Day Five at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2010 saw Marc Pritchard, Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer, P&G address the audience on the challenge of shifting from marketing to serving consumers. exchange4media caught up with Pritchard and Sumeet Vohra, Marketing Director, P&G India, on various issues relating to agency relations, marketing and what it meant for clients to be at Cannes Lions.

The P&G Team at Cannes Lions this year comprises 20 people from across markets such as India, China, Brazil, Russia and the Middle East, to name a few. In addition to the marketing heads, various functional heads are also here.

Speaking on attending Cannes Lions, Pritchard said, �It is very important for marketers to be at Cannes, it is the creative epicentre of our industry. We don�t just have marketing heads here, but also our market research people and PR people. We bring them here to be inspired and to take back to each of their markets what they learn here. It gives you inspiration, and my expectation is that members from our team will take back the big ideas into their markets.�

Vohra added here, �This is my first time, and I was very happy that we are part of the winners � the last count was eight Lions. I was very happy to see our work being recognised and to be on the same table with the rest of the world. When you look around, you see there is so much you can do. Personally, it has been a great return on investment � both from the money and ideas standpoint. My head is buzzing with ideas. It is egging me on how I can get more from what we have, from what we are doing. I am inspired and raring to go. I have been in this business now for 18 years, but I have the enthusiasm of a child right now.�

Earlier in the day, Pritchard spoke about the challenge to shift from marketing to serving consumers, and the new approaches and models that drove purpose-inspired creativity. He cited the examples of some of the work done by P&G globally in this direction. This included the Women Against Lazy Stubbles (W.A.L.S.) campaign by Gillette in India, Tide dry cleaners in the US and the global initiative Pur that revolved around providing pure drinking water to people.

Pritchard observed, �Today, consumers have higher expectations from brands and are asking them what more are they doing to influence their lives, and the societies they live in. Brands and businesses need to show that they are doing more for the world.�

The complete interview with Marc Pritchard will appear in the Cannes Lions Print Special and the July issue of Pitch.