Camp Cannes

Turns Out That a Lot of Folks Want to Know About Empathy

2008-06-26T19:19:23Z

Ok, we were hoping for a good turn out. But, when nearly 200 people showed up for our Camp Cannes session, we were amazed. More than anything, we were stunned that nearly 200 people could fit into a room only supposed to hold 50. (I suppose that the French have a laissez faire approach to room capacity and fire hazards.) Regardless, I just had to share the sign-in sheets--folks from every country and agency you can think of.

Looking forward to continuing the dialogue with everyone!

- Amanda Van Nuys

Workshop Recap

2008-06-20T00:42:59Z

We're still working on cutting down a highlight reel to show the process of the workshop exercise. In the meantime, here's a recap in text and pictures:

The Exercise

People divided into teams of 8-9. Each team was assigned a unique target. The assignment for all teams was to engage the target, search for insights and surprises, develop a thumbnail sketch of a persona, decide upon a "gift," or simple truth, about the persona, then brainstorm ways to reinvent travel with this gift in mind. Oh, and they had an hour to do it.

Team 1

Target: Young creatives. 20-30 years old. At Cannes for the first time.
Insight: They learn more in a few days at Cannes than they do in a year at school.
Idea: "Edu-tourism" -- travel specially designed for students to immerse themselves in an environment that will give them a useful, more practical understanding of their field of study. For example, students interested in Web and software could take a package trip to Redmond, Washington, to learn more about Microsoft first hand and meet other students from around the globe who share these interests.

Team 2

Target: Festival regulars from Asia/Pacific. 30+ years old. They have been to Cannes more than once.
Insight: The only downside of travel is being away from loved ones. These people want to be be able to erase distance and connect emotionally.
Idea: A product called "Close" -- a pair of wristbands that can transmit sensations to the wearer of the paired wristband -- travelers can do just that. The tagline is "Far away, so close."

Team 3

Target: Booth workers. Age not important. Representing their agency, company or product at Cannes. Have traveled from outside of France.
Insight: They spend so much time on the road, vacation for them is being at home.
Idea: Bring the comforts and familiarities of home to the travel experience. This could mean providing a favorite blanket or teddy bear (with a beer cooler in his belly!).

Team 4

Target: Festival regulars from South America/Europe. 30+ years old. They have been to Cannes more than once.
Insight: Travel is the one moment they have to themselves, a moment for self-indulgence/-improvement.
Idea: Air Max. Make the most of air travel by increasing the number of window seats, installing exercise bikes and massage chairs on board, etc.
We decided a winner by people's choice and the winner was...Team 2!
Doing Camp Organic in one hour was an experiment we weren't sure would work. The results were impressive. It was fun to watch each team go through discovery, discussion, debate, and deliberation, as well as to hear the insights and ideas presented. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participiated.

Welcome To Camp Cannes

2008-06-18T15:03:43Z

Welcome to the Camp Cannes blog!

Here we'll be recapping our workshop for Cannes Lions 2008 entitled, "Walking in Their Shoes: Boot Camp for Consumer Empathy." We'll post updates as we get them. Feel free to comment and discuss -- we're all ears (and eyes).

First, thanks to everyone who attended the workshop yesterday and apologies to those who were turned away. We tried to fit as many people as we could into the room (as you can see from the photo). For those who missed it, the workshop covered why empathy is important to what we do and how we arrive at it. Those brave souls who elected to stay after that got to experience firsthand via an exercise we call Camp Cannes, a miniature version of Camp Organic, an intense 3-day exercise we do four times a year in Las Vegas.

We love coming to Cannes Lions for the diversity and creativity of the attendees here. We saw both in abundance at the workshop. Close to 200 people attended from 50 different countries and 75 different agencies/companies. From the 35 people who stayed to do the exercise, we witnessed a passion for discovering empathy-based insight and some great ideas sprang from those insights. The latter group were rewarded with t-shirts and cameras...as if the journey itself wasn't a reward.

We're still compiling footage of the workshop presentations, which we'll post later today. Stay tuned.