Pritchard warns adland must shun ‘content hamster-wheel’

THE FIRST round of applause came early in P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard’s session at Cannes Lions Tuesday, when he apologised in advance for an omission from his speech. "We’re not going to talk about AI. I’m really sorry!” he said. “Obviously it’s important, it’s exciting, it’s game-changing, and of course P&G and our partners are using it across every element of how we build our brands. But at the heart of building brands is humanity.”

Pritchard’s session outlined some “timeless” lessons from P&G’s history, including the need to know your consumers and your brand better than anyone else, and to fall in love and stay in love with the craft of advertising. “And yes, I am unapologetically using the term ‘advertising’ to de- scribe the creative outcome of what we do,” Pritchard said. “Notice you didn’t hear the word ‘content’. I’m not a fan of using that word for describing what we do.”

He related searching for a definition for the latter word, and finding that it means information made available in a website or other electronic medium.

“Digital content! The definition has hijacked the word ‘advertising’ over the years, and we just can’t seem to get enough of it,” Pritchard said.

“It’s easy to produce, and we try to catch the algorithm as much as we can, which simply accelerates the hamster wheel of content activity — all too often devoid of craft. Consumers deserve our highest level of advertising craft, wherever and whenever our brands are ex- pressed. Don’t get lured onto the content hamster-wheel.”

Pritchard also encouraged the audi-ence not to be scared of consistency in their work over longer periods. “It takes time and repetition to build a memory and build a brand.

But all too often we change because we believe campaigns wear out. It’s actually just the opposite: repetition is needed for ideas to wear in,” Pritchard said.

He finished where he started: backing human creativity. “The heart and soul of brands comes from the hearts and souls of people.”