Raising the Creative Bar

RAISING THE

MARC PRITCHARDCHIEF BRAND OFFICER

Cannes Lions International Festival of CreativityJune 23, 2016

creative barCHIEF BRAND OFFICER

Cannes Lions International Festival of CreativityJune 23, 2016

RAISING THE creative bar

You’ve just seen some work we’re quite proud of. Different pieces of creative expressing unique aspects of Pampers’ personality, yet part of the masterpiece we’re constantly painting across the brand’s creative canvas.

The creative canvas is a useful metaphor, because the art of advertising can now be expressed across a broad creative palette. The core part on the canvas has work that persuades, taps into insights, describes why the brand is better, and what it does in people’s lives. Some parts educate, like a “how-to” video or an expert who advocates on the brand’s behalf. There’s a place on the canvas for a cultural or social point of view. And, there’s room for creative work that’s funny, poignant, or tugs on the heart.

When we’re at our best, we paint a brand masterpiece, clearing the highest bar of creative brilliance.

But, that brings us to a question. How often do we clear that high bar? Some-times we achieve our finest creative craft, but too often we produce crap. Craft or crap? Our creative challenge.

Technology enables both ways. It brings ways for people to connect with each other, and engage with our brands through search, social, video, mobile, native, tweets,

Pampers “Firsts”, “Dance” and “Poo Face”

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Pampers “Firsts”, “Dance” and “Poo Face”

snaps, chats and e-commerce. And the next big things – machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality are already beckoning. But these technologies bring some awful guests to the party: poor view-ability, ad skipping, annoyingly long ad load times, endless ad streams, and some really bad advertising. No wonder we’re seeing more ad blocking!

The people we serve are voting with their fingertips, and we need to read and heed the signals. Too much of our advertising is unwanted, uninteresting, uninspiring, and therefore ineffective.

And yes, I'm defiantly using the word “advertising” to describe what we do. I looked up the meaning. It’s derived from the Latin root “ad-vert” – which means "to turn toward". Makes sense because that's what we're trying to do – get people to "turn toward" our brands. Since then, I proudly use "advertising" to describe our craft. Because it is a noble and beautiful craft, and we need to embrace it as such.

But advertising has a bad reputation – maybe that’s why we’ve been trying to rename it "content.” I looked up the meaning. The first definition is “in a state of peaceful happiness.” What? Later we get to "something that is contained, as in “the content in a box." Closer! Eventually we find "something that is expressed.” Aha! Well, much of what we express as “content” definitely belongs in a box and should

never be opened because it could be a trap, a crap trap never to be caught in!

Hey, I'm not casting dispersions. Here's a representative sample of some of P&G’s worst - all in the name of "content to engage consumers.

We took a hard look at ourselves to see why we felt compelled to go down this path to crap. We found that in our quest to do dynamic, real-time marketing in the digital age, we were literally producing thousands of new ads every year, with thousands of agencies, and millions of media plan changes. We thought that the best way to cut through the clutter in the digital age was to create more ads and change them constantly.

We eventually concluded that as the world was getting louder. We were just adding to the noise.

So we decided to stop the noise.

We decided to raise the bar to bring our �nest craft, and give consumers the experience they deserve.We’ve made a choice to raise the bar on creativity because the consumers we serve around the world deserve our very best. We’re focusing on three guideposts to help us on our journey:


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Pantene's creative canvas is centered on the idea that “strong is beautiful.” The Pantene team elevated their craft to bring beauty, style, and substance to advertising which had grown stale, predictable, and lost in the sea of sameness. They dramatically upgraded the palette, creating a distinctive and beautiful visual identity across the canvas. They proudly accentuate

distinctive elements of the product and its benefits. They spread their wings to celebrate strong, beautiful hair with new production techniques and use their spokesperson’s social media footprint to expand the brand’s creative territory. They dare to break convention and push the edges in magazines - yes on real paper! - and in subway and bus stations. They’re

part of the cultural conversation. For the NFL Super Bowl, they showed Pantene’s authentic humanity, with this (Video: Pantene Dad Do). Pantene's creative canvas, craft, and people are raising the bar on creativity and taking the brand to new levels of popularity.

EXPRESS THE BRAND AS A MASTERPIECE PAINTED ON A creative canvas1.

Pantene's creative canvas is centered on the idea that “strong is beautiful.” The Pantene team elevated their craft to bring beauty, style, and substance to advertising which had grown stale, predictable, and lost in the sea of sameness. They dramatically upgraded the palette, creating a distinctive and beautiful visual identity across the canvas. They proudly accentuate

distinctive elements of the product and its benefits. They spread their wings to celebrate strong, beautiful hair with new production techniques and use their spokesperson’s social media footprint to expand the brand’s creative territory. They dare to break convention and push the edges in magazines - yes on real paper! - and in subway and bus stations. They’re

part of the cultural conversation. For the NFL Super Bowl, they showed Pantene’s authentic humanity, with this (Video: Pantene Dad Do). Pantene's creative canvas, craft, and people are raising the bar on creativity and taking the brand to new levels of popularity.

At the center is an authentic brand idea, which uniquely defines the essence of the brand. From that core, express the brand’s diverse personality across the wide variety of mediums with wonderful creativity to attract people to “turn toward” our brands. Explore the edges where you’ll find new ideas and creative moments of magic that keep the brand fresh and alive. And wherever you are on the canvas, make sure it is consistently seen as your brand, painting a brilliant masterpiece to behold and to remember.

ELEVATE THE craft2.Advertising is a skill that requires mastery, technique and imagination to make brand ideas meaningful and memorable. Craftsmanship, visual artistry, verbal poetry, design aesthetics are the work of masters – writers, artists, designers, producers, publishers, directors, and editors. Advertising reaches millions of people every day to spark action and change behavior – it is a noble business and belongs in the hands of serious professionals. Don’t accept mediocrity. Don’t be lured into the crap trap of just getting something out there. On every part of the canvas, craft matters.

EMBRACE CREATIVITY AS A human endeavor3.Unlike technology, humans have the remarkable ability to tap into the universe and extract ideas that move us to laugh, smile, cry, feel, enjoy, and act. That’s the joy of working in the creative field. It brings the positive energy force of people to find deep human insights and transform them into ideas. But lately, there’s been too much negative energy and gossip about agency-client relationships. It needs to stop. All of us in this community including agencies, advertisers, publishers, and tech companies are made up of good people who want to do good work to create magic together. We need to come together, take down the silos, and remember the most important human beings we’re serving – consumers!

Let me show you several examples – all masterpieces-in-progress, and all focused on raising the creative bar, and attracting more people to “turn toward” our brands.

Tide, our most iconic brand, paints on a creative canvas devoted to the idea that “if it’s gotta be clean, it’s gotta be Tide.” Every part of the canvas looks and feels like Tide whether it's a video, post, tweet, chat, or snap. Tide consistently and persistently uses recognizable creative assets to make the brand memorable – even if people aren’t paying attention. When they do pay attention, like when you get a stain from Cannes rose wine, Tide brings 400 “how-to” videos to the rescue. Tide offers new products with flair, has a point of view about the environment, and experiments, innovates, and pushes the edges. The Tide team is willing to make mistakes, and often stumble into new territories. And I love Tide’s humanity. It’s a brand of the people from good people who understand who they serve.

Tide’s human-centric energy, familiar and popular canvas, and relentless attention to craft have made this 70-year-old brand fresh once again.

Another brand that has stayed fresh for decades is Secret, an antiperspirant brand whose creative canvas defines feminine strength. The brand found its’ mojo in the ‘70s and ‘80s with “Strong Enough for a Man, Made for a Woman.” Secret is the icon of women on the forefront doing the things women aren’t expected to do. Women who went to work, who broke professional barriers, who were strong. The Secret team – mostly women, by the way – wanted to redefine feminine strength for

the new generation. The problem is that there’s a huge chasm between the way young women see themselves and the way the world sees them. They’re underestimated, not taken seriously, seen as insignificant because they’re young and female. This is vexing and stressful, and stress sweat smells the worst. Secret celebrates these women who take on the stress tests of doing things young women aren’t expected to do.

Secret stands with the women who face their fears, take on these tests, share their stories and create products to arm them for whatever stress they face.

Young professional women are also the core consumers served by SKII, our most prestigious, high-end skin care brand. SKII brings women along a journey before they purchase, because these amazing products cost between $100 and $600 apiece. The brand’s creative canvas is centered on the idea that women can change destiny of their skin and their lives. Of course, SKII has stunning creative work about the product, the package, and what it does to transform skin. But, since most women aren’t thinking about spending hundreds of dollars on skin care every day, SKII draws professional women into the brand by inspiring beautifully crafted human stories that attract women to the brand’s bold point of view. Watch this powerful film from China that takes on a deeply held cultural norm.

Bold work like this paints an eclectic and superb masterpiece that draws women to these gorgeous SKII counters where they’re treated like they deserve – as the magnificent women they are.

The benefit of the creative canvas is that brands can explore wider territory, but where the brand still matters. Take Always, a feminine protection brand with a creative canvas grounded in confidence. Three years ago, the Always team was languishing in mediocrity and committed to raise the creative bar right here in Cannes. They went to work by talking with the women and girls they serve, and discovered an outrageous fact: 50% of girls have a dramatic drop in confidence at puberty, often triggered by the onset of their first period. But the more insidious reason is demeaning phrases such as “like a girl” that are so ingrained and accepted, we don’t even notice the negative effect they have. Always set out to change that, and make “like a girl” mean amazing things

But they didn’t stop there. The second wave addressed the fact that 76% of girls feel that society puts limits on them, eroding their confidence. And today, they’re taking on another outrageous fact: even emojis are biased (Video: Always Emojis). Advertising like this makes a difference. More than 200 million worldwide views and 200+ awards later, attitudes are starting to change. Today, 76% feel “Like A Girl” is a positive expression, versus only 19% before.

Tide “Sandwich”

Secret “Secret Raise”

Always “Like a Girl”


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SKII “Marriage Market Takeover”

And after receiving thousands of emoji suggestions, today I’m proud to announce breakthrough actions from two leading tech giants: both Google and Facebook are launching these new emojis The Always brand is inspiring conversation, changing attitudes, changing behavior, and selling products.

What about men? Let’s start with Gillette, an iconic creative canvas that is “the best a man can get” but that has been taking shots from a start-up directly aiming at the brand’s superiority. The brand needed to expand its creative territory and become more human, to shift from talking to men about Gillette’s superiority to expressing more about what matters most in a much more engaging way. Men in the room – who taught you how to shave and tie a tie? Yes, it was your dad.

Here’s work Gillette is doing to reach first-time shavers.

And, recognizing that 40% of men worldwide shave more than their face, Gillette lightened up to have some fun with body shaving (World Premiere Video: Gillette Sheep).

And to really lighten up, there’s Old Spice. Masculinity delivered ridiculously. Old Spice’s creativity starts with a fundamental and universal human truth: it’s hard being a young guy. The waters of adolescence are choppy and fraught with peril – changing bodies, fitting in with peers, weird new smells, talking to girls, snooping parents, and a host of other problems. Fortunately, Old Spice helps young guys navigate the seas of manhood. But young guys don't

want a lecture from an old sailor, so the brand has cultivated a voice based on the social currency of humor to talk about awkward subjects, transforming a low involvement category like deodorants and body wash into an incredibly engaging one. For the past decade, Old Spice has been entertaining guys with characters such as Isiah, Fabio and Terry, with stories that constantly raise the bar to keep the brand relevant. The latest installment brings us a new character, Axel, who wows us with legendary exploits of manliness.

But wait, there’s more! Debuting today is a new series of manly performances from Old Spice

The final example involves the creative canvas for our Company. P&G is a company of household and personal care brands that make the lives of consumers a little bit better every day. In 2010, we decided to sponsor the Olympics, the most popular sporting event in the world where four billion people tune in to the highest standard of athletic performance. We quickly realized that this sponsorship came with high expectations. I’ll never forget when I was told "the Olympics are a world class event, with world class athletes, and requires world class advertising. You will be judged." That comment raised the bar big time, and our wonderful team came up Gillette “Ask Dad”

Old Spice “Rocket Man”

Old Spice World Premiere“CEO H ead Swap”

Gillette World Premiere “Sheep”

Gillette “First Pet”


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want a lecture from an old sailor, so the


time, and our wonderful team came up with a deeply human insight and idea that behind every successful athlete, and behind every successful person, is a caring, unselfish, and strong mom who guides and supports her children's hopes, dreams, and lives. And behind every mom, there's a company of brands who understands them, cares for them, and above all, thanks them for all they do every single day. Here’s how we did that first in Vancouver 2010.

We carefully craft stories to demonstrate that the people of P&G care through the simple act of thanking moms, opening up hearts and minds to our company and to our brands from London to Sochi and now on to Rio 2016.

I’ve now shown you expansive creative work that we’re proud of.

It's this kind of creativity that makes me optimistic that we can and will take the high road on creativity.

So let’s all challenge ourselves to reach higher by asking ourselves:

Are we thinking of our brand as a masterpiece? Are we using the vast creative palette at our fingertips?

Are we truly delivering our finest craft? Never settling, never falling into the crap trap.

Are we approaching work with sense of humanity? Finding the human insight that unlocks a brand idea that really matters? Are we building and cultivating deep human relationships with our partners?

The people of P&G have been privileged to work with this creative community to create some of the most iconic advertising in the world for decades. Yet we are continually striving, starving hungry to raise the bar to bring award-winning, business-building, heart-warming, thought-provoking, conversation-starting, culturally-relevant, exceptional masterpieces on the most iconic and everyday household and personalcare brands in the world.

It’s a high bar, but what better place to celebrate and challenge ourselves than here at Cannes. That’s why we’ve been coming here for 13 straight years and will always be here with you.

All of us here have what it takes. There is no shortage of creative power and energy. Technology is

exploding exponentially, and we’re just at the beginning of the next great wave of brilliance. We are all in this together, every one of us. I’m optimistic that when we bring it all together,

we can and will raise the bar to usher in the greatest burst of creativity the world has ever seen. Thank you.

time, and our wonderful team came up Are we truly delivering our finest craft? exploding exponentially, and we’re just at

P&G Olympics “Strong”

P&G Olympics “Kids”

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Raising the Creative Bar