Kim Kardashian was scheduled to speak at Cannes Lions but her appearance was underwhelming. The author notes that many young people attended hoping to see her but she did not do or say much of substance. Earlier speakers addressed how marketing often fails to reach women with messages of compassion and independence. The author also summarizes lessons learned from game show theory about creating engaging narratives and storytelling that can be applied to advertising. Finally, the author shares leadership advice from advertising legend Keith Reinhard about having a dream, passion, persistence, and curiosity to succeed both personally and in leading others.

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B y J e r e my K at z ,
W o r l d w i d e E d i t o r i a l D i r e c to r ,
O g i lv y & M at h e r

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1 The808 TrackThe Young Lions—the group of young advertising
professionals and students here at Cannes to
learn—must have skipped school this morning.
How else to explain the preponderance of
excited youth at the door to one of the Palais
des Festivals smaller theaters? They were
there, of course, to see Kim Kardashian drop
the 808. …and they didn’t. It was a whole lot
of nothing. Wait, why where we surprised?

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2 PowerOf course,all those young folks who got there early received a
whole bunch of wisdom from the opening acts. They learned
that there are two dimensions missing from most marketing
to women: compassion and independence. Maybe that’s why
some studies show that 91% of women feel that marketing
doesn’t reach them. Considering that women will control $40
trillion in consumer spending by 2018, this is a big miss. Kim
Kardashian, no doubt, will account for most of that in some
way—at least if the draw of her Hollywood app is any indication.

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3 Foolish GamesThe very existence Kim Kardashian proves that success in life is nothing
but a game. It’s a good thing, then, that a couple of ad execs
spent a ton of their free time watching game shows. Game shows
are perfect scale models of real life—albeit viewed through a
tilt-shift lens. Our friendly (and were they every friendly; they
took questions while sitting in the laps of audience members)
distilled their uncounted hours of game show watching into
7 rules of game show theory. 1. Give them something to rally
behind. 2. Have a great human-interest story written. 3. Go
beyond expectations and dreams. 4. Have a narrative arc with
subplots. 5. Create lots of cliffhangers. 6. Have amazing rewards.
7. Have multiple layers of engagement. Got it? Go use these in
your advertising. These guys did, and the awards just flowed.

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4PreachAdland legend Keith Reinhard spoke to students from the Berlin
School of Creative Leadership, and while it wasn’t a public session,
another legend—this time someone I know—managed to smuggle
out intel and advice on leadership from one of the greats. Before you dismiss
Reinhard as a pre-digital relic, consider that the shift from atoms to bits has
not changed the fundamentals. Human nature remains the same. We still
burn with the drive to succeed, to survive, to love, and to take care of ones
own. “The importance of brands has not changed,” Reinhard said. Nor has the
importance of ideas. The nature of leadership is also unchanged. In order to
lead oneself, Reinhard says, you need to have a dream, the passion to pursue
it, the persistence to see it through, and the curiosity to do it all over again.
Leading others—a learned skill, not a bestowed title—depends on sharing your
vision and values while helping others grow and keeping them inspired.