“Cannes Quick Conversations” on Ambition: Paul Coxhill (COO & President LIONS)

Nick Elliott...Reporting from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as a Cannes Correspondent for The Marketing Society...with " 🌴 Cannes Quick Conversations 🎤 "

This week I had the privilege of interviewing Paul Coxhill, COO & President of LIONS.

👉 “Our ambition for the Festival is to help make the case for marketing and creative marketing as a growth driver.” 📈

The Marketing Society’s theme this year is Ambition.

It's a brilliant question...and what better place to ask about it than Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and who better to ask that the President of LIONS, a festival built around recognising the world’s most ambitious creative work?

So I asked Paul Coxhill the question:

“What is LIONS’ ambition?”

His answer was not the obvious answer of wanting a bigger festival...It was about helping marketers make a stronger commercial case for creativity.

💬 “We want to help marketers make the case to their CEOs and C suite for investment in creativity… we all know that it works, but we are still not very good sometimes at making that case.”

Paul Coxhill expanded on this:

1️⃣ Creativity needs to be recognised as a growth driver, backed by evidence, data and insights.

2️⃣ Cannes is bringing CEOs into the conversation, helping bridge the gap between marketing and the wider business.

3️⃣ Marketing should not sit in isolation. Procurement, Finance, Legal and other business functions all have a role in understanding the value that creativity creates.

🙏 Thank you, Paul Coxhill, for taking the time to share LIONS’ ambition. Here's to achieving your ambition!