Rival
Research that cut through Cannes on a startup budget.
For Cannes, Rival Spark surveyed consumers and marketers on AI and brand purpose, sharing findings via 1,000 Midjourney-illustrated Postcards from Cannes.
the challenge
As a startup consultancy heading to Cannes, Rival lacked the budgets and awareness of large agencies and organisations. However, as a company focused on growing challenger brands to scale and change how markets operate, we knew we had to do something insightful to make our low budgets cut through in an authentic way at the event - turning the trip to the south of France's festival into business results afterwards.
the strategic choice
Rival Spark is Rival's research and trends forecasting arm, which I headed up - executing monthly reports and research through primary market research. To give a voice to what consumers really care about at Cannes, we ran surveys on Artificial Intelligence and Brand Purpose against a sample of consumers and a sample of marketers in the run up to the festival. We additionally ran surveys during Cannes about the topics we overheard. This research gave a base for showing what people really believe, but we had to get it in front of marketers at Cannes in an engaging way - beyond just a PowerPoint or sales deck.
my contribution
Co-Founder / CSO at We Are Rival.
what changed
1,000 postcards, featuring art created with Midjourney, were distributed around Cannes: leave-behinds in meetings, gifts, and placements in surprise locations from Gutter Bar to airport postcard racks and gift shops. Daily research went online too, answering the previous night’s questions and discussions with snap surveys.
The insight
Cannes offers a balance of learning and entertainment for advertisers from around the world. However, it can disconnect from the consumers it claims to focus on, instead celebrating what we love as an industry more than what normal people enjoyed. Despite being about marketing to customers, the festival can risk ignoring their voice and behaviours.
The strategy
Festival attendees need something to bring back, and marketers are expected to return from Cannes with pithy takeaways. ‘Wish You Had Heard: Postcards from Cannes’ was a set of five postcards, each carrying a different research finding – an easy way for attendees to share what they learned with everyone back home, while showing Rival’s data and point of view.
The work
