Michael Swinburn’s Cannes Diary #3

(Pictured: Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya from newly launched Talented.Agency).

Michael Swinburn, senior copywriter at Colenso BBDO is on the ground in Cannes. Swinburn reports exclusively for Campaign Brief.

Hold on to your eyeballs.

I’ve got some great nuggets for you.

I thought it might be career limiting to miss BBDO ‘Big Dog’ Andrew Robertson’s talk. And it would have been. For 30 mins, he made one of the most incredible business cases for the power of humour in advertising I’ve ever seen.

One slide stuck with me in particular. They managed to prove through research exactly which type of humour was the most profitable for brands to use in their work in 2023. It was best described with a German word, Schadenfreude. Defined as ‘the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another’.

In other words, the most profitable humour in the world right now requires a loser.

Mind blowing.

Then I went and saw two young Indian legends Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya who were responsible for The Unfiltered History Tour last year. They’ve just started their own agency called Talented.Agency. They walked onto the stage, told us everything they’ve learned in the last 12 months, and walked off again. My poor little thumbs have never written so many notes so quickly.

Here’s a sound bite that’s still bouncing around in my head:

“When it comes to leadership at Talented.Agency, we don’t ask our people how they’re doing. We ask them how they’re sleeping. In just that one question, we can measure an employee’s mental health, productivity and efficiency. As founders, we can stand on this stage and tell you that we literally know exactly how well every one of our employees are sleeping. And we’re very proud of that.”  – Gautam Reghunath.

I’m off to bed.

Swinny xx