Corporate
Samsung’s Creative Currency Shines at Cannes
7/3/2019
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Samsung Electronics America Head of Programming, Partnerships, Influencer and Talent Michelle Engel (second from right) participates in the Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival panel, “Playing (with) music – why live streaming and video games get fans to listen,” at the Twitch space.
Samsung Electronics America’s marketing and creative communications executives arrived in the South of France in June ready to inspire and learn from their influential counterparts from brands around the world, at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The conference is an annual event where the marketing world’s best minds share key insights and learnings, predict future trends and are awarded for their most compelling work of the year.
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From Left to Right: Shelly Zalis, CEO, The Female Quotient (moderator), Harry Kargman, CEO, Kargo, Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO of Hint and Michelle Crossan-Matos, VP of Strategy and Transformation at Samsung Electronics America.
In panel and roundtable discussions over the five-day event in the iconic city of Cannes, Samsung executives described the company’s shift from product-centric to experience-driven marketing, passionately spoke to the importance of fostering equality and diversity within a company and shared key observations on successfully communicating with Generation Z.
“If you want your brand to win with Gen Z, you’ve got to stop story-telling and you’ve got to start story-living,” said Michelle Crossan-Matos, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Samsung Electronics America, during the iHeartMedia & Publicis Media Lunch Panel with Ryan Seacrest. Gen Z was a hot topic of discussion at the festival, as brands look to capture mindshare of the youngest generation of consumers and creatives in the workplace.
“The next generation doesn’t want talk. They want experiences, and they want technology that helps them live life to the fullest,” said Crossan-Matos.
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Michelle Crossan-Matos, (far left) VP of Strategy and Transformation at Samsung Electronics America, speaks at the Brand Innovators VIP Roundtable, at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Creativity Festival. Others pictured from L to R: Gi-Gi Downs, Edelman Managing Director; Mathieu Gamache, Hershey Canada Sr. Marketing Manager; Luciana Resende Lotze, Visa Sr. VP Marketing Latin America and Caribbean.
That ethos is reflected across many of Samsung’s recent award-winning marketing campaigns. Moving from targeting specific demographics and highlighting the products, Samsung’s marketing efforts of late have showcased a more holistic understanding of the role technology plays in consumers’ passions. The company’s focus on building communities around those consumer passion points has played a crucial part. Think gamers, creators and entrepreneurs, and even fitness-driven consumers.