By Ingrid Prowse, Senior Account Director

Oh dear god. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Feck. Last night was not a good idea. Getting home at 5am was not a good idea. Champagne, rose, beer, repeat, repeat, repeat, really was not a good idea.

Davvers, I know you’re wanting to see a video blog at this point, but no way.

So I woke up at about 11am. My phone has decided to stop charging and I’ve got no alarm now (yes I’m blaming the phone entirely), and no phone. It’s like being in the dark ages. Tomorrow might involve a trip to the Apple store but it’s back out near the airport and way too much of a challenge for today.

I dragged myself across the road to see the Facebook: The Psychology and Creativity of Sharing seminar and I’ve never seen so many people in my life! I think the entire population of Lions delegates were queuing to get into this one. Exactly what I didn’t need. The seminar room filled up and so I had to watch it from the live streaming room, which was full also. And I had to sit on the floor. Struggletown.

The talk started off in an unusual fashion…things seemed to be going well for Paul Adams, Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook, but all of a sudden he asked for a “few minutes” and walked off stage. I think everyone thought it was a joke, some people were laughing, some clapping, some cheering. I was just really confused. Then he came back, apologised, said he’d got a bit overwhelmed, and carried on. Okkaaayy.

The spiel re the talk was we’re debunking the myth of the “influencer” and understanding that all of us are influential in different contexts, and that Paul would talk in depth about these patterns of behaviour, and why what we’re seeing is the greatest creative opportunity of our generation. But he didn’t really do that. Shame. Here’s what I found interesting:

- Etsy have this cool function called “gift ideas”, which aggregates any of your Facebook friends “likes” and suggests gifts from Etsy based on their preferences. The aggregation of information is where it gets pretty powerful.

- For something to be social we need to understand the fundamental principles of social interaction. And here’s where I learnt a new word: Homophily, which is the principle that contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people – i.e. similarity breeds connection, the whole birds of a feather thing.

And for something to truly be social we need to:

1. Make social interaction a fundamental part of the brief

2. Base creative ideas on real insights about social interaction

3. Think of Facebook as a new type of creative canvas. It needs to be thought of differently

4. Always design the news feed story first

So ahh….that was kind of it for me yesterday. I was broken, hangry (so hungry you’re angry), and needed a cafe au lait and to try and sort out something with my phone. So I bailed. Oh and I had to get to a dinner with Mi9, which I found out was not a division of British Military Intelligence but actually a Microsoft/Channel 9 thing. I still talked to them about spies and espionage and they all seemed interested so thanks for the hook up Galvo.

Other stuff:

French learnt: J’ai besoin de 6 bouteilles d’eau s’il vous plaît

The Gutter Bar is somewhat of a Cannes institution. I know why they chose that name.

Baguettes eaten: 6 (it’ s a total carb fest here)

Wheels of Camembert eaten: 1

Time it takes to get a coffee in this town: 20 mins

Time it takes to get breakfast: 50 minutes (seriously it’s crazy, service is like…so last season)

Ryan Gosling sightings: 0 and I give up. Pooks kindly sent me this lovely video of a rather youthful Ry Ry and some jazzy dance moves. Big love Pooks.

My favourite creative from the festival so far (an ad for a Chinese aquarium). Amaze.