Fernando, it's so nice to have you here at the BCG Cabana.
Thanks for coming by.
Thanks for the invitation to join.
Like it's nice to to be meeting you.
We are both in Miami, like in a different place.
And not the best weather today, but I'm very happy to be here.
The common thing is the sea.
Exactly.
Good enough, right?
Can't complain.
So you've been coming to Cannes forever. For many, many years.
And you stop counting the Cannes Lions that you and your team
have won.
I believe it's more than 200. This year, though,
you're coming to Cannes with a different role.
Tell us about the new role.
Yeah, look, I mean, I, I love being here, you know, like I,
I'm a true believer in creativity and using creativity
to unlock growth.
So Cannes, to me, represents creativity much more than just
advertising.
And, and that's why I've been coming for so long.
And yes, I was fortunate, lucky enough to work with some of the
best in the industry and create some really cool campaigns that
get a ton of recognition here.
I always presented on the Cannes Academies, like especially on
the the Brand Marketer Academy.
It's basically like young marketers, upcoming marketers,
and this year was invited to be the dean of the Academy.
So I've been working like the whole week on that function.
Actually, even before Cannes, working to build the agenda,
booking the right speakers to join us, creating a really
holistic and nice program for the kids.
They're not kids, but like for the students.
Yeah, for the students.
And I'm running the show here with the support from the Cannes
staff this week.
And it has been amazing.
And what topics are you talking about?
We have different pillars of topics, like from--I think that
if you are here, you probably don't need to be convinced that
creativity is important, right.
But still, we show how to fight a good fight for creativity.
We give tools for people just to, to help them internally.
Many companies like the invest, but it sounds kind of like a
little bit of a fight, right?
So to show the return on investment, to talk about
attribution, to talk about like how to prove the case for
creativity internally.
There is like a whole pillar just on that.
We, we talk a lot about relationship between client and
agency and how to make the most out of that. So very practical
topics?
Yes, we talk about technology and of course like AI has been
at the center of that conversation.
We pepper some of the presentations from from the
Cannes program, but we try to keep the program more intimate.
It's just 35 people and we have an environment where that's a
safe environment to ask questions, you know, like
interact with some of the presenters.
So it has been fun.
I'm sure I would benefit from joining the Academy and learn a
little bit about the creativity. Stop by!
So you mentioned AI is definitely the star of Cannes.
It's the topic that is most talked about.
You are a big believer of creativity as a source of
competitive advantage.
So tell us something about how you believe creativity unlocks
value to competitive advantage and what's the role of AI in
supporting creators?
I grew up in a school of marketing that believed in
creativity, right?
I mean, I spent 18 years in Unilever from an intern to a
global VP for, for the Dove brand.
And, and I grew up looking at people unlocking business growth
by building strong brands and by being creative.
I think that especially in the--today, like where we don't
pay much attention to anything, right?
I mean, our attention is divided among screens among our lives
among like all the messages that we get bombarded with on a daily
basis.
Whatever you do, whether it's design, advertising, product,
innovation in this you, grab people's attention, right?
And I think that creativity can help you with that.
So so that's why I pushed so hard on that.
I could think about a company like NotCo.
I'm advising for NotCo these days.
Like it's very small as a start up, right.
I mean, so I'm not able to win the fight just through budget.
Like when I was at Burger King, RBI, McDonald's had four times
our budget. Four times the size, four times the budget.
So if I'm just like buying attention, I will lose the war
even before the first battle starts.
So that's where creativity needs to come and kick in.
And I think AI is an enabler, you know, for you to do better
creatively. For you to do rapid prototyping, for you to do more
agile testing with things, for you to get to an asset maybe
faster than you would normally do.
I see AI as a tool, you know what I mean?
Like I, I truly believe that AI is a tool and that the
combination of AI plus humans equals something better,
something that we would not be able to accomplish.
I think NotCo is a classic example of that. Not just on
advertising, but in it's--it's at the essence of the business
model of the brand.
Well, as we are talking about NotCo, tell us who is Giuseppe?
Me telling the Italian who is Giuseppe?
The name Giuseppe is there--it comes from a painter from I
think it's like mid 1500s called Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Oh, it's very famous.
Yes, Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
Yes. With the fruit.
Yes, exactly.
He used to do like the portraits with the vegetables and fruits.
So basically like creating art with plants.
You didn't know that, right?
I did.
You did.
OK, I told you that.
I am Italian, 100 percent.
So it's basically creating art with plants.
So that's why for a company that uses AI to create elevated plant
based food, like the AI was named Giuseppe, basically create
art with plants too.
And the whole company is rooted into the idea that there is a
better way than the way that the--currently, the food
industry approaches things. You know, like in terms of
sustainability, in terms of the development time, in terms of
inefficiencies.
So when Matias, who is the founder CEO of the company,
started the company around 8-9 years ago in Chile, it's a start
up from Chile.
It's a unicorn, like valuations like $1.5 billion, like lots of
very strong backers.
And it's a data science company, you know, like it's rooted in AI
and it's very creative.
So one thing is not like in contradiction to another,
because Matias and the team, they use AI as a tool.
Like we always--it's a partnership between AI and our
chefs, AI and R&D.
So Giuseppe is the AI.
Exactly, yes.
Now I know.
Yeah. That's fantastic.
So that's a clear example of how creativity can give an
advantage.
And AI is the secret sauce.
Exactly.
Yes.
Well, Fernando, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts
with us and for stopping by.
No, my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you.