With attendees settled in while sipping coffee and munching popcorn, Nurock thanked Bizcommunity for the opportunity and Ster-Kinekor for hosting the talks.

She began by stating that advertising is just one component of the creativity mix at Cannes Lions, which is why the Festival was renamed from just ‘International Advertising Festival’ to ‘Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity’ to reflect this. She pointed out that Cannes Lions is no longer agency dominated, it’s now the social media companies that own Cannes. It’s a week of inspiration where never before have the lines been so blurred between disciplines, she pointed out.

Talking us through the specific trends this year, Nurock stated the overarching trend was that of technology. It’s bringing creative and brand ideas to life in ways we’ve never been able to before. But it’s important to note that while technology enables opportunity, creativity is what actually creates the value.

Another big trend was that of virtual reality. VR is not the evolution of cinema, nor is it an evolution of video games – it's a completely new medium and it's about experience. We've never told stories like this before. It creates the ultimate experience. Nurock mentioned the irony of a print newspaper being behind this year's most innovative storytelling trend, with T Brand Studio New York taking home the Mobile Grand Prix for their campaign for Google, GE, Mini and the New York Times in the 'App as part of a campaign' category.

Thirdly, Nurock said we are moving towards a world of collaboration, so creatives and techies need to work together. It was interesting to note that according to Contagious and Razorfish, who analysed the last 15 years of Cannes winners. The campaigns that had more than three agencies accredited had a 42% better chance of winning at Cannes. In addition, collaboration is an imperative for clients. They need all their multi-disciplined agencies to work together in order to deliver an integrated communication solution.

Fourth was simplicity, authenticity and the big idea. This was something the judges were looking for and no matter how wonderful the technology, it’s the big idea that wins.

Another big trend this year was gender stereotypes and the objectification of women in advertising. Madonna Badger gave a rousing talk whereby she appealed to all marketers to cease objectifying women in their advertising #womennotobjects.

Lastly, Nurock pointed out the trend that creativity can change the world. You can do well and do good business. This year, the judges were tough on charities and wanted to see how big brands are now creating higher purpose.

So, where do we stand? SA is ranked eighth in the world after the 2016 awards and is the top radio market globally. While that’s definitely impressive, Nurock says we need to do better in the ‘new media’ categories of mobile, cyber and even film. We have the talent, we have the ideas, we just need to stop being so self-effacing and share these.

Don’t miss Nurock’s final Cannes Case Studies presentation at Ster-Kinekor Sandton on 7 September. Click here for more.