Let me start by stating that I’m not from the promoting or advertising world. So you’ll be able to think about my shock after I was invited to attend the Cannes Lions Worldwide Competition of Creativity to current a venture to the Titanium Lions jury. I had no concept what to anticipate. I hadn’t even met the group I used to be working with in particular person. However I’m getting forward of myself.
The way it all started
My experience lies within the dependancy and restoration realm. As an opioid survivor who struggled with dependancy for years, this subject is close to and expensive to my coronary heart.
About six months previous to Cannes, I obtained an e-mail from a group at Serviceplan Munich inviting me to hitch a venture they have been engaged on. The group had been researching individuals who managed to give up opioids—individuals who shared their tales with hundreds of others and have been glad to take action.
After weeks of analysis, they discovered my Soberdogs movies on TikTok and YouTube and contacted me. Connections like this cemented in me the advertising energy and attain of social media—it’s completely unimaginable {that a} group in Germany discovered a TikTok I shared and have been capable of attain out.
The venture was a few restoration helpline referred to as 855-HOW-TO-QUIT. Callers who have been struggling to give up opioids have been capable of dial the extension of the distinctive imprint code from their opioid drugs, which led to a narrative from somebody who give up that very same tablet.
The idea blew me away. I had by no means seen a marketing campaign about opioids in such a exact manner, and with drugs as the primary component. It jogged my memory of an expertise throughout my time in jail: A speaker resonated with me as a result of I may relate to his story. And now I might be that somebody for someone else. I instantly acquired on board.
I’ll admit, I initially had some doubts about how critically a group based mostly in Germany—none of whom have been in restoration themselves—would take this venture. However that doubt disappeared after our very first video name. They have been genuinely and had an important concept. And we had the choice of reaching much more individuals. That’s the facility of promoting and advertising: You may make an actual influence on these in want.
En path to Cannes
As I ready for the journey to France and researched the competition, I started to understand the magnitude of this occasion. It’s usually described because the “Tremendous Bowl” of the advertising business.
My journey to France had a little bit of a tough begin. Simply as I landed in Europe—for the primary time ever—the airline misplaced my baggage. Together with a number of others.
