Conceived, cooked & printed – all all through dinner in Cannes

At Cannes Lions this week, we amassed for a dinner with Comscore titled Creative Alchemy: Where Art Meets Insight. And in spite of the title, there have been no gowns or effervescent cauldron – simply nice wine, unbelievable other people and a straightforward thought: creativity is the power to show a spark of inspiration into fact. That’s it. That’s the magic.

The layout: one thought, many alchemists

The layout was once somewhat easy, if quite mad. Comscore invited a handful people to dinner – to not stare at a slide deck, however to enjoy what occurs when creativity, perception and era come in combination over a couple of bottles of Italian pink.

There was once meals from chef Bruno Sellier, wine expertly paired via David Rabaud, and a marvel reside efficiency from Monsieur Orange, a Parisian side road musician whose orange hat was once handiest outdone via his appeal. “There’s a structure beneath every song,” he mentioned, “but the heart lives in the energy exchanged with the crowd.” Quite proper.

There was once additionally Elena Papernaya, an architect-turned-artist whose refined summary items captured fleeting moments of emotion. “You have to slow down to notice the small things,” she informed me. “Like a child discovering the world for the first time.”

And, after all, there was once me, scribbling away on my iPhone like some kind of virtual alchemist, making an attempt to supply an editorial reside, mid-dinner, with the assistance of a couple of AI equipment (and a good glass of Franciacorta).

Creativity is a workforce recreation

It’s simple to overlook that creativity isn’t the unique area of people that put on ironic glasses and speak about ‘disruption.’ Jackelyn Keller, Comscore’s CMO, reminded us of that proper originally. “Only cultural intelligence is the fusion of data, measurement and insight,” she mentioned – ahead of admitting that sounds “a lot like jargon” and promptly scrapping the PowerPoint in favour of wine and reside song. A girl after my very own middle.

What Keller and her workforce did – along the intense and perhaps legendary Frank Friedman, Comscore’s Data Alchemist (leader knowledge and analytics officer) – was once display us that construction, perception and rigor are inventive acts, too. Friedman wasn’t there at the evening, however his fingerprints have been. “We don’t just polish data,” he as soon as mentioned. “We melt it down, reshape it, and extract insight like gold from ore.” Which, frankly, sounds extra poetic than maximum company manifestos.

AI helped, however it wasn’t the spark

Now, complete disclosure: this newsletter was once generated reside all through the development the usage of AI. That’s proper – we grew to become wine, cheese and stray quotes into publishable prose quicker than that you must say cross the focaccia.

But right here’s the item: none of this could have came about if any person, someplace, hadn’t had the speculation to do it within the first position. AI is an impressive software, positive. But it’s now not the supply of the spark. People are.

It’s the sommelier discovering stability in a pairing. The artist who captures time in a brushstroke. The knowledge scientist who sees patterns no person else can. The side road performer who improvises a melody that makes a cocktail party really feel like a revolution.

Wartime, peacetime & alchemy

Cannes this yr felt extra “wartime CMO” than “peacetime strategist.” Everyone’s speaking potency, ROI, sensible allocation. Fair sufficient. But don’t lose sight of what were given us right here: that quite irrational urge to make one thing from not anything. To flip a passing thought right into a meal, a track, a marketing campaign – or perhaps a dialog price remembering.

That’s the actual inventive alchemy. And it doesn’t reside in a division. It lives within the individuals who act on their concepts.

So thanks to Jackelyn, Frank, Elena, Monsieur Orange, David – and the entire inventive alchemists hiding in undeniable sight.

Now, if any person may just simply repair the Wi-Fi…