On the occasion of Cannes Lions 2024, the entire J’ai un pote dans la com team is mobilizing to make you experience the festival as if you were there. Throughout the week, we are meeting personalities from the world of advertising so that they can share their insights on this flagship event, and their vision of the trends that are shaping – and will shape! – the area.
In this article, we welcome Frédéric Raillard, Founder of the FRED & FARID agency. We will discuss his presence at Cannes Lions 2024, his studio [Ai]magination, and AI in general and its link with creative professions.
JUPDLC: Why are you present at Cannes Lions 2024?
Frédéric Raillard : If I am in Cannes today, it is not to represent FRED & FARID, but to represent [Ai]magination, our new AI studio, make contacts and see how we can develop.
JUPDLC: How is this edition going? What do you observe about the trends and dynamics underlying the festival? Do you find sources of inspiration there?
Frédéric Raillard : It’s always nice to come and spot the big trends. There is one that strikes me in particular. It is about the whole rise of deep tech, which we see in particular through buildings here, more and more. A few years earlier, you could see huge BBDO, TBWA, etc. posters. There, I find that there is a tech shift, we find the tech stars (Meta, Snap, and others) but not only that. There is also a tech shift from certain companies that I don’t know, of which I have never heard of, which do B2B and which are in the process of gaining momentum, which are in the process of ” take hold “, that is to say, to take the place. And I find that very strong. When you walk on the Croisette, that’s really the impression it gives. There have never been so many logos that I don’t know, actually. And I find that very interesting.
JUPDLC: Can you tell us about the relationship between AI and creative professions? Should we be afraid of it? See it as an opportunity?
Frédéric Raillard : GenAI is scary, because it’s unknown, it’s technological, we don’t really know how to use it. But, at the same time, it is an extraordinary tool. I was scared, too, at the very beginning. My first prompt was to ask the AI to imagine a dialogue between an old Porsche 911 and a new Tesla. Honestly, I was depressed because the dialogue was super interesting and creative. I told myself that we were simply dead. That we no longer had much meaning in this industry. And then, later, I went to China to discover an initiative by my partner, Feng Huang. He had organized a large exhibition with 100 AI artists: [Ai]imagination. I started to delve a little deeper into it and discover the extraordinary potential that it represented.
JUPDLC: Can you tell us more specifically about the studio [Ai]imagination? What are the issues ?
Frédéric Raillard : With the studio, we wanted to anticipate, we chose to hang on to the dragon’s tail, rather than watch it fly away without us. With the exhibition in China, I realized the loophole that there was in this field, because AI artists were making extraordinary images using brands, whether it was Louis Vuitton, Nike, Balenciaga, etc. They demonstrated a total incomprehension of brand platforms. And on the other side, we had very talented advertising creatives who are a little afraid of AI. There was therefore naturally the need to create a structure made up of creative talents who understand storytelling, brands, the concept and who are also passionate about everything we can do with GenAI. This is the essence of the project [Ai]magination.
JUPDLC: What advice would you give to creatives who are still hesitant about getting started with GenAI?
Frédéric Raillard : I will quote a phrase in the United States that I love, which is: “ When you can’t fight it, embrace it » (Editor’s note: When you can’t fight something, you have to welcome it). We can resist something cheaper, we can resist something faster, or something better… But we can’t resist something that is all of these at the same time. It is impossible to be attentive to this. You really have to go for GenAI, you have to practice it. And it’s through practice that we realize that it’s a bit like when we face a monster in a dream. If we run away from the monster, it becomes bigger and bigger, it becomes more and more frightening. If you approach him and start talking to him, he shrinks, he becomes nice.
To find out more about the FRED & FARID agency, go to its dedicated page!
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