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Fortune\u00a0<\/em>opened its flagship Fuel Up event at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with\u00a0a\u00a0panel\u00a0discussion\u00a0with\u00a0Gstaad Guy, the fictional Swiss bon vivant whose alter ego skewers the ultra-wealthy and lampoons the luxury brands many in the room work for.?\u00a0<\/p>\n His signature verdict on anything falling short of his exacting standards:\u00a0\u00c0 la\u00a0poubelle<\/em>. Straight to the bin, darling. A mediocre canap\u00e9?\u00a0\u00c0 la\u00a0poubelle.<\/em>\u00a0An uninspired brand campaign?\u00a0\u00c0 la<\/em>\u00a0poubelle.<\/em>\u00a0The word authenticity, deployed lazily at a marketing conference?\u00a0Absolument<\/em>\u00a0\u00e0 la\u00a0poubelle.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Gstaad Guy has become a sought-after partner for the very brands he satirizes, most recently through a collaboration with Bentley. \u201cPeople are buying the things I\u2019m speaking about playfully, without me trying to sell them,\u201d he said. \u201cI was talking about the brands I work with today long before working with them.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0where the authenticity comes in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This authenticity has leant his commercial relationships credibility with Gstaad Guy\u2019s 3.1 million Instagram and TikTok followers. \u201cPeople assume that when you become more commercial, the content may lose that feel,\u201d he added. \u201cThat actually never happened\u2026it was quite the opposite.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Authenticity is a key consideration for consumers, with 97% saying\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a key factor in deciding whether to support a brand and 81% reporting that they have stopped supporting a brand that no longer felt genuine, according to a\u00a02026 Clutch report.?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was talking about the brands I work with today long before working with them.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0where the authenticity comes in\u201d<\/p>\n Gstaad Guy at Fortune<\/em> flagship Fuel Up event at Cannes Lions<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cWhen a connection is authentic and real, it\u2019s obvious to both parties,\u201d Gstaad Guy said. \u201cAnd when it\u2019s artificial or forced, it\u2019s equally obvious. The audience always knows.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That tension is particularly visible in sport, where audiences are among the most invested and the least forgiving.\u00a0Brands spend enormous sums trying to capture attention, yet sport is one of the few places where it is genuinely given rather than grudgingly captured.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSport is the great unifier,\u201d said Emily Ketchen, senior vice\u00a0president\u00a0and CMO of Lenovo\u2019s intelligent devices group. \u201cWhether you support the same team or not, you can talk about it and have fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For Toby Craig, chief communications officer of Manchester United, the fans need to be treated as invested participants in the 148-year-old football club, rather than passive consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey give us their time, they give us their passion, and they give us their commitment. And they expect the same back from us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to have relationships where the brands who work with us activate in an authentic way.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Craig cited the club\u2019s deal with Qualcomm\u2019s computer chip and processor brand Snapdragon. It works, he said, because its devices are genuinely used to shoot Manchester United\u2019s football content. The test, Craig said, is whether the partnership produces something real for fans rather than just decorating the shirt.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea isn\u2019t just to slap on a logo and say, \u2018presented by X,’\u201d agreed Kraft Heinz\u2019s North America CMO, Todd Kaplan. \u201cIt has to go beyond the logo.\u201d Authentic brand moments, he argued, do not come from presence but from identity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That instinct produced the wonderfully eccentric Wienie 500, which sees six Oscar Mayer-branded \u201cWienermobiles\u201d (27-foot hot dogs on wheels that have been rolling around American highways since 1936) racing full throttle around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Oscar Mayer is a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz that is best known for producing hot dogs and cold cut meats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now in its second year, the race takes place on the same weekend as the Indianapolis 500\u2014one of the biggest race days in U.S. sport\u2014and ends with the winner being doused in mustard and handed the Borg-Wiener Trophy.\u00a0Last year\u2019s inaugural event drew 85,000 attendees and millions of livestreamers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone had the idea of racing them at Indianapolis to mark the start of America\u2019s grilling season,\u201d Kaplan said. The Wienermobile has been part of American culture for 90 years, long before anyone thought to race one\u2014and that history, Kaplan argued, is what makes the event feel authentic.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more: \u2018This is the least crazy AI is ever going to be\u2019:\u00a0The lessons\u00a0Europe\u2019s execs must take from Anthropic\u2019s shutdown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cLive sports is the last great lean-in moment,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you can find a way to organically, authentically connect, that is what we\u2019ve been focusing on.\u201d The best ideas, he added, come from unbriefed sessions where agency partners fire ideas at one another. \u201cA lot of our best ideas are unbriefed ideas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n AI is also changing the way marketers approach creativity and portray authenticity. More than three-quarters (78%) or marketers say they are concerned that increased AI use could reduce consumer trust in brands, according to a survey of 1,100 marketing and finance decision-makers across the U.S., U.K., and Canada, conducted by\u00a0Fortune\u00a0<\/em>in partnership with Morning Consult.\u00a0<\/p>\n One-third (34%) believe AI will replace some creative functions and 19% think it will significantly reduce the need for human creativity altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite AI\u2019s perceived threat to the creative function, Lucinda Barlow, head of international Marketing at Uber, believes the technology cannot replicate the human emotion, such as humor or entertainment, that is a requirement for the best campaigns. \u201cThose feelings are really hard to replicate with AI,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Zena Srivatsa Arnold, CMO at beauty company Sephora,\u00a0added that marketers must remember there\u00a0is always a \u201cperson behind the data.\u201d Brands can use AI to analyze trends, she said, but they are\u00a0ultimately selling\u00a0to real people whose feelings and identities data cannot fully capture on its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m feeling this time is a deep acknowledgment of the power of human creativity\u2026that this is actually seen as a competitive advantage for your brand, for your business\u201d<\/p>\n Lucinda Barlow, head of international Marketing at Uber<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Timothy Young, CEO of marketing AI agent business Jasper AI, believes the greatest benefits of AI depend on the people using it. \u201cYou need somebody on your marketing team that really understands the human side to be a tastemaker and shift what the model is doing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where you can find the magic accelerator for your brand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He added: \u201cAuthenticity is a function of trust over time.\u201d The brands that chase every meme are the equivalent of the artist who sold out on their sophomore album. \u201cWe all know those artists. Their whole catalog tells the story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year at the Cannes Lions festival, Barlow recalled that most panels celebrated AI, while the conversations offstage feared it. \u201cPeople would get off the panel and\u00a0immediately\u00a0say, \u2018Oh my god, I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0be here next year.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to lose my job.’\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n However, this year, she said, the attitude towards AI was different. \u201cWhat I\u2019m feeling this time is a deep acknowledgment of the power of human creativity\u2026that this is actually seen as a competitive advantage for your brand, for your business.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Regardless of what the technology can do, people\u2019s judgment, so far,\u00a0remains\u00a0unchanged. Audiences cannot be fooled and the brands still trying to manufacture what can only be earned\u2026well,\u00a0\u00e0<\/em>\u00a0la\u00a0poubelle.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Stay up to date with our on-the-ground coverage from Cannes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Leaders #Manchester #United #Football #Club #Uber #Kraft #Heinz #content #creator #Gstaad #Guy #human #creativity #authenticity #matter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fortune\u00a0opened its flagship Fuel Up event at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with\u00a0a\u00a0panel\u00a0discussion\u00a0with\u00a0Gstaad Guy, the fictional Swiss bon vivant whose alter ego skewers the ultra-wealthy and lampoons the luxury… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10990,8290,803,8291,5062,8292,6695,10988,8145,10989,9192,8449,334,8448,1802,5546,5741,6675,7593,2545,548],"class_list":["post-8925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-authenticity","tag-cannes-lions","tag-club","tag-cmo","tag-content","tag-creativity","tag-creator","tag-digital-content","tag-football","tag-gstaad","tag-guy","tag-heinz","tag-human","tag-kraft","tag-leaders","tag-londonarticles","tag-manchester","tag-marketing","tag-matter","tag-uber","tag-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
Winning the crowd<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Why AI makes human creativity more valuable, not less<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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