Unilever targets Cannes Lions as part of creative transformation

There are more global marketers from Unilever attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year than ever before as the consumer goods company aims to boost its understanding of creativity.

That's according to Aline Santos, chief brand officer and chief equity, diversity and inclusion officer at Unilever, who explained that the move is part of the company's creative transformation which it launched in July 2021.

She explained that she wants Unilever's marketers to be closer to the creative space, the creatives, to see other people and learn from others.

In an interview with Campaign, she said: "In this day and age it's very, very important that you don't become arrogant about what you do about advertising and I want my marketers to watch as many presentations as they can because there's always something to learn from others.

"There's not a particular talk here and there but I think in general there's so much to learn this week and as we say at Unilever we need to be on the frontline, so getting out there and out of the marketing bubble that we sometimes live in, which is completely unrealistic and far from the society that we serve."

The council is made up of chief marketing officers from Unilever's five business groups, as well as chief creative officers and executive creative directors from WPP, IPG, Omnicom, Oliver and Edelman.