Last year, when I left Cannes Lions Health, I wondered when the technology explosion would truly begin to trickle down into the hands of the average patient in the waiting room. I left the 2016 festival feeling the same way.
There is no place more social than Cannes. (Just spend an evening at The Gutter Bar.) And, yet, when it comes to creative ideas using social media, social didn’t really show up on the pharma shortlist this year.
Healthcare promotion strikes me as a cozy little business sometimes, with our webs of contacts and clients, strongly strung in a specialized space. Nowhere did I feel this more than at Cannes, where Lions Health, in its own building at the Palais, gave us a chance to renew friendships and make new contacts easily, fueled by the appropriately sized venue and the gallons of pink wine.
Rich Levy, Chief Creative Officer of FCB Health and jury member of Pharma Lions 2016, offers Five Trends from Lions Health.
More than any other awards program or conference, Lions Health makes me think about the work we do and ask: What is good? What is great? What is, in fact, Lion-worthy? For me, the best part of the festival is the discussion, debate, and even arguments we have with each other, especially about that last point.
It’s tough times on Medicine Avenue. But, by aiming to achieve one simple, straightforward metric, I’d argue we could turn every one of those challenges around. That metric is winning a Cannes Lion.
Recurring themes explored at Lions Health this year included empathy. The term was tossed around in all sorts of contexts – health bias, gaps in care, disease stigma, aging. For the most part, it was centered on better understanding between the health industry and people in health crisis. For me, as a creative leader and armchair strategist, empathy is most powerful in connecting ideas to audiences.
At Cannes, we were fortunate enough to gain exposure to what is arguably the greatest creative output our industry has to offer. Only the most exceptional work makes it to the final rounds of judging at Cannes, where all lucky enough to attend are afforded the opportunity to see some truly great healthcare advertising from across the globe.
Life changing creativity is what the Cannes Lions Festival is all about. It is wonderful to see the health and wellness industry getting engaged in creating and celebrating creativity and innovation on a global stage.
Lions Health. Year three. The first thing I noticed on arriving at the Palais is that there is a new-found permanence to the event. It was bigger and better provided for than in the previous two years. And, although it’s still small when compared to the Festival as a whole, this year Lions Health felt less like a side-show and more like a legitimate extension of the burgeoning Cannes brand itself. So far, so good.