Amplify Marketing Festival review | Scotland

Modern marketing. Is it about selling products or is it something deeper? The theme of marketing for the “greater good” has never been more relevant as brands, agencies, and consumers are beginning to align with the goals of sustainability, inclusion, and authenticity, however, alongside this, we’re also adapting to a new digital world with the rise of AI blurring the lines between the real and the ‘fake’. I was delighted to see the theme of this year's Amplify festival, and with a diverse mix of speakers I was full of hope that I’d leave with a renewed sense of purpose and motivation that all was not lost, the computers aren’t in fact ‘coming for our jobs’ and we do still have the power to create meaningful change. Spoiler alert, I was not left disappointed.

The Cannes Lion Review

The morning was opened by Julian Boulding, founder of thenetworkone, who took us on a whistle-stop tour through the highlights of this year's Cannes Lions Festival. Having never attended myself, I was incredibly intrigued to hear firsthand what it’s all about, perfect as Julian, a Cannes Veteran with over 20 years of experience of the event himself. I’ve always had a bit of an avoidant feeling for the festival, with the majority of mainstream press coverage showcasing what looks like a copy and paste of the same event or panel over and over again, so I was really enlightened to hear from Julian how much change he’s noticed in the festival, particularly over the past 2 years with more and more attendees looking to explore the Fringe, rather than the core events themselves, an excellent step in the right direction, particularly for an industry that prides itself on pushing for diversity and inclusion.

Of course, there is still tremendous value in those core events, particularly as they allow all markets an opportunity to showcase their greatest activations on a global stage, inspiring many. Julian included multiple examples of his favourite work but 2 campaigns stood out to me in particular;

Phillips: Better Than New (Europe)
A perfect example of a company putting its money where its mouth is and truly investing in sustainability by refurbing its products and selling on to consumers with the same 2-year warranty as new goods giving a new life to its products and reducing landfills.

Doordash and The Superbowl (USA)
Capitalizing on the TV event of the year – The Superbowl – Doordash looked to create a campaign so compelling and exciting that everyone HAD to get involved. Their initiative to ‘Win the Ads’ (an idea potentially stolen from Ant and Dec), saw them offer the chance for viewers of the game to win everything they saw advertised within the program, all within the Doordash platform, demonstrating that you really can order anything on Doordash, the only catch, you had to crack the code featured in their ad. This has viewers flooding to social media to take home the $480,000 in prizes, driving a level of user engagement and content generation that a marketing team could only dream of!

Celebrating Craft

By far my favourite session of the day was the fireside chat with David Eustace, an all-round legend who shared some highlights from his career and some wisdom from what he’s learned along the way. Unlike most fireside chats, this session was full of honesty and humour as well as some cracking phrases like ‘prada-lada-gucci-pucci’.

This is such a hard session to recap, you really had to be there! The biggest takeaway for me was that attitude, authenticity, and adaptability are central to success, and this was apparent in every story David told.

The Amplify Debate

Next up was the infamous Amplify debate where we saw 4 industry leaders go head to head with the motion – ‘Is AI the greatest marketing tool ever’. For the motion we had Natalya Ratner and Pete Martin and against the motion were Chris Marsh and Cara Chambers.

Natalya kicked off the debate with a sensational start, jumping straight in to demonstrate the full creative capabilities of AI by having it write a script on her behalf around why it was the best marketing tool, in the style of Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, even citing the tool as ‘The little black dress of the marketing world’. With the audience immediately engaged, Chris then approached the debate with a much more literal point, choosing to drill into the wording of the motion – the best-ever marketing tool – and expanding on this through demonstrating alternative examples of what could be considered as a better marketing tool, namely TV with Cara digging deeper into the faults of AI including its lack of knowledge of the future, the tool is reliant on consistently reflecting on the past. Whilst Pete and Natalya fuelled the debate with some very strong rebuttals, holes began to appear in their statements around creativity and other tools, leaving an opportunity for Cara and Chris to bring the argument home with an excellent summation, that whilst the team might not agree that TV is the best marketing tool ever, many other alternatives had now been highlighted therefor disproving the point that AI could ever be the best.

Moral of the story here, focusing on the wording of the motion might just gain you the win.

The Ogilvy Lecture

Shifting away from the digital world and focusing on something much more human, we were then treated to this year's Ogilvy lecture hosted by Pete Markey who added such a special touch to the day by showcasing a small highlight reel of the incredible work being actioned by Boots who really are ‘driving good in what they do’, through their storytelling, products, people and spaces. Examples shared included their previous Christmas ad which featured iconic drag queen The Vivienne, putting inclusion at the heart of their most important brand ad of the year. We then saw a moving piece around their work with No7 and cancer patients, with in-store make-up artists specifically trained for those going through treatment, made easily identifiable through coloured lanyards. In the film shared we were able to see the real impact of this service on a young woman and gain a better understanding of how this can provide a comfortable space for others just like her. Finally, we were presented with their GenM campaign through the Menopause Monologues, a series featuring 6 celebrities including Gabby Logan and Sally Phillips, along with their introduction of ‘Menopause Friendly’ symbols throughout their stores to easily identify products which help with symptoms. 

Client versus Agency

And last, but certainly not least, we had the client versus agency, the perfect end for the day to really demonstrate what marketing for good can really achieve. This was an incredibly hard challenge to judge with 10 incredible campaigns and 10 equally passionate marketeers driven to ensure their campaign hit home with the audience. The campaigns were split into 5 Categories; Gender Equality, Environmental, Societal, Health, and LGBTQ+.

Whilst all campaigns were excellent, there was 1 category that really stood out to me, Gender equality. Both campaigns and campaigners here made it very difficult to chose which was strongest. Izabela made an excellent case for her Maybelline campaign which gave me goosebumps as we watched male gamers disguised as female gamers enter the online gaming environment to experience what life online is like for girls. This was actually quite a tough watch as we saw and heard immediate verbal abuse hurled towards the woman, however, Hamish also presented an excellent case with his Create the Internet campaign where we were able see firsthand just how biased AI can be with misinformation spreading across the internet. Whilst both campaigns hit hard, the Maybeline one slipped slightly ahead in my mind due to the compelling narrative and emotional impact it delivered. It effectively highlighted the pervasive gender inequality within the gaming world and beyond, sparking a broader conversation about the importance of addressing these issues. The emotional resonance and raw authenticity of the Maybelline campaign ultimately made it stand out as a powerful reminder of the work still needed to achieve true gender equality.

By the end of the event, I felt a renewed sense of hope and inspiration. The diverse discussions, from the power of AI to the deeply human elements of marketing for good and the endless amount of examples that were shared, reassured me that meaningful change is not only possible but already in motion. The event left me with the realisation that while technology like AI can play an important role, it’s never a replacement for the human heart, it’s the authenticity, creativity, and purpose behind campaigns that truly drive impact.

Paige Brown
Account Director, Carat 

Published on 17 September 2024