will.i.am & Sir Martin Sorrell Lead Cannes Debate

Black-Eyed Peas founder, singer and entrepreneur will.i.am joined a panel of media and ad industry leaders at Cannes Lions last week to discuss the future of the creative industries.

At the event, hosted by global communications group The&Partnership and The Wall Street Journal, the music mogul, who has also worked as Intel’s director of creative innovation, urged the advertising industry to think about advertising as a means of “adding value to communities”, not just “advertising or marketing”.

Talking about advertising that focusses on selling rather than adding value to communities, will.i.am said: “You know people don’t like it on YouTube. They skip it.”

Ensured by Google marketing executive Lorraine Twohill that 87 per cent of people do not skip ads on YouTube, he went on: “OK, well they’re not paying attention to it. They’re skipping it in their head.“Regardless of what your metric says, we’re not paying attention to it. If you don’t add value to people’s lives, I don’t really give two shits about your advertising.”

Johnny Hornby, founder of The&Partnership, who was moderating the panel, brought up the topic of content marketing, asking will.i.am what excited him most about content.

“The fact that everyone’s in the same pole position now,” said will.i.am. “Yeah, I make content, but I know some guy in a dorm-room or someone on an airplane or a bus has the ability to reach 1m airs in nine seconds.”

The star discussed why real creative success is measured by creating shareable content which penetrates culture.

WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell agreed, referring to the days of Mad Men. “75 per cent of our business now is stuff that Don Draper would not recognise,” he said. “There is a duopoly, with all due respect, of Google and Facebook,” Sorrell continued, “in terms of platforms.”

Referring to the rate at which new technologies are emerging, will.i.am added: “You’ve got to compete with the invisible person coming round the corner.”