Post by Robert Grace

One word from the Cannes Lions Festival: CONNECTION. A personal highlight was catching up with current and former team members, and friends who started with us as interns and are now building meaningful careers and trusted client relationships. Watching people grow like this is still one of the most rewarding parts of what we do. Beyond that, three thoughts stayed with me. 1 // Connection to your audience From the CEO of e.l.f. Beauty going live on TikTok at 61 years old to hear directly from up to 14,000 customers at a time, to KFC India saying “the social feed is the research feed”, to Marriott designing future hotel rooms with guests physically testing and shaping the experience, the message was remarkably consistent. Question: How are you creating regular, real connections with the people you serve, rather than relying on reports and dashboards? 2 // Connection to your brand fundamentals With endless channels, priorities and pressure to deliver, it’s easy to lose sight of what builds brands in the first place. In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and AI, coherence matters. If the aggregate view of your brand isn’t clear and consistent, neither people nor AI will understand what you stand for. Performance marketing is essential, but without a strong brand, it can easily turn that brand into shrapnel. Question: Is every activity strengthening a coherent brand, or slowly fragmenting it? 3 // Connection to what growth really means This was perhaps the most challenging question. Do our teams, processes, incentives and investment decisions genuinely prioritise growth? As Les Binet observed, ROI is too often treated as a measure of efficiency rather than growth. Optimisation is valuable, but optimisation alone doesn’t create growth. In fact, it can often lead to safe, bland work that delivers little long-term impact. Question: If growth were genuinely at the centre of every decision, from procurement to briefing to measurement, what would you do differently? Three questions. One word: Connection. The Up&Up Group (affiliated to the global M&C Saatchi Group) Johannes Keiper Keke Mahlelebe Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity