Flight science has evolved rapidly since then but the customer experience has not. I’m not talking about how the flight assistants attend to their passengers or how easy it is to get on and off, I’m talking about how the airline companies make you feel from the second your ticket is booked to the moment you leave the airport. Nowhere else can you spend a fortune and be made to feel poverty-stricken because you are travelling in third-class (economy).

© Jozef Mičic – 123RF.com

As digital creatives, we spend our careers designing services aimed at improving people’s lives even if just for a second or two. We research individuals, create personas, look at their frustrations, define their journeys and come up with solutions that are tailored yet accessible to everyone. Digital technology is enabling the ‘flattening of privilege’ and that’s why I love working in this industry because the experience is equal. Whilst we might build platforms that serve specific content based on your preferences or browsing data, unlike the travel industry we’ll never intentionally build you a third class experience.

Now that the mobile judging has started, I want to see work that redefines people’s expectations, that challenges the status quo and enables humans to live better lives no matter what salary they earn. Yes, that sounds impressive, but this is Cannes. To discuss equality at an advertising festival in the heart of luxury on the French Riviera is ironic, but I think this collision of perspectives will provide the inspiration the creatives and corporates need to re-examine their brands and deliver real change for the everyday man and woman on the street.