Variety’s Cannes Lions Studio, presented by Canva, concludes after a week of hosting the industry’s most influential voices to discuss their work and future visions for marketing, media, and Hollywood.
Highlights include Queen Latifah and the senior vice president of commercial strategy and marketing at Novo Nordisk Tejal Vishalpura, as well as CMO of NBCUniversal Josh Feldman and CMO and SVP of customer experience and brand marketing at Volkswagen of America Rachael Zaluzec. Check out their conversations below.
More from Variety
Josh Feldman – CMO, NBCUniversal, and Rachael Zaluzec – CMO and SVP of Customer Experience and Brand Marketing, Volkswagen of America
Josh Feldman, the CMO of NBCUniversal advertising and partnerships and Rachael Zaluzec, the CMO and SVP of customer experience and brand marketing at Volkswagen of America sat down with Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton to talk about their process of working together to creative advertising concepts.
“I start by listening. When we speak to somebody like Rachael and her team at Volkswagen, we want to know what they want to accomplish. We need to know what their objectives are and how we can help service them,” Feldman said. “The beauty of working with somebody that’s at a place like NBCUniversal is that we have a ton of solutions.”
Zaluzec mentioned that this year was going to be a huge year for them because of the launch of their ID Buzz in the United States. Zaluzec said it was crucial to find the right partner for this project, and it was clear that NBC was the right choice.
“NBCU offers us so many different ways to go in so that we can be efficient in terms of how we target, but we can use all of those different tools that they have available to us to make sure that we’re bringing the vehicle preciously to the right people at the right time,” she said. “The partnership with Saturday Night Live, it is the perfect way for us to bring those two icons together in a moment that I think is really going to be meaningful for us.”
Queen Latifah and Tejal Vishalpura – Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy and Marketing, Novo Nordisk
In 2021, celebrated singer and actress Queen Latifah joined Tejal Vishalpura at Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk Health Incentives to defeat “serious chronic diseases” such as diabetes and obesity. While at the Variety Studio, Latifah and Vishalpura discussed how they have been “unlocking the science of treatment” over the past three years.
When first tackling obesity, Vishalpura knew it would take more than scientific study. To get to the heart of the problem, she first needed to “bust all of these barriers” and “cultural beliefs” that deter people from seeking treatment.
“We needed to bust the shame and blame and stigma. We knew we could not do that alone,” Vishalpura said. “We wanted to partner with someone who has amazing purpose and respect. [Latifah’s] voice and authenticity are incredible. And so we’re just so incredibly excited to have partnered with Queen.”
The mission of “breaking down the stigma and shame” is what first motivated Latifah to join the Novo Nordisk team. The actor and musician praised the company for not trying to “promote anything” and instead focusing on “talking to people about obesity, what it is and what it isn’t.”
“Educating folks out there, educating doctors, learning from doctors, learning from people, and it [relates] to my own family and friends, people I know who are experiencing it or things I’ve been through in life,” Latifah said. “So it was very relatable in that sense. And so I thought, ‘Why not?’ Because this is very important to people and how they feel about life.”
Check out the rest of our Variety Cannes Lions Studio recaps here.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
