Imaginators brand Spotify at Cannes Lions, France

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is the largest global advertising showcase and was an incredible opportunity for Spotify to engage with their global partners. Their new headquarters for 5 days was ‘Spotify Beach’ right on the famous Croisette – a location synonymous with the iconic Cannes Film Festival held a month earlier and a space to inspire and excite marketers about the possibilities of Spotify and what’s next. Spotify consider Cannes Lions Festival the best space to connect with brands with their rich ecosystem of audio fans and creators. Plus, creativity is at the heart of the festival and serves as a natural place for them to underscore their connection to the creative community and inspire global marketers.

Spotify Beach featured more than just its renowned night time performances on the mainstage. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is notorious for its parties that go well into the night and Spotify Beach boasted performances from the likes of Travis Scott, Nas, Bebe Rexha and Camila Cabello ensuring Spotify Beach was the destination amongst leading industry names including Google, Twitter, Instagram, Microsoft, Apple and global advertising agencies including WPP and Havas.

Imaginators were recommended and engaged by the London office of an American, San Francisco based creative agency and tasked with delivering this high profile event to major names within the global creative and music industries. For an event held in June, Project Management began in February with site visits and client meetings to establish design and agree methods of production for almost 300 different items of print across a variety of materials and substrates. As the project evolved, colourways and options were agreed and samples, mock-ups and scale models were provided to ensure all branded elements were agreed prior to production.

Production comprised of an ever expanding array of requirements from the client as the brief changed to accomodate late changes to the build. Imaginators used all of their large, wide and superwide format digital printing systems to provide branding which were small and subtle to big and bold. Quality, finish and colour were all critical to ensure the Spotify brand was identified correctly which provided production challenges overcome by Imaginators knowledge and experience of delivering consistent results across a variety of printing technologies including UV and latex ink across multiple substrates.

All large format graphics were produced by Imaginators at their UK production facility and shipped to Cannes upon three trucks. Branding included a Michelin star restaurant, bars, meeting rooms, sound stages, live podcast studios, multiple stages and a luxury private hillside villa for VVIP guests and artists. Imaginators project management team seamlessly with other trades including set build, power, construction, lighting and audio to ensure working practices were adhered to. Even whilst on site, the client was adding additional branding for production in London which required exceptional levels of crew communications to ensure continuity and delivery to France.

Challenging? Yes. Imaginators in-house installation team were onsite for the duration of the 7 day build, 5 day event and 4 day derig working under the extreme temperatures associated with the south of France both day and night to apply and install multi-layered printed branding which formed a centre piece for Spotify Beach as it occupied its dominent position on the beach adjacent to Google and WPP. Using a variety of materials, Imaginators used 1mm, 3mm, 5mm, 10mm and 20mm foamex, dibond, acrylic, wallpaper, self-adhesive vinyl, environmentally friendly PVC alternatives, canvas and soft fabrics to cover timber structures, walls, roofs and stages of bespoke custom built structures and pre-fabricated structures.

Drawing upon its reputation within the live, music and entertainment industry, Imaginators also provided stage branding for the large beach front stage where artists performed live sets broadcast globally using Spotify’s streaming technology. Imaginators also worked closely with the artists production companies to provide spectacular stage sets – one of which required Imaginators to experiment with the use of diochroic special effects using diochroic film and clear acrylic mounted to stage risers which when combined with custom lighting effects proved a celebrated success.