BCG was thrilled to join CMOs and other marketing and creative leaders from around the world at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. As an official partner of Cannes Lions, BCG was on the ground to lead discussions, collaborate, and share insights surrounding this year’s festival theme: where creativity drives progress.
At this year’s festival, BCG worked with marketers to navigate a core paradox underlying everything today: how to build true connections as the line between reality and illusion becomes increasingly blurred. While digital tools such as GenAI have made it easier and easier to reach millions of people with highly targeted messages, true connections have become harder to forge—and even harder to maintain.
Cannes Lions 2024 highlighted the resurgence of brands as growth drivers and the challenges ahead for finding success with AI, including moving from pilots to integrating real organizational change. This year’s festival also celebrated the return of creativity to the forefront of marketing, as well as the increasing influence of CMOs as they steer AI adoption for business more broadly.
EXPLORE WHAT'S TOP OF MIND FOR CMOS
Explore our growing library of expertly curated content on key topics and themes for Cannes 2024. Dive into the insights now or bookmark them for later.
CMO AGENDA
According to our 2024 survey of over 200 CMOs in 7 countries, CMOs increasingly view generative AI (GenAI) not only as a way to improve efficiencies but also to unlock growth.
Marketers who measure mindshare can grow brand value more effectively than with traditional approaches.
Retail Media 3.0 will unlock the channel’s potential as a powerful, strategic marketing tool. But to get there, players must leverage partnerships and insights.
AI, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY
As GenAI drives the marginal cost of marketing content to near zero, the resulting speed, flexibility, and cost efficiency will transform how creative teams work.
BCG, Google, and Omnicom Media Group are laying the groundwork for “unified video,” a holistic approach that reduces the complexity of decision making and helps advertisers sync their spend with the media that their target audience consumes.
Consumers looking for products and services online are increasingly moving to the world of GenAI-powered platforms. Your brand needs to be there, too.
To capitalize on the explosive evolution of GenAI, e-commerce executives should look beyond the hype and focus more practically on their build-or-buy technology decisions.
Using an integrated approach and granular understanding of customer needs, companies can harness deep tech and radical innovation to reinvent products that overcome barriers to sustainable choices.
To advance their marketing maturity, brands must embed data, conduct full-funnel marketing planning, and deliver technology-enhanced consumer experiences daily.
CONSUMER INSIGHTS
As touchpoints keep multiplying, updating traditional measurements is important. But companies also need smarter activation strategies with a clear return on investments.
The consumer intelligence available to organizations has grown exponentially in recent years, yet many have struggled to translate that into improved outcomes. Here’s how leaders are leveraging AI and GenAI to better harness that data and generate insights.
A global survey finds that business leaders expect AI—both predictive and generative—to be a game changer in helping companies address critical consumer intelligence issues.
Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI
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Our work with clients across the spectrum of marketing and sales helps businesses understand what future consumers look like, what drives them, and how to connect to them—staying competitive while winning hearts and minds in a fast-changing, socially conscious world.
We partner with businesses as they enhance their consumer experience through customized generative AI (GenAI) solutions, working with them to understand the role that tech and GenAI can play, develop the right skillsets, and scale their new solutions to maximize impact.
Our consumer products consultants help clients build brands for the long term while driving short-term growth. A key focus is the development of digital capabilities—including advanced data collection and analysis, AI, digital supply chain, and other enhancements—that harness the ingenuity and innovation you’ll need to meet consumers’ changing demands.
We collaborate with technology, media, and telecommunications companies to pioneer new business models, develop pricing and customer-acquisition strategies, leverage AI and advanced analytics, and seize new opportunities—helping them to think boldly, respond quickly, and improve continuously.
