Flywheel's Phil Camarota - Running a Jury at Cannes Lions

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Phil Camarata. I'm Chief Creative Officer at Flywheel, and you're watching the CPG Guys Podcast.

PVSB 0:08

Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast, set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Shri Raja Goplin and Peter V. S. Bond, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now here are the CPG guys. Hello and welcome again to the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm your co-host, PVSB, who also moonlights as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the Commerce Acceleration Division of Omnicom. My co-host, he's the co-founder of Think Blue Consulting, father of Pop Stars Rhea Raj and Catsiz Lara Raj, their fans, of course, call him Papa Raj. But to me, he's my BFF Shri. Shri is actually on vacation in an undisclosed location with his family. Can't join us for today's conversation. We hope he is enjoying some quiet time, but knowing the Raj family as well as I do, I doubt it's quiet. To our audience, if you are getting value from these conversations, we have three very simple, tiny little asks, right? First, subscribe to the CBG guys on whatever platform you're listening on right now. That's Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, anywhere else you get your podcast. Hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. Second, leave us a rating. It only takes a couple of seconds, and it makes an enormous difference in helping other CBG and retail media professionals find us. We've built this community one listener at a time, and a five-star rating is the single best way you can help us keep growing it. Smash the five. It's not four for fighting, it's not four guys. It's five for fighting. And if you want really good burgers and fives, you go to five guys. So give us a five. Third, follow us on LinkedIn. Between episodes, we publish a lot of thought leadership, industry analysis, and content you're just not going to find anywhere else. All built for the CBG and retail communities you're already a part of. So search CBG guys on LinkedIn and hit follow or click the link in the digital show notes of this episode. Subscribe, rate, follow. Three simple actions that help us bring you more of the conversations that matter. Now on to our guest. Phil Camarada is the chief creative officer at Flywheel. Where is that? That name is familiar. Oh, that's right. I can make it Flywheel. Where he leads creative strategy across Total Commerce landscape, bringing together brand storytelling and retail performance for clients like ATT, PepsiCo, S. C. Johnson Hershey, and Lego. My daughter is in the middle of building the Hogwarts Castle Lego uh uh device. And I gotta tell you, it's enormous. It's got like hundreds and hundreds of steps. It's got 30 bags, and she is methodically going through. And my friend Jeff just posted a picture of his son who bought the Millennium Falcon with his first paycheck from his summer job. And I thought, my God, what a great investment. Uh, buy some Lego. But anyhow, over the last two decades in the industry, Phil has built a reputation for turning retail data and shopper insights into award-winning creative, earning recognition from the Effie Awards and Can Lyons, among others. Speaking of which, this year, that expertise earned him one of the industry's most prestigious honors. Phil served as president of the Creative Commerce jury at the Can Lions International Festival of Creativity, the global stage recognizing the best work bridging creative and commerce. It is a fitting perch for someone whose whole career thesis is that no shopper barrier is too tough for creativity to crack. Today's episode will explore a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a jury at Can Lions. Please join me in welcoming Phil to the podcast. Hey Phil, how are you doing? Hi, Peter. Thanks for having me. Now here we are remote. We were talking before the episode. You're literally in the next town over from me in Connecticut on the coast. As I like to be 10 minutes away. So some people call it Long Island. I call it the Gulf of Connecticut. But um, before we get to our conversation, Phil, why don't you uh let our audience know a little bit about what your role is at Flywheel?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Sure. So I oversee all the creative output across our Flywheel clients. Um I work with my creative teams and our strategists and our media planners and many others to just elevate the quality, the efficiency, and the effectiveness of our work uh while aspiring to create a total commerce experience for shoppers.

PVSB 4:43

Brilliant. Thank you for that. And the digital line of this episode, we're going to include links to Phil's LinkedIn profile on the Flywheel Company website so our audience can multitask as they are often liking to do as we go on with this conversation. So, all right, I'm really excited about this episode, Phil, because I go to Can and I'm focused on probably the the what has become now equal to the creative side of things. I've been focused more on the kind of commerce kind of things. And I haven't really understood kind of the inner workings of what Can Lyons is all about from a creative recognition standpoint. So that's what we're going to dig into today. So let's let's start a very high level. I'd love for you to walk our audience through what it actually means to be jury president, how much of it is scoring work versus managing, you know, hurting stray cats, right? A room full of strong personalities with different creative instincts. What's it what's kind of like what's a day in the life, I guess?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Sure. So um, you know, first I just wanted to spell the rumor. I think people here can, and I think sometimes people think boondoggle, right? You're going to the south of France, and you know, there's a lot of attractive things there. And that is all true. Um, but the the jury president and and the jury and just a lot of the Lions content providers, like it is a lot of work. Um, and the work starts before you get there. Um, so for the Creative Commerce category, um, our judging started about six weeks before the festival even began. Um, and there was sort of two phases. One where you're looking at a kind of snippet, if you will, of all of the entries and doing like an initial pass that's done on an individual basis uh virtually. So you're not working as a jury, you're actually not supposed to be talking. Uh, you're supposed to be applying kind of your expertise and your perspective to the work. Um, so there's about like six weeks between those two rounds. Um, and among that, you're also like establishing criteria to try and help the jury, you know, have a similar lens to kind of view things. Um, so that's definitely a lot. And then once you actually get two can, um, from a president's perspective, a lot of it is orchestrating the judging process. Each category is different. Creative Commerce, we did two full days in the jury room. Uh, and when I say full days, I mean full days. Like, you know, you're talking about, you know, 8 a.m. to, you know, 10 p.m., you know, midnight. It can get late depending on the category, the amount of entries, the debate. Um, so you, you know, you have that. Uh, you also, as jury president, need to be encouraging debate, but also diffusing arguments and and keeping the progress going, right? We we have a very finite amount of time to make these decisions. Um, so while we want to go through all the work very thoroughly, um, we we do have an award show in our case on Thursday where we need to hand out some awards, so we need to make some decisions. Um a big part of that is making sure that all the voices in the room are are valued and heard. So a jury has 10 uh members, including the president. Uh the president is mostly the facilitator. Um, you know, I got to have an opinion in the room, but a huge part of it is um, you know, helping to pull out the other opinions and perspectives and viewpoints. Um, so that's a big part. And then last but not least, as president, you become the representative of your category for the week. So you're doing press conferences, you're doing the award show, uh, you're doing panels, and you're really representing, in my case, what creative commerce is all about in 2026.

PVSB 8:53

Okay, there is so much to unpack there, Phil, and that fortunately we have a long-form conversation where we're able to do that. So obviously, I'm one thing I will say is I'm not going to try and convince anyone listening to this podcast that going to Cannes for a week is anything more than a first world problem. Yeah, it's a pain in the butt to get there. It's very expensive when you're there. It is brutally hot and humid. At least the last couple of years I've been there. Uh, I haven't had a moment to really uh actually, I will say this. The Friday this year was the first time in my four years that I've actually had a day to walk around and actually experience what can was like. So that was very nice. But it is, it is very much about work there, uh, at least for people who are what I would uh classify us as, which are uh service providers in the ecosystem, right? Um maybe it's a little bit better for some of the brand people, but I know for us in particular, it's a lot of work. But anyhow, all right. So creative commerce is a relatively young category. As I kind of mentioned, the traditional awards for creativity, if you walk the croisette now, you see it is populated with businesses that are more focused on the commerce side of things. You see the big tents for um all the retail media networks and a lot of the ecosystem providers in that space, right? So commerce is now, I would argue, no longer just an undertone of the event. It is gaining equal status, uh, which is probably why Cannes feels so much more crowded every year, because I know there, there it's a town of 69,000 people and 40,000 people come in for this event this year. That is just mind-blowing. I they're gonna have to do some major infrastructure updates on that town because I don't know how much bigger, how much bigger we can get. But as I mentioned, Creative Commerce is a relatively young category compared to film or print. Um, how did that shape how you approach defining what great looks like?

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Yeah, I mean, that's something that we talked a lot about. Um it's what made it kind of an exciting challenge, was because it is such a young category that is still being defined. And we had the ability to, you know, shape that history and the future of the category. And Peter, just going back on what you were just mentioning about I think commerce becoming increasingly important within Can itself, um, that's something that that has come up a lot with the Lion staff that I spoke with. Um, they don't want creativity for creativity's sake. They want the festival to be about effective creativity. And they really they're really pushing all of the categories, not just creative commerce, to put a focus on highlighting creativity as a business driver. So for people like you and me, I think that that's music to our ears, right? Like that is what we are all about. So to see that gaining such momentum at the festival is is really inspiring and it makes me happy as somebody who has dedicated his career to commerce creativity. Um, so for all those reasons, you know, it was an honor to help shape this young category. And that's why we were so diligent, you know, with coming up with criteria that really helped us lock in on what great creative commerce looks like.

PVSB 12:30

Yeah, I think about the roots of Flywheel being in Amazon and mid to lower funnel activation, which was very closed loop, very direct, and very measurable. And so can Lions trying to get all of the categories to think beyond that was a really cool looking ad to did it actually build business for the brand that that was promoting it. I think that is music, as you said, music to our ears. Um that's really great. Absolutely. You you've talked about expecting uh AI tension going into this year's judging. Um I remember thinking last year as as um as we were getting ready for CAN, there was there was a belief that there would be at least one winner where the entire creative was AI generated. And I and I don't know if that's necessarily what people were thinking going into this year with just so much talk about uh particularly the Gen Alpha and their uh authenticity on on content. So that maybe it's maybe there's a little bit more tension. Where did that show up in the room? And how did you help the jury navigate uh concerns around AI in the creative process?

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah, so AI was, of course, top of mind for everyone still. I think last year is when it really exploded on the scene, but this year was the first year where I think consumers have become so much more familiar with it. So it was expected to see a lot more applications. And at the festival overall, I think what we saw was a kind of pendulum swing back in the other direction, uh, where AI was so forward last year. We saw a little bit of a kind of recoil and reaction to that. And I think to your point, authenticity is what was really highlighted across the festival. Um, you saw brands and people really clamoring for authenticity, trying to define what authenticity really is in today's world. And that definitely permeated the creative commerce category. Um one argument that we had in uh in great depth was around the implementing of AI into the shopper experience. And there were different perspectives in the room on is AI an innovative solution, you know, implementing it in the shopping experience, or is it simply an inevitable one? I think people feel like at this point it is inevitable. It is expected. Of course, we should be adding this layer, you know, to the overall experience. And then some people felt like because it is an expected step, that means it's it's not creative, right? It's it's not new, which is sort of crazy to me, uh, to be honest, because I think it is extremely innovative, because it is hard for most people right now to point to who are the leaders in that space, who is incorporating AI very organically and naturally into the shopping experience. And I think it's hard to point to the people who are leading the way. And as the Creative Commerce jury, I thought it was our duty to highlight sort of the AI standard bearers, you know, in the commerce space. And uh ultimately we ended up awarding a few different cases that applied uh AI in in various different ways. And that's something, you know, I think for years, you know, years away from now, I'm gonna be looking back on it and be very proud uh, you know, that we were able to recognize that and and award that this year.

PVSB 16:36

Uh two things. One, whenever anyone uses the term inevitable, I'm thrown back to the Avengers movies, notably with Thanos. Like, I am inevitable, and I just want to say no, I am Iron Man. But that aside, uh, you know, we talk about the authenticity uh as an aside, uh Shree and I are are heading up to Ithaca for the Cornell like Zach Ed program on omnicommerce leadership. And before we go, we're heading to Cooperstown. Sri's never been to the Hall of Fame. He's a big Yankees fan, so I'm taking him up there. I went on to Gemini and just created a little cartoon showing the CPG guys standing in front of the Hall of Fame. And then I put it on Instagram and I did a collab with him and with the CPG guys. Well, Shree's got all these fans, hundreds of thousands of fans that follow his daughters that follow him. The minute they saw what was clearly an AI-generated cartoon, they just started piling on almost like virtue signaling and shaming him. How could the parents of pop stars use AI to generate an image? And, you know, I don't really appreciate it as much, but I what I do have to respect is that that is how consumers are reacting to it. So that authenticity element, it's serious. And if you're a if you're a marketer and you're not taking that into account, you're doing such a disservice to the brands that are trusting you with this creative.

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Yeah. And Peter, if you don't mind, I would I'd love to just talk on that a little bit. Um, because I I I find it fascinating. You use the term virtue signaling, which I I haven't heard, but I I love that. And I'll steal that if you allow me. By all means. Because I do think that there is a bit of virtue signaling because the way that people react to the idea of AI versus the work that is created by it is different. And the other day I was just reviewing some posts from a uh gentleman who created some uh imagery around like tennis and and Wimbledon, and the photography was was beautiful. And then you read the comments, and people are like, I was so excited by this and I found it so inspiring until I found out it was AI. And to me, we need to decouple those things, you know, especially creativity. Like, we've always used things to kind of manufacture a truth in some ways. I mean, what is the difference between photoshopping an image and generating an image in AI? I feel like there came a point where photoshopping something became socially acceptable and and it didn't bother people when they encountered that work in the real world and there even became an appreciation for it. And I feel like the same thing is going to happen with AI, but there are obviously larger uh existential threats that people are considering when they when they talk about AI. So it might take a little bit longer, but I think we'll get there eventually.

PVSB 19:43

I I hope so. Like just this morning I got up early. I was creating little uh social media images for all the attendees of this program. And I would just go onto LinkedIn and I'd grab their their headshot. And in one case, I grabbed one where the actual headshot had been cropped into a circle. And so, you know what? I just went into Gemini and said, Hey, can you take this headshot? It wasn't very sharp, sharpen it and and extrapolate what would have been cropped out so that I can use it for my thing. And it did a really nice job. And it, you know, this this isn't, I'm not trying to fool anyone. I'm trying to give it to the person who's coming to the to the to the show, uh, pardon me, to the to the program, for them to be able to promote the fact that they're going to it. And and it's like, is that, you know, you this whole concept of virtue signaling and the sensitivity towards that. Uh I understand if I'm trying to enrage or convince people to do something that they wouldn't normally do, but you know, that there's there's such a there's such a line that we're all trying to find. And it's it's a it's a line that's always moving, I would argue. But back to back to our questions. Um with jurors coming from Singapore to South America to Europe, I'd love to understand how you uh, and I was just this morning, I I got up at 4 a.m. to watch the um the H1 review in for Flywheel in the European market, and they were talking about cultures and how you deal with different cultures and how they perceive different things. My question to you is how do you reconcile genuinely different regional definitions of great commerce creativity into one grand prix for this commerce creative award?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

It took a lot of work, honestly. I mean, you're talking about people from different regions, different backgrounds, language barriers, you know, are definitely a thing. Um we had jurors from yeah, UK, you know, New Zealand, Singapore, Colombia, Taiwan, Romania, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Vietnam. I think that that is everyone. And it was an amazing group. I was so lucky to have the group that I did. They came together, you know, as one team and were extremely respectful of each other and and and wanting to understand different perspectives. It's also helpful to have people with different backgrounds in the room when you're reviewing a work from different markets. So many times, you know, one juror would kind of have to step up and help explain a case, you know, for the larger jury because there was context that we just, you know, didn't understand. Um, but a lot can still get lost in translation. Um, so it's something that we had to continuously sort of of work at. But the Grand Prix, honestly, was quite easy. Um that work, uh, which was Lucky Fan Index, it rose to the top just round after round after round. And I think what was really interesting about that case is it was around uh football, or as Americans say, soccer. And what we saw at Cannes as a whole was sport, like really um kind of popping up in every single category. And I think that that's because sport has a way of kind of breaking down those cultural barriers and it provides a common cut uh touchstone, you know, for for people. So maybe that's why it's so easy for all of these different audiences and people to gravitate, you know, towards these sport-related uh concepts, um, because they were definitely winning more than their fair share at CAN this year.

PVSB 23:52

Uh to the, by the way, the the focus on sports, as evidenced by the hot one of the hottest tickets next to the Spotify late night concert was probably getting onto the sports beach. Uh, I've been denied four years in a row, even though I've applied for it. But I don't know. I think the CPG guys are getting so big. We're they're gonna be wanting to come to our residence next year. And I'm gonna That's the attitude. Everyone at Stagwell, forget it. You're you're out next year. The CPG guys was the hottest ticket this year. And I'm sorry you're you're your time is your time has passed. But in any event, I would love to know were there moments when you personally had a very strong point of view on a piece of work, but you kind of had to, you know, you're not the arbiter of taste, and you kind of had to step back and let the jury, the jury's will kind of uh kind of uh take take center stage? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Uh you know, I think when you reach, you know, a level like Chief Creative Officer that that I've been lucky enough to reach, you have to have a strong point of view. That's just part of the job. So to be able to, or or have to rather kind of pull back on that was was challenging at times. And I really tried to be Switzerland, and I don't know if I was successful every single time. Um, there were a few cases that were highly creative. And again, the creative in me loved them and appreciated them. But in my opinion, they they weren't actually commerce. So I had a real struggle where I just felt like we couldn't recognize this work in this category because it doesn't meet, you know, our our definition and our criteria. So there were definitely some spirited debates. Um, at one juncture, I was very proud because things were getting, you know, heated a little, you know, a little bit. Like I said, everybody was friends and everybody was great, but there's a lot of passion. And uh one of the jurors just pulled us back to, you know, the the category criteria and had us go kind of case by case, point by point, and just help kind of re-ground us in in why we were there. So very proud moment as a as a president when you know other jurors in the room are kind of helping to facilitate uh you know all those different uh conversations and and points of view. So that was that was really great.

PVSB 26:21

Is there a mechanism? So you I love that you mentioned there were some submissions that you really made the determine they weren't about commerce. Is there a mechanism to get that back to the submitting entities to say, guys, we really like this, but this really didn't fit the criteria? Because I know from our side, you you want to nominate as many of your campaigns as possible because you want to walk away with a lot of lions. But if it doesn't really fit, how do you tell the people that submitted, guys, really great campaign probably belonged in another category, didn't belong here? What is what's the way you do that?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

So that was a literal question that we asked in the room because there were cases that we just we loved and we felt like they should win, but not in our category. And the Lions process is very thorough and and um they they have um people in the room that help us with with any questions, right? If we have questions on results for you know a piece of work or any sort of background, like they help us kind of track it down. We also pose that question to them about can we essentially change the category that this is entered in? And uh the short answer is no. Um they do a great job at Lions vetting all of the work and all of the results and making sure that there is integrity in every case that kind of makes it through. But they are very respectful of the choices that the entrants make. They choose their categories, their subcategories, and we judge them within that context. So, you know, in all honesty, there was definitely some heartbreak around some cases, but ultimately we could not, we could not change that category decision.

PVSB 28:11

Yeah, I guess given that this was the first year that the category existed, them being in the room and hearing how you debated will probably position the people at Can Lyons for next year to do a better job in the filtering and vetting and structurally what actually gets to the jury for evaluation. Let me remind our audience that today I am speaking with my colleague, Phil Camarada, who's the chief creative officer at Flywheel, the Commerce Acceleration Division of Omnicon. So, Phil, uh, commerce creativity spans everything from the in-store experience to retail media to end-to-end digital journeys. How did you judge fairly across such different formats and channels, particularly considering, you know, the development in one market is fundamentally different than in another market? How did you bring that together from a from a cohesive judging standpoint?

SPEAKER_00 29:08

So, Peter, you're a master of segues because to me, this is all about categories and subcategories that we were just talking about. Um, the subcategories helped us navigate a lot of the nuances, you know, between different pieces of work. Um, what it allowed us to do was judge each case on its own merits based on subcategories. So, for example, within Creative Commerce, there are subcategories like customer acquisition and retention, uh, cultural engagement, social and influencer. And these things are definitely, to your point, like they're apples, oranges, and bananas. But we kept asking, is this case the best example of this subcategory? And I like to think of things in different sorts of fun examples. And I like to think of it sort of like as a dog show, right? Like when you're judging best in show, you can't judge, you know, a French bulldog versus a cock or spaniel. Like what you do is you judge each one by the merits of that breed. And again, is it the best example of that breed? And if it is, then it sort of rises to the top. Um, so that was sort of the mentality. If this was something that we would hold up as the best example of social, um, then perhaps it's better than something that is maybe a mid-example of you know cultural engagement, if you will.

PVSB 30:39

All right. I have a beef with the Westminster Kennel Club. I have never seen a Norwegian elk hound win best in show. Until that happens, I am highly suspect of that. It always seems to be some little super cute little designer breed that fits inside of a bag that goes under your seat on an airplane. I'd rather real pro or it's a great dame. Never a Norwegian elk hound. You might guess which breed my family tends to gravitate towards, but that's let's just leave that for another story. We'll park that over there. I have a bias.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Protest it.

PVSB 31:13

I will stand with you in solidarity. Thank you. Thank you. Um so, in your role as global chief creative officer at Flywheel, one of the biggest players, obviously, in in commerce creativity, how do you handle the optics and reality of judging a category that is so close to your day job? And some of the stuff that's submitted, you may well have have played a role in bringing to life.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yes. Uh luckily it was a bit of a non-issue for me because everyone has a conflict uh while you're there. So it is, it is out in the open and and everyone understands that there are a lot of dynamics at play and sensitivities around those. And again, the Lions people are amazing at helping everyone recognize those biases and kind of get them out in the open and how to kind of combat them. Uh and I would say my experience was, I think, really helpful. And I think the jury appreciated having someone who was so close to the category and the work be able to provide the perspective that I did. I don't think we would have aligned, you know, at the criteria that we got and ultimately the winners that we arrived at without, you know, that expertise that is provided to me, you know, being at a company like Flywheel.

PVSB 32:37

Can you give us an idea of what kind of guardrails they're putting in place for you as the jury president and some of the jury members to really address that issue?

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Yeah. So uh you get spoken to a lot, um, you know, again, weeks out before the festival, um, there are meetings on biases and integrity before each round of judging. There are videos that the jury watches together that outline um kind of do's and don'ts uh and how you could recognize your own personal bias before scoring work. Um then once you are in the room itself and you are judging work, if you if you or your company or network have a role in that piece, you are excused from the room, you are not a part of any conversation, so people can kind of speak freely and uh you know, really give their true opinions on something. And I would say last is a lot of talk around kind of quid pro quo that seems like maybe in the past was a a bigger, uh, a bigger deal, where, you know, as a jury, you're you're you're trying to align on certain categories of winners, right? Short list, bronze, silver, gold, grand prix. And there was a little bit of horse trading, you know, if you will, um, you know, back in the day where people would say, hey, you know, will you vote for mine if I vote for yours type of thing? And lions will have none of it. Um, that is not the type of environment that they want to put forth. Um, like I've mentioned, they are very hot on integrity and making sure that everything passes um, you know, the that test. Um, so they take it very, very seriously and they are with you all along the way to ensure that um that integrity is upheld.

PVSB 34:38

I can think of quite a number of global governing bodies, uh, FIFA, that could probably benefit from these kinds of uh very uh uh strict and uh integrity-filled guidelines for for judging who gets awards and what have you. But in any event, um did anything from your flywheel vantage point, pattern spotting across retailers and brands really sharpen or distort your lens as a judge?

SPEAKER_00 35:08

I certainly felt sharpened. Um I think that the total commerce perspective allows me to sort of appreciate commerce in in all of its forms. Like you mentioned, there's so many disparate um types of work that you're looking at, from physical to digital to everything in between, you know, really big ideas to really smart, strategic small changes. And I think understanding the impact that seemingly small changes can have on like the path to purchase, I think that that just gives me a different um perspective. And I think folks outside of commerce might underestimate some of those smaller things, like a coupon code or a re-categorizing or a retitling of a product, like these things can have major impacts on the success of uh of a campaign or a product. Um and I get to see the power of these things, and I think I was able to help open some eyes on the jury uh to things that they might not have realized prior to to coming to CAN.

PVSB 36:16

Looking back at at say even last year's grand prix winter, uh, how does that shape your criteria for this year or help you separate good from really great work? What goes into what happened in the past that can actually affect what you were doing in that jury room?

SPEAKER_00 36:37

So the past work is incredibly important. That's how I think we refine our taste level and criteria. So there was a lot of cases that we looked at and reviewed. And being transparent, again, because it is a young category still being defined. There were some winners from years past that maybe I didn't really agree with, to be honest. You know, maybe I didn't think it fit my criteria for what Creative Commerce is. And I sort of used those cases as examples, both positive and negative, right, to kind of help steer the jury into what we needed to look for. But Preserved Promos was definitely one of the good ones, uh, obviously. I'm a Grand Prix winner. Um, the strategic depth of that idea, both in the idea and the execution, I really admire. I think it's a very rare combination. Um, you know, so often good work has like one aspect that you can appreciate, but great work has multiple. And I think few kind of bring it together as good as Preserve Promos does. Like the timely insight of coupon culture, the timeless product benefit of Ziploc, it was a brilliant connection. But then the way that they actually executed across the diverse range of retailer partners, I think that that's what ultimately elevated Preserve Promos to like that elite status.

PVSB 38:14

So now that it's behind you, um I I know it's reported that in many cases when the CEO transitions, that they leave a note for the person who's taking over for them. So you've got your little pen and paper, maybe you're just doing it on Slack, but um, now that it's behind you, um what would you share with the person that follows you about anything in the process that surprised you or what they should think about as they go into taking the role that you had this year at next year's event?

SPEAKER_00 38:52

So for me, I think the most surprising thing was both the incredible support that I received from Lions, but also the surprising autonomy that they gave me, uh, and and the jury as a whole. I mean, the festival is huge, it's complex, it is a well-oiled machine. They have traditions and and processes that have been working for many, many years. But when it comes to that jury room, it really is down to those 10 people to hash it out together. Um, I think each jury experience is unique. And I was so lucky to have the amazing, diverse and talented group that I had. Um, I didn't expect to feel such a connection with that group. I mean, we we arrived as as kind of strangers and I think we left as as friends. Um, and I wasn't expecting this experience to kind of bring that group together, you know, quite like that. Um but if I was to, you know, give a note to the next jury president, um, I think I would just tell them, you know, it's gonna be long days, late nights, and the most inspiring week of your professional career, right? It's it's it's a lot of work, but so worth it. I came back incredibly inspired and ready to share insights with my fellow flywheelers and our clients. And uh the experience has has truly been a gift.

PVSB 40:28

All right. So I know our colleague Emma Irwin, when she hosts her podcast, uh uh The Commerce Collective, always ends with asking people, what's that one item in your basket that you haven't bought? It's the big aspirational one. Um I'm not gonna ask you that, but I'm gonna ask you like, what beyond like your work computer and your cell phone, you're going to can next year. What can you not forget? What has to be in your bag when when you go? Like for me, um, you know, uh I'm gonna have a you know what I you know what I bring that no one really thinks about, but we as spoiled Americans take for granted. I always bring a couple of ice trays, plastic ice trays that I pay two bucks for at or a dollar at dollar at Dollar General. And I put them in, you know what? Because no fridges at any hotel, well, first of all, they're typically aren't fridges and rooms, but if you're an Airbnb, even the fridge, the the ice maker, they don't have any ice in the in the freezer. And so I bring trays to make make my own ice, and it makes a world of difference for me. What for you is like I gotta, I always have to bring this to can because it's like if you if I can't have it, I'm not having as great an experience.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yes. Um well, I I don't think an air conditioner would fit in the bag.

PVSB 41:48

That's the other thing. You need you if you're doing an Airbnb, you have to understand, as a spoiled American, when you do the filter on on Airbnb, make sure you check off air conditioning because most of the places there don't have it. And when you get there, if you don't have it, you're gonna feel the pain.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Yeah. Um I totally agree. I'll I'll tell you what, I will be very honest and very vulnerable on your on your podcast. And I will tell you that.

PVSB 42:14

Nobody's listening.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

It's just us. It's just us. It's just us. If I'm going, I need to bring um nature valley peanut butter granola bars.

PVSB 42:22

There you go. You you've got your go-to snacks. You're not gonna find them over there. I, you know, like I was interviewing while we were there over there, Shri and I were interviewing Ben Wavater is the chief media officer at uh Liquid Death. And I wanted to bring some Liquid Death for the conversation. They don't sell it in Europe. Yeah. And I figured I'd pick it up at the airport. Nope, not carried at airports. Like I, you know, it's just not that easy to get certain things that you want to bring over there. So if you've got something that you like, the Nature Valley Granola is like, if you know you need it and that's gonna make your life better, pack it. Don't forget it. That is essential to living. So absolutely. Absolutely. Well, if today's conversation sparks something for you, maybe a new idea, fresh perspective, or just a reminder of why this industry is worth showing up for every day, just share it, tag us, tell a colleague, the more voices we bring in this community, the sharper all of us get. Uh, to the over 46,000 followers on LinkedIn that trust us to inform, educate, and entertain you about this industry. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Shri and I are so grateful. We love meeting you at industry conferences. Uh, just come up to us. You see us on an airplane, say hi. You're walking by. We love to talk. That's who we are. So we're we're grateful and we wouldn't have this without you. Phil, thank you for joining us today for a really interesting uh conversation perspective on behind the scenes at Cannes. I really enjoyed our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Yeah, me too. Thank you so much. And next time, let's do it over uh pancakes at Christie's.

PVSB 44:00

Oh, God. I like the raspberry crunch ones. That's my favorite one. Um banana crunch. Oh, you like the banana crunch? Okay, okay. But my daughter, she wants, she's, she always has to have a double order of crispy bacon. That's that's her go-to. And I love they have pink lemonade. That's another thing I like. Uh, until next time, keep pushing the conversation forward. I am PVSB on behalf of my co-host Papa Raz. This has been the CPG Guys Podcast.