EVB's executive creative director reports from the 2007 Cannes Festival and finds that online media is putting creative big ideas back on top of marketing.

The 2007 Cannes Lions Festival provided an extremely interesting peek into the future of marketing and how the industry itself is reacting. A common thread throughout the festival was the ongoing debate between traditional and new media and the rapidly blurring lines between the two. The advertising industry seems to be in a state of flux, and we are all caught in the middle of a beautiful shift into a media-neutral world.

In particular, Cannes attendees, who came from around the world to share ideas and learn from industry peers, sensed that in 2006 there was a major change in the way they worked and thought about marketing. In cafes, hallways, lounges, poolside terraces and gutters, one word was muttered an incalculable number of times. This single word, one that many traditional agencies in years past avoided like the plague, was on the tip of everyone’s tongues: digital.

Until now, digital has been used widely as a term to describe a single medium used as an entity of a marketing plan. But over the last year, digital has taken on a new definition that is changing the entire marketing structure. It is now being defined as a state of mind; a lifestyle of the non-media captive consumer that we chase day-in and day-out. At Cannes, the RG/A Nike Plus campaign particularly embodied this new digital spirit. It uniquely linked product development with marketing strategy, creating a dedicated consumer running culture around the product. As a result, the Nike Plus campaign was awarded digital’s most prestigious award, the Cyber Grand Prix.

The new digital has transformed the way consumers interact with m’edia, since they are no longer captive. It's changed the way word-of-mouth, "water cooler" conversations happen, driving the popularity of an idea instantly overnight. Most importantly, digital has transformed how the media-savvy consumer experiences and consumes marketing, and these "natural-born filters" are skilled at selecting what they want to interact with and what they prefer avoiding.

As marketers, we need to be conscious of this new consumer and learn to offer them information that is useful and relevant. Invite consumers to interact with your brand and engage them with content they choose to consume. Depending on your consumer, the content can be anything from video footage featuring their favorite NBA All-Star to a silly dancing elf that can be personalized and shared with friends to a virtual video game where users compete against other gamers for the ultimate high score. It's all about weaving your brand into content that your consumers want to experience. The days of disruptive advertising are fading. Although daunting for some, the shift to drive campaigns with one overarching digital idea seems to be one of the greatest changes felt in the industry since the introduction of the 30-second spot.

With new forms of content driving change, the Cannes Lions Festival proved to be a head-scratching, nail-biting affair. Every agency from big to small seemed to be making an attempt to define digital and seek new methods for measurement. And where do we put ideas that don't fall into a pre-defined media bucket? According to Cannes, it's the Titanium Lions. But what will happen within the next few years, when media lines begin to blur even more and content-driven, multi-platform campaigns are the attention getters? One agency executive I met in Cannes said he thought "the Film Lions may not be the highly anticipated, final night at Cannes in the very near future," as a result of the digital shift. Although no hard solutions we're concluded, the festival was a great way to kick-off what should be a year-long journey of digital discovery.

The game is changing, and media-driven strategies will no longer lead the conversation. As the digital evolution continues, it's an exciting time to be a part of the industry and crucial we all take a moment to absorb and embrace this change. This can be the land of opportunity, while those who ignore these vital signs will be left behind. No matter what happens, creative, big ideas are back on top again, and it’s a beautiful sight.

Jason Zada is executive creative director at EVB. Read full bio.