative lab, Google. They will demonstrate how engineers and creatives will construct AI to make it more helpful for brands and agencies.

Other sessions that explore the direct impact of AI on the sector include Redefining the Role of The Marketer in the Age of AI — hosted by LinkedIn on the Carlton Rooftop. In this session, LinkedIn’s chief economist will join marketing leaders from Autodesk and SAP to unpack the impact of GenAI on the marketing profession. For delegates seeking a more futuristic view on AI, one intriguing session is Creativity Unleashed: Bridging Minds and Machines. Here NYT best-selling author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra and Pranav Yadav, founder and CEO, Neuro-Insight, will delve into the realms of neuroscience, creativity and AI. Exploring the intricate connection between consciousness and creativity, the session is billed as an opportunity to understand the transition from intelligence to artificial intelligence. While AI is set to have a profound impact on business and society, the jury is out on whether tech innovation is good or bad. One session that explores the

downside of tech advancement is TBWA Disruption Seminar: Saving Creativity from Death by Algorithm. Featuring multi-hyphenate Lucia Aniello, US CEO TBWA\Chiat\Day Erin Riley and author Kyle Chayka, the session will warn delegates against the extinction of creative excellence. In Chayka’s new book, Filterworld, he accuses the algorithms that govern lives today of flattening culture and killing

A trio of top NFL athletes will join NFL chief marketing officer and EVP Tim Ellis

originality and innovation.

A more positive spin on tech is available in From Logic to Magic: Five Ways to Make Tech Resonate, a session hosted by Hyundai Motor Group and featuring Paulus creative director Saffaan Qadir. The session will aim to show how Hyundai leverages cutting-edge innovations such as advanced air mobility, robotics, autonomous driving, nano cooling technology and hydrogen energy to inspire and engage audiences.

A mid-week session, Exploring the New Frontiers of Innovation, sees WPP CEO Mark Read in conversation with Elon Musk as they discuss how AI is re-shaping creativity, business and society — as well as Musk’s social-media platform X.

Creativity in all its guises

As always, the Cannes Lions conference will provide a complete portfolio of craft, processes and techniques to help delegates achieve creative excellence — explained by award-winning

creatives and brands. One highlight is an interactive meet-up session with Trevor Robinson OBE, founder and executive creative director, Quiet Storm, which will analyse the power of humour. In another intriguingly counter-intuitive session, Dentsu Inc. will make the case for abandoning the pursuit of specific goals in the quest for creativity. They will illustrate this with ‘The Tokyo Toilet’ project, which eventually led to the creation of Oscar-nominated film Perfect Days.

Other sessions during the week also advocate the importance of ripping up the rule book in pursuit of genuine creativity. In Death of a Salesman – Reimagining Marketing’s Value, Leonid Sudakov, president of growth, digital and platforms at Mars Petcare, and Najoh Tita-Reid, chief brand and experience officer at Mars Petcare, will argue that marketing profession is at risk of irrelevance unless its reimagines what it stands for. To attract and retain the best creative minds, they will argue that the focus must shift from ‘selling stuff’ to ‘solving needs, with marketing regaining its status as the home for innovators, agitators — and the ‘crazy ones’. One session that explores the politics of creativity is the thought-provoking Can In-house Agencies and Creative Agencies

Ever Play Nice? Led by Jen Speirs, chief creative officer at Droga5 Dublin, and Nic Taylor, SVP and head of agency at The LEGO Group, the session looks at the tensions that can spoil the relationship between these two groups — and explains how Droga5 and LEGO have overcome them. Creativity comes in many forms, but one of the stalwarts of Cannes Lions is the cinema screen — discussed

Erin Riley

Ezra Frech

Steve Huffman

Sara Denby

Ro Kalonaros

Kate Wolff

Kyle Chayka

Tejal Vishalpura

in Master the Art of LongForm Creativity: Lessons from the Big Screen. Supported by SAWA, the Global Cinema Advertising Association, this session will see Oscar-winning filmmaker and producer Asif Kapadia and Serviceplan global chief creative officer Alexander Schill deconstruct their work and share cinematic secrets that will help delegates transform their stories into unforgettable experiences. The session is a reminder that Cannes Lions is fundamentally about the work — and this sentiment is also evident in the Saatchi & Saatchi London’s New Creators’ Showcase. Now in its 34th year, the Showcase provides a global platform for up-and-coming creators, celebrating the very best in creativity, storytelling and visual innovation. Aside from introducing great work, the session explores how the industry can raise the creative bar and learn from working with emerging talent.

For delegates looking to raise the creative bar, they could also do worse than drop in on the AB InBev session Going For Gold. After the brewing giant was named Cannes Lions Marketer of the Year in both 2022 and 2023, AB InBev global chief marketing officer Marcel Marcondes will explain to delegates what it takes to create a culture of sustainable growth and build powerful, effective brands for the long term.

Iconic Brands, Sport, Social Culture and more…

As always the Cannes Lions conference programme is teeming over with ideas and insights from different perspectives. Among the iconic brands hosting sessions is Dr Martens (How Dr Martens Puts the Boot in Culture). Here, Ali Hanan, Creative Equals CEO, and Darren McKoy, Dr Martens global creative director, will explore how the brand lev-

erages innovation, collaboration and sustainability to stay at the forefront of culture.

A trio of top NFL athletes will join NFL chief marketing officer and EVP Tim Ellis in the session The Rapid Evolution of Athletes as Brand Builders. Using a ‘players as partners’ approach to working with athletes, the NFL has been at the forefront of how to successfully create a winwin relationship for both the League and players. But

The inaugural Lions Creators signals a pivotal moment for the marketing industry

JOE GAGLIESE

as the media market evolves, the session will also explore the role of players as creators, with many now producers and business owners in their own right.

This session is just one of several in which social media and the creator economy are put under the microscope. In Navigating a New Era of Social Storytelling in the Age of Backlash, BBC Studios and digital-first talents will explore how to deal with the unprecedented ‘ocean of hate’ that brands and creators can face online. However there are also sessions which explore the profound positive benefits of social.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, for example, will discuss how people turn to online communities like those found on Reddit to solve problems, fuel passions and make informed decisions. In TikTok’s Creative Bravery Starts with Culture, meanwhile, brands will be encouraged to exhibit greater creative courage, cultural

relevance and experimentation. With digital-first communities and creators willing to embrace authentic brand participation, the message is that brands must adopt strategic risk-taking and vulnerability if they are to thrive in the social media sphere.

Lions Creators debuts In response to the increasingly entwined nature of Cannes Lions and the creator economy, this year sees the launch of Lions Creators. A new experience taking place during the week of Cannes Lions, this dedicated forum will include a curated mix of exclusive learning and networking experiences for creators and those working in the wider creator economy. Activities include a series of Lions Exchange Roundtables, filmed in front of a live audience of Lions Creators delegates.

Speaking about the initiative, Thea Skelton, VP of Events, Lions, said: “Creators are an increasingly important part of the marketing mix, and their presence at Cannes Lions has been steadily growing for many years. Lions Creators has been established in collaboration with creators from around the world who all see the value in convening, doing business and learning from each other at the International Festival of Creativity.”

For Lions Creators’ first year, Cannes Lions has partnered with Viral Nation, a leader in social-first transformation. “Embracing the power of creators, the inaugural Lions Creators signals a pivotal moment for the marketing industry,” said Joe Gagliese, co-CEO and co-founder of Viral Nation. “By collaborating with Cannes Lions, we are not only amplifying the voices of creators but also solidifying influencer marketing’s position as a cornerstone of social-first transformation, globally. We are excited to help steward a new era of brand collaboration.”

Riding the rollercoaster

Argentine creatives never cease to amaze — and not just because of their award-winning work, which dominated last year’s Cannes Lions, but also because of their resilience in the face of a rollercoaster economy that has plunged to new lows in recent months. So will they amaze us again in 2024? Majo Acosta and Marta González Muguruza , directors of the communication, marketing and advertising magazine Reporte, think there’s a very good chance

‘Love is a Roller Coaster’, from the Parque de la Costa campaign

THE NIGHT of June 23, 2023 was an historic one for Argentine advertising: for the first time, a local agency, GUT Buenos Aires, was named both Independent Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the advertising industry’s World Cup. There were also three Grands Prix and 39 Lions for Argentina — a performance that, after almost 20 years, put our country firmly back on the podium. But the months that followed were to be a trial by fire for Argentina’s advertising industry and its creativity. We have, in these same pages, described our economy’s vicissitudes, which never cease to surprise the world. Two bits of data illustrate the current economic situation: since the last Cannes Lions, Argentina’s inflation has risen 300% and the government-set dollar rate has soared from 251 Argentine pesos to slightly above 920. This economic tsunami is being felt in households across Argentina.

In the country of steaks, beef consumption has plummeted 18% in the last month. And in the first quarter of 2024, Argentines’ purchasing power fell 24%. It could be the preface to a horror story, but it’s the instability with which we have learned to coexist. December 2023 coincided with a change of government in Argentina: Javier Milei took office as the country’s president. Very mediasavvy, Milei is a fan of the social networks, particularly X, his preferred platform for amplifying his message. In his first months in power, Milei has instigated a sharp swerve in Argentina’s economic course — a ferocious belt-tightening, illustrated by the image of a chainsaw to signal his intention to cut down the size of the state. His style has generated headlines around the world, helped by the eccentric Elon Musk, who trumpeted on X that he would now recommend “investing in Argentina”. This financial advice from the world’s second wealthiest man went public

“It could be the preface to a horror story, but it’s the instability with which we have learned to coexist”

minutes after he had met the new Argentine president for the second time in barely a month.

So what about advertising?

The latest survey of Argentina’s advertising sector describes an ecosystem of around 2,500 firms, employing a workforce of almost 26,000. Advertising activity accounts for 0.93% of the country’s GDP — a figure that indicates much larger potential. Seven out of every 10 agencies are independent. Together, Argentine agencies export creativity and services to the tune of $200m a year. This international positioning

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argentina

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“Argentine advertising is going through a grittedteeth moment...but despite everything, our country is betting on doing well at this year’s Festival”

is seen as vital for containing homegrown talent and avoiding a brain drain to other markets that are more competitive salary-wise. When asked about the current state of Argentina’s advertising industry, Diego Medvedocky, regional director of Grey Latam, president of the Argentine Creative Circle and a 2024 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Lions juror, put it this way: “In an article last year, I said that, in my view, 2024 would be a dystopian year — and it is. We are undergoing a moment of change and stress. On one hand, people can’t make ends meet; on the other, it seems that inflation is beginning to drop. But even if it is, nobody is managing to get by. Clients haven’t the money necessary to invest, but they do want to communicate. We face many obstacles, [notably in terms of] local talent, which is very

good but has begun to emigrate or seek work abroad. I would love to see local industry and brands being able to carry out that work that caused Argentine advertising to shine, not only ‘from here outwards’ but also ‘from here, for here’.”

Undoubtedly, Argentine advertising is going through a gritted-teeth moment; a time of effort, of sacrifices, of cutbacks. It is sending out messages — in capital letters — in a bid to stand out in an era of recession and ‘infoxication’, or information overload. But despite everything, our country is betting on doing well at this year’s Festival and is in Cannes with a strong line-up of jurors, entries and delegates, all fired with enthusiasm by the momentum achieved in 2023. The last football World Cup continues to feed our creativity and is reflected in Argentina’s entries at this year’s Cannes Lions. One of Argentine energy company YPF’s most memorable spots, ‘Lionel walks the Line’ is in contention this year in Cannes. Who doesn’t dream of thanking Lionel Messi for all the joy he has given us? A year after the world championship, the ISLA agency spot, filmed by Fran Colombatti of Landia at various locations across Argentina, pays homage to Messi, not only for

bringing home the Cup, but also for bringing together his country. Also tapping into the World Cup’s legacy, Adidas brought a surprise to the streets with an interactive ad in which Argentine goalie Dibu Martínez’s unbelievable save of Kolo Muani’s last-ditch attempt in the final against France takes on the shape of a star. The ad, which quickly went viral, emerged from the Mercado McCann creative mill (from its soccer-loving division Futlove), which is also responsible for another entry that is competing in Cannes: ‘Hotel La Argentina’, a hilarious short that tells the story of how a hotel in the coastal resort of San Bernardo is improved to qualify for a third star — because, if your name is ‘Argentina’, you can’t possibly only have two stars! The agency, along with its client, the TyC Sports channel, upgraded the hotel to raise it to the next category by installing air conditioners, new TV sets and other up-market features. One of the year’s best-remembered campaigns was ‘Our Patagonia’, developed by draftLine Buenos Aires, AB’s inhouse agency, for the Patagonia beer brand. Patagonia is the region that includes the Malvinas (aka the Falkland Islands). On last year’s April 2 — the day on which Argentina marks the Day of the Veterans and of the Fallen in

The ISLA agency spot, filmed by Fran Colombatti of Landia, that pays homage to Lionel Messi

the Malvinas War — the company launched a limited-edition beer named Our Patagonia. It was a collaborative work with war veterans, who shared their actual stories, which were then turned into illustrated audiovisual content and incorporated into the beer pack. The campaign forms part of a cause that the brewery has adopted as its own — Malvinization — which maintains that the Malvinas are part of ‘our’ Patagonia.

From cyber-safety to humour

With the explosion of generative AI and the proliferation of tools that employ AI, we are all asking ourselves how the use of artificial intelligence will impinge on advertising’s creative output — and how much of this we’ll see at this year’s Cannes Lions.

The local office of Publicis made creative use of AI in its campaign ‘0.0 Prohibition’ for Heineken’s zero-alcohol beer 0.0. During voting in Argentina’s presidential elections, electoral rules ban the sale of alcoholic beverages for a period of 24 hours. Publicis thought up a commerce platform that used

Google AI-tech beer ads during the 24-hour ban and turned them into coupons for a free Heineken 0.0.

Meanwhile, GUT and its client Sprite entered the gamer world with ‘AntiBan-Ad’, which prevents players from being banned from gaming platforms if they resort to insults.

‘AntiBan-Ad’ is a user-friendly plugin that uses AI to detect when a gamer begins to show signs of anger or frustration and activates a Sprite ad over the stream. This not only alerts the platform to the gamer’s emotional state but also silences the audio to avoid inappropriate words being transmitted.

Argentina, unfortunately, has been the victim of many of the biggest cyberattacks in the Latin American region — a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the people at The Juju. To promote the launch of the new Netflix movie Leave The World Behind, simulated anticyberattack shelters were placed in parks, mirroring a concept from the movie. The twist is that the shelters contained all Netflix’s content stored on DVDs.

To call attention to cybersecurity, the HSBC Argentina bank and

its agency, David Buenos Aires, decided to shift the focus from serious to humorous in a piece of work that entertains while educating users about the most common cybercrime methods and how to avoid them. The film gives the impression that we are witnessing a typical scene of a lawyer reading a will to a room of relatives. However, as soon as the lawyer starts to read the document, we realise that this is not a regular distribution of assets but the voluntary handing over of personal and financial information to a room full of cybercriminals. This year, humour is at the heart of several Argentine entries — which is logical. Humour has always helped us cope with instability and adversity, and it’s also a welcome change after several years in which advertising had become increasingly solemn. This year, every-day humour is at the heart of two campaigns from Don: Easy retail chain’s ‘Quirks’ campaign and Telecom’s ‘Flow’ spot, which asks what happens when a football fan lives in the same neighbourhood as their traditional rival.

Adidas’ interactive ad featuring Argentine goalie Dibu Martínez’s unbelievable save of Kolo Muani’s strike

“Women are still presented as experts in housekeeping, personal care and food, while men are shown as experts in business and leisure”

Publicis made creative use of AI in its campaign

‘0.0 Prohibition’ for Heineken’s zero-alcohol beer 0.0

Light-heartedness is also central to the unexpected device chosen by Niña to communicate the relaunch of the Parque de la Costa amusement park. In ‘Love is a Roller Coaster’, a couple exchange vows at the top of the park’s emblematic roller coaster, Boomerang.

Raising awareness

In a world in which identity theft, grooming and cyberbullying are ever-mounting threats, the Movistar telecommunications company and its agency, VML Argentina, designed a new campaign to include sharenting (when parents share images of their children on the social networks) on the list of risks posed by the internet. But they did it in a unique way: ‘Sharenting, the Musical’ took the form of a school play in which children educate their families about best practice for protecting their identities online. VML made the script and resources available to enable the play to be replicated at other schools, thus helping the subject to be placed on the public agenda. The campaign is competing in this year’s Titanium category. The theatre was the setting for another social-impact campaign entitled ‘Let’s Change the Story’. During breast-cancer awareness month, the Buenos Aires theatre community joined forces with the Argentine cancer-awareness league LALCEC and Grey Argentina to share a powerful message: that cancer can be part of anybody’s story but that a check-up, carried out at

the right time, can help to change the ending. To drive this message home, more than 30 theatre productions modified their scripts and adapted their storylines to highlight the importance of prevention. And talking about the theatre’s contribution to positive change, mention should be made of the Beunos Aires company that performed the critically acclaimed musical Dear Evan Hansen, which tells the story of a misunderstood boy suffering from anxiety disorders. When calling for auditions, the producers decided to stay true to the play’s message and make sure that every candidate felt seen and valued. To achieve this, they produced a musical based on the auditions for role of Evan, in which each scene was played one of the eight actors who auditioned for the part. The action, developed with GUT and carried out in partnership with the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, was commended by the National Congress of Argentina for its contribution to mental health in young people. Several months ago, Unstereotype Alliance, a UN Women-convened global initiative to eradicate harmful stereotypes in advertising, submitted its analysis of Argentine advertising productions. The study showed that nine out of every 10 pieces of work still include stereotyped gender roles and that very few contribute to building a different narrative. Women are still presented as experts in housekeeping, personal care and food, while men are shown as experts in business and leisure. These findings captured the attention of home-appliance company ATMA which, together with the Anita & Vega agency, presented ‘Womanuals’. This saw the Frequently Asked Questions section of ATMA’s user manuals modified to include the problem that is the most frequent of all but that is totally ignored — gender inequality. The campaign thus sought to give visibility to a situation that creates inequality and reinforces harmful stereotypes.

As the above demonstrate, Argentina’s economic troubles have not dented its ability to churn out great work worthy of inclusion in the Cannes Lions, the global advertising industry’s most important display window. Whether it will repeat its winning performance of last year remains to be seen.

Dear Evan Hansen producer Pablo del Campo with the eight actors who each play the role

Teaming brands with games

As with companies everywhere, Brazilian brands are keen to engage with the gaming sector, which continues to be the fastest growing segment of the global media industry. But forging new connections between gamers and brands is a specialist business, according to Paulo Macedo , editor and reporter at Propmark — which is why Brazilian brands are increasingly turning to specialist agencies

ADVERTISING in the gaming environment is nothing new. But it is on the rise and brands are increasingly entrusting their strategies to agencies specialising in the sector. In Brazil, it is no different. Claudio Lima, former vicepresident of creative at Ogilvy Brasil, is one of the advertising professionals behind Druid Creative Gaming, which is already working for brands including Samsung, EstrelaBet, Sanofi, O Boticário, Fortnite, Tupi and Banco Itaú. It is estimated that the global games market’s annual revenues could reach $212.4bn by 2026. In Brazil, the share of this pie is already robust: $2.3bn. Advertising is receiving at least 10% of this figure — and it’s growing. After all, this is an audience that stays connected to the screens of their devices for at least seven hours a week. They

are also mainly Gen Z consumers from higher income households. Advertising in games such as Fortnite, GTA, F1, Call Of Duty, Minecraft, League Of Legends and CrossFire requires subtlety. It is not distributed via the same traditional channels. The content needs to be supported by specialist context, language and synergy. The energy company Tupi

hired Druid to promote its ‘Grand Electric Auto’ action in partnership with dozens of streamers. The goal was to forge a closer connection with this demographic through games.

“Brazil is a country where electric mobility is beginning,” Lima says. “To further popularise this technology with young audiences, games make perfect sense, because every gamer

Electric mobility is the theme of the Tupi energy company campaign

already drives electric in their favourite games. Furthermore, the gaming public is one of the most adaptable audiences for new technologies, so it makes perfect sense for a company like Tupi to popularise electric mobility in partnership with the main streamers and games on the market.”

WT.AG, owned by CEO Lucas Feltes, is planning to launch an agency focused on games, which will train professionals for this market. “From e-commerce to performance, from digital channels to streaming, from branding to design, everything can contribute to brand building. The game is no exception,” he said in a recent lecture on the importance of not disregarding new forms of communication.

Abragames, the Brazilian Game Developers Association, is heading to this year’s gamescom latam in São Paulo Expo later this month with an extensive programme of panels aimed at industry professionals. One of the participants is David Alpert, CEO and co-founder of Skybound Entertainment, who will share his vision on the rise of videogame culture. Skybound, known for its global franchises including The Walking Dead and Invincible, is a market leader in the creation of universes that become popculture phenomena. Alpert will also discuss the significant impact of games on popular culture and explore the promising future of this intersection between games and other forms of media.

“Our purpose is to connect brands to games,” says Bruna Pastorini, partner and chief strategy officer at Druid Creative Gaming. “We create strategies and activations that help brands achieve their business and branding objectives across the entire ecosystem, from positioning the brand in the game to recommending which assets to embrace and how. The game is an extremely rich ecosystem and allows for the creation of different tailor-made strategies for brands in different categories according to each objective.”

Pastorini adds: “Experience has shown, in practice, the potential of this market that caught our attention and motivated Druid to be born. In just three years, we have launched a gaming bank for Itaú and a fragrance inspired by the smell and moment of victory with Egeo Booyah and O Boticário, We have also done projects for major global publishers, including Epic Games and Blizzard, and worked with non-endemic brands from numerous categories that want to enter the games market. Brazilians are extremely passionate about games and that makes Brazil relevant on the global gaming scene.”

“The game is an extremely rich ecosystem and allows for the creation of different tailor-made strategies for brands”

BRAZIL BY NUMBERS

• Active players: approximately 74.5% of Brazilians play electronic games across all platforms (Game Brasil Survey (PGB), 2023)

• Market growth: the gaming market in Brazil generated around $2.3bn in revenue in 2022, rendering it one of the largest gaming markets in Latin America

• Engagement: Brazil ranks third in the world in terms of hours spent playing electronic games, behind only the US and China

• Screen time: Brazilians spend an average of seven hours a week on screens

Druid Creative Gaming’s Bruna Pastorini

WT.AG’s Lucas Feltes

Bruna Pastorini

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