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Cannes Lions Takeaways with Margaux Pepper - Epi 26 · WOI Unfiltered

• speaker-0: Alright I just hit record. speaker-2: Wait a second, wait a second, let me grab coffee. Hey J speaker-0: Goodness. How are you? speaker-2: Things are good this week. How about you? speaker-0: Good. We have a fun episode. We teased this in our last episode. but this is our Can Con 2.0. I was gonna say, we're gonna introduce our guest. I'll let you do the honors, and then we have to ask a question before we get going. A really big question. Yeah, yeah. speaker-1: Toop speaker-2: So go for it. Great. Well, so today we have Margot Pepper on, who is one of our former colleagues from Weber Shanwick. she has been a real player on the landscape at Weber for many, many years. She's she's over a decade there. and she has held many roles that has given her an inside look into multi-channel. That's so there's now an EVP of strategy for Weber in the Chicago office. So Marg was tapped to go to con this year. and she's gonna give us those on-the-ground insights that we teased in the last episode. So welcome Margot. speaker-1: Thank you. Hi. Glad to be here. speaker-2: You. Yeah. So our first question is when you're over there, do you say con or do you say can? speaker-1: Such a good question. the funny thing is, I think I say can, even though every other French word I say pretentiously, like I I say croissant, and my husband always makes a lot of fun of me for that. But I did bring a dress with tomato can print on it, and I was like can for can. So you know, for the pun alone, had had to pronounce it that way. You you speaker-2: give you know, listeners a shout out to your Instagram 'cause it is fun content, Margot. speaker-1: It's my name. It's at Margot Pepper. it's my creative outlet. It's where I do all of my weird fun photo shoots. I try out TikTok trends. I do lots of cooking content, fashion content, and whatever weird vision I decide to create that day. So speaker-2: It's so entertaining. And I I do have to ask this too, 'cause I know you're a Taylor fan, but I cannot stop looking for information about her wedding. What what's your speaker-1: My hot take actually relates to Can because I feel like multiple things can be true at the same time. I think I'm so happy for her. I want to see all the photos, especially the dress. I want to know everything. And also it is like a billionaire and all of their rich friends having a party together while there was a heat wave in New York. So it's like it's a juxtaposition. It's multiple things are true at the same time. but also, you know, yes, I'm a big Swifty. speaker-2: Okay, super speaker-0: We'd have to I'm also just kind of disappointed that it was in New York. Like, I just thought she would do her Rhode Island estate. She goes there for Fourth of July. It's gorgeous. I'm biased because I live in New England, but like speaker-2: I know, Jenna, that's a good call. speaker-0: I just see pictures, but speaker-1: If she was marrying herself, but I do think there's a lot of Travis in the you know what I mean? Like in in the Madison Square Garden of it all, I'm I'm seeing some of the the flash and the you know his speaker-2: circumstance. And it really a security level. I I will say that. They know what they're doing. And Cloak and Dagger, she controlled the narrative as she always does, which kudos. speaker-1: My husband's hot take is she's gonna release a documentary about it, which I think has now been maybe it's used that they're gonna do like a like era's tour style, you know, video thing, but of the wedding, which people would watch and pay to watch. speaker-2: I mean they would. It's kind of annoying though, but I am of course gonna watch it. Sorry. I there are two things definitely at one. speaker-0: Here's the thing, is I would love to be like, don't do that. You don't need more money. But she she does give away so much money that I'm like awesome. speaker-2: Give it all upsetting of the charitable contributions for sure. speaker-0: She does a great job with that. So there's only so much critiquing because you know, just trying to not keep it. speaker-2: Are are we ditching the convo for Taylor? No, totally kidding. speaker-0: Just to get moved on so fast and I wanted to just absorb and and claim that I won that one. speaker-1: For a minute. speaker-2: Yes, back to the matter at hand. Jenna won it. For some reason I say con. I also say we we quastle though too. So I don't know. speaker-0: I I don't say any of that. We joked on the last episode, she asked me and I was like, it's can't. It's she Wait, what? I was like, I don't know. I'm just embracing my American heritage. It's can't. It's I just it feels too pretentious the other way. I can't do it. Even if it's correct, I can't do it. speaker-1: Like speaker-2: And well, I I'm okay either way. How about that? speaker-0: Yeah, well you got me last time too. You you did. You intercepted me or I started saying the wrong thing and anyway. Yeah. Let's dive into the meat of this. We've not been to Cannes or Conn. It's I mean we're gonna have to get there at some point, but Margot, let's hear from your first hand account of how it went. speaker-1: No. Yeah. I hope when you go, I get to go again because I feel like it'd be very fun to go while you're there. yeah, I think I think similar to the Taylor situation where multiple things are true at the same time. I was talking with a couple more seasoned can attendees about how has it changed and what is it like. And I do think at its core it is still a celebration of creativity and and the best creative work and ambitious work in our business. But I also think that it's that that's the core of it. And then it's still it's inside of a sales conference. There's a lot of like ad tech, you know, along the Quazette, you have Meta and you have Pinterest and you have all these other you know, Reddit was there, like everybody is trying to sell their wares. And then outside of that, there's yet another ring now that's kind of like Coachella spring break. And that's like the coachellification of Every single creator on your feed was there this year. Like my my friend flew in on a plane with Brittany Broski. Branflakes was like, I walked by and he was taking a photo on the red carpet. and then just even the the local people who were there, like there was a a bachelorette party happening and they were like, what's this? What's this like award festival? I'd never even heard of it. Like it's just really this magnet for. all of France, and and Europe where, you know, you have all of these kind of different experiences happening at the same time. speaker-2: And so when you say kind of the sales ring, right? So you're talking about Reddit, Meta, Pinterest, are they activating in huge ways to you know bring in Yeah. Yeah. Anything cool in that realm? Yeah. speaker-1: I mean, really, really well done experiential. I think if you're in the experiential game, it's like amazing to see the the experiences that are set up. Like visually speaking, it's very Instagrammable and shareable. Pinterest, I think, had one of my favorite experiences, which was they did this bring your Pinterest board to life patisserie, where they had this little magnetic menu with a few of their their top trends. Cause I'm And strategy. I love all of their trend reports. And you would pick a pin that spoke to you, and then they would surprise you with a custom dessert based on that pin. And everyone at the table was a stranger, and you got to like meet each other and connect. And everyone got a different dessert based on their personalized, unique style, which I thought was just very like of their brand and related to their trends. It was a smart, immersive type of interaction. speaker-2: Well, and I love Pinterest 'cause it's still a happy place. Like it doesn't often piss me off where I like shut it down and shake my fist. It's still like a a good place to be. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Exactly. I like that you can turn off the AI on Pinterest too. Like they understand that like some people will want that and some people won't. And their their theme was the best reason to be online is to find a reason to go offline, which resonated, I think. Like speaker-2: It's a really smart line. Yeah. It's true Yeah. w what brought you there? where was it sort of like a, you know, info gathering? I mean, I know they've been there a lot, or was it a certain kind of work that brought you there? speaker-1: This year we do it every year. And while it is a creativity festival and a lot of our creative team goes as a strategist, I think strategy team is really good at finding patterns and connecting dots across disciplines. so I I was there to kind of info gather for our perspective that we're going to be sharing with our clients and with our colleagues as we come back. speaker-0: That's so so can you talk to us a little bit about like how do you how do you plan your itinerary while you're there? I I feel like there's gotta be so many different things that you can attend that all happen, you know, at the same time and are overlapping. How do you go about planning that while you're there? speaker-1: The best advice I got was pick one thing per day that you absolutely can't miss. And I was like, surely that's, you know, too conservative and there's gonna be a, you know, you'll be able to do more things. But really, you you have to prioritize like what is the absolute can't miss most important thing? Because in addition to overlapping and competing options within the palace, all of those other, you know, ad tech firms and like everybody who's along the Quasette that I was describing. They all have their own itineraries and agendas and like fully packed speaker panels, you know, every single day of the week that are also happening. So it's like a hundred different festivals all occurring at the same time. and it's a thousand degrees. So you have to really like if you want to go to one thing here and one thing here, you're gonna like book it in a hundred degree weather and you gotta make sure you don't get heat stroke. So speaker-2: You show up. speaker-0: up somewhere just drenched in sweat, like I'm here to hang on the yacht. speaker-1: It's a it's a good problem to have, right? Like steak too buttery, you know, steak too juicy, lobster too buttery. Like I have too many amazing panels and things that I want to see and inspiration that I want to gather. but I do think that, you know, I I went in with as I do with most things in life, like a spreadsheet and a list and you know, where's the map and where do I wanna go and what's my backup plan if I can't get into this one because there's a celebrity talking and all of those things. so definitely Definitely having a plan going in and having your priorities set, I think really helps. But also just making a little bit of time to wander and be flexible is important too. because you never know what is gonna pop up that you didn't even realize was on the schedule or you hadn't even heard that this one was happening, even though you did all of your research. That happened to me several times and that ended up being some of the the favorite things that I went to. speaker-0: I love that. So how did this year compare to last year in terms of like the energy, the conversations, the topics that we're focused on? speaker-1: Yeah. I mean, for me, I hadn't been back for a decade. so I I feel like my experience of it was more different personally, where when I first went, I was a young lion. So I was as a baby in the industry and I was really focused on competing. and this felt kind of like my going back as a grown-up moment. having had, you know, a decade of of work under my belt and And being there more for the purpose of like this trend report and and having a perspective, versus just, you know, the whirlwind of what is this and who are all these people? And you know, I think the the creator shift is probably the biggest one this year where it it used to be that creators were part of the work, you know, the the actual case studies being submitted. But speaker-2: Yeah. speaker-1: Creators were really a part of the schedule. They were on the stages. They were, again, they they're not realizing it was an awards show at all. it was kind of like a an event for them. and I do think there was a lot more fragmentation of the experiences people had because there were a lot of like exclusive invite-only closed door things. Like I would have loved to go to the Spotify experience. I heard it was very cool. But you literally had to get an invite to get in. to they I think they had the XX play. There was a queer pride party I would have loved to go to where Zara Larson played, but like I don't even know who you talk to or how you know somebody who knows somebody. Yeah. and there were a lot of those. Like I think I think as the C suite has become more involved in can, there have been more Closed door meetings and you know, relationship building moments that are like for Netflix, for example, they had a dinner with the cast of Nobody Wants This, where only CEOs and CMOs were invited to attend and and talk to the cast, which is Netflix using a powerful asset for sure. I'm sure a lot of people wanted to go to that. but it was it was a lot more like exclusive, you know, you had to if you know you know type of events as well. Yeah. speaker-2: When you're saying the creators now are like celebrities there, right? They're walking red carpets and and whatnot. So that does feel like a I mean, we've been going that way for a while, of course, right? Reality television, I feel like, was the unlocker on that years ago. But it's interesting to see these purely social influencers have so much power, but they do. They they literally care influence. So that must have been. Was there anything surprising from anyone showcased there? speaker-1: I think what was most surprising is that people who are outside of our industry knew that can was happening this year. I think can can be very insular. Like we all know what it is. Like if you're in marketing, you know what it is. But there were people who were like my friends who don't know anything about this industry were like, I heard so and so is going to can. Maybe you'll see them there. you know, this influencer I follow, maybe you'll run into them. My mom even was like The ladies from the home edit are gonna be on the Quasette. And I was like, I would love to see them. it really expanded beyond the bubble, I think, of the marketing industry, which is always interesting. I think also, you know, as a person who wants my parents to know and understand the job that I do, like it's cool when when they get it. speaker-0: I think that's awesome, but I also there's that other part of me that wonders like, what does it do to the integrity of the actual award show? Does it does it denigrate that at all? Or is it still intact? And I don't know the answer. I'm just, you know, when something gets this big and takes on such a life of its own, you wonder if it is just going to morph into something else and at some point you're gonna need to have this other award show to take its place or not. but I think that the The influencers and the creators are so interesting. We've talked about this before in other episodes. I mean, people are having these parasocial relationships with them that are if I think back to my youth, it's almost akin to when I used to obsessively read like Us Weekly or In Touch and you see all these random, like in real life stars like us pictures and just absorb it and feel like you have this relationship. And now influencers are doing that, but to the nth degree where you see, you know. ha hundreds of pictures a week of them and people do feel like they have actual relationships with them. So it makes sense that they can command an audience and command, you know, a pay and brands and all of that in the same way that celebs have from when we were kids and growing up. speaker-1: Totally. I I do think it is more fragmented though, where there are some celebrities that have like cross-generational appeal and everyone knows their name and knows who they are. I do think with influencers, unless they're like in your feed and everyone's feed is so different, it's so algorithm driven that there could be an influencer that you've literally never heard of, but they have five million followers. And it it's so interesting to see that. that difference. but that I think that's where the industry is going too is is we have to adapt to fewer fewer mass channels, whether that be television or actual humans and talent and more community driven work. speaker-0: Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah. So what's the moment or what's the thing that you did there when you think back to your experience? What stands out the most? Like what was your favorite interaction there? speaker-1: Ooh, my favorite interaction was I did shed a tear, which I did not expect to do at board conference. I went to the ELF cosmetics panel where the president Corey March Soto and the CEO Tarang were speaking about their their belief in everyone having a seat at the table within their company. And the way that the session was billed was more of a, you know, how do we create such great creative work and how do we have such consistency with like all of these banger campaigns? But the answer was not, you know, we we work with our agency as partners and, you know, all the typical things you'd expect. Their actual answer was they were talking about how the CEO's only goal and priority is wealth creation for their employees and their families, which I have never heard. Ever as a as a goal of a CEO. And they've been growing, by the way, for like 20 something quarters in a row. Like they've had incredible financial success. And they've brought everyone along with them, where they don't just have their C-suite at CAN, they have tons of people from across their organization come. They have all of these annual conferences where again, it's like everyone, you know, it's not based on the hierarchy, it's it's everyone is involved and everyone is rewarded. And everyone has equity stake in the company. So when the company does well, everyone is being paid out and not just their C suite, which I was like, my God, it's beautiful. so that was an unexpected favorite moment for me. Where again you you go into a session thinking it's gonna be one thing and and you never know where the conversation will go. speaker-0: I love that. speaker-2: That's just refreshing. Yeah. speaker-1: Makes me want to buy more elf cosmetics. It really does. speaker-0: go out there and and support them now because they're truly supporting their people. speaker-2: My daughter supports them, so I will stop rolling my eyes when Elf lands in the Sephora cart. But I, you know, I think Margo, while we all agree, like if if more companies can put employee forward, right, and you practice what you preach and all the things, the fallout is just so wildly positive. To have these people that you treat more like family instead of a business, it's just really refreshing to hear. When you think about the work that you saw, so Margot, we did do, as Jenna mentioned, a pre pod on this and we had seen some of the Grand Prix winners across different categories. But what what one piece of work inspired you or gave you an aha moment? speaker-1: I think when when we were talking about creators, something that was really interesting was Vaseline Originals was one of my favorites. It was it was sort of a year two campaign for them because in the past they had done Vaseline Verified, which was really letting their community take the lead on how their products are used, which I think is is uncomfortable for brands a lot of the time. Like we talk about it. as use as not directed, where there are certain ways that brands want their products to be featured and ways they want them to be used and usage occasions. And human beings don't always follow those directions and they want to use them in their own ways and they want to remix them and measure them. speaker-2: Or Vaseline specifically too. Like this is gonna be good. Okay. speaker-1: So they had a campaign last year called Vaseline Verified, which was really leaning into how people were using Vaseline and basically verifying the things that actually did work and saying the ones that didn't work were unsafe. And you know, really just being honest about like this one is a yes, this one was a no, be careful. But what they did this year, which I think was just really showing this consistency and building on what had worked so well, is they looked at Different ways people were using Vaseline that have become trends and become viral hacks. And instead of just celebrating the fact that it existed, they went all the way back to the originator. Because what happens in the creator world so often is the person who creates the recipe or the hack or the idea, it it gets co-opted and remixed so much that you lose that original credit. And they not only credited Those people, but they actually made products with them where there was an equity stake given to the creator. So when the product sold, the creator actually made money off the sale of those products. which is I'm now sensing it's sort of like a theme a lot of my own takeaways. Yeah, I I I think it's just true credit and compensation. They also brought those creators up on the stage when they won their awards, which I feel like I hadn't seen before. I thought it was so nice that the creators were not just someone that they worked with for the campaign. It was someone who they were celebrating the win with, celebrating success with, was something novel to me that I hadn't seen. speaker-0: I think I think it also speaks to, you know, whoever they partner with, whatever agencies they use to create that. I I think there's something really cool about the the agency journey there because just the legwork to find those original creators was probably a complete pain in the ass. Like that that was probably not easy to do, but to be that committed to say, like, we are gonna find the right people and pay it off for them and really give them the credit that they deserve is just r that's really cool because I I I'm sure there are ways that you could have done this. Like you said, you you could have just celebrated the uses without going all the way there. And then to bring them and stuff, it's just that's a really nice journey for the brand to take people on. And again and I always talk about purpose here here, but that's a way to bring purpose along on maybe a smaller scale, but it's still there. It still feels very human. speaker-1: Yeah, I feel like co-creation was a big topic and a big theme over the last few years, you know, authenticity and like co-creating with with influencers and with creators. But I think now co-ownership is the new way. I I think co-creation is a bare minimum. It's a table stakes thing now. And co-ownership is where you're really seeing the power dynamic shift where creators do have so much more influence and power that they know that they've earned this seat at the table and that they want to have these relationships with brands that are mutually beneficial, not just, you know, transactional. speaker-2: And when you say co ownership, Margot, are you really saying a financial stake? Like that is the new gold standard. speaker-1: I think so. I mean we saw that Yeah. Yeah. And and it's not easy to do by any means, right? Like it is it is a a big commitment, but I think that it is something that that creators are looking for and that brands, if they take that next step and invest in them, are really seeing results from. speaker-2: Yeah, that is really interesting. And, you know, you got to give them credit too if they're powering the brand like that, right? Like if you have the means, it's something to think about. so I'm shifting a little bit into, you know, Khan from a PR perspective. what did the festival reinforce about the role of our media, consumer engagement, storytelling, and cultural relevance in in today's creative landscape? speaker-1: Yeah, I think I think PR firms were really center stage. I think a lot of them were women prize. I think the work was really being celebrated. I also think every type of agency was trying to do PR ideas and often doing them really successfully. so I think that it is it's a battle out there for who gets to own that type of earn first work. but I think that the way our industry has changed is is because people don't like ads and they don't like feeling like they're being advertised to. So I think that there in general is, you know, can and beyond going to continue to be a necessity to be relevant first and to do something that people actually would care about day to day because they don't think about and care about brands. it it's it's only going to continue to become more important to have that sort of PR mindset. speaker-2: I love that. It's good news for our industry, really, right? Totally. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-2: So other than creators, where do you feel like AI played in? Was it still a huge topic? I don't know if it was maybe bigger last year and the biggest this year, or obviously it's it is omnipresent at this point across marketing. what what role do you think that had in terms of thematics this year? speaker-1: From what I heard from people who were there last year, it sounded like last year there was a lot more fear and angst about AI. And like, you know, which is very fair. I still feel that a lot of the time of like you you don't want it to replace the incredible work that we do and you know, the the the creativity that you get from a human being. I don't think that AI will ever be able to match. you know, hopefully, but I I really don't think it will. I think this year I think about AI kind of like a hammer where if you have a nail and you are aiming it really well, it can be a useful tool. But it also smashes things. You know, if you if you don't use it well, you don't wield it the right way, you don't have a a a vision in mind for what to do with it, even from, you know, the environmental impacts and and a lot of those things. I think that I think that People are using it in ways that make sense, sometimes. And sometimes it it felt like a lot of slop. like I I definitely still feel that that icky feeling. I think when you see like an AI case video, it's just like, ugh, like like, come on. Like there's your AI voiceover drives me crazy. It's like those are people that could have been doing this job that that are are not. being given that opportunity, which is frustrating. So it's still very much there. and I think it's it's important as stewards of this business that we find the right places to use it, but I think use it sparingly and strategically is is my point of view. speaker-2: Amen. speaker-0: Yeah, I couldn't agree more with that. So I'm curious what you saw from Challenger brands. So we taught Emily and I talked in the last episode about, you know, it's it's kind of the CPG cleans up, right? The CPG brands traditionally clean up, the big guys do. And you see it a little bit in tech and healthcare too. Like the most notable brands are going to do well there. They have the budget. And the resources to create these amazing campaigns. but it has also become a place where challenger brands can play. Did you see any of them rise to the top or really win big there? speaker-1: I feel like some of my favorite work was from smaller brands. There was it actually was a great anti-AI case, which I I feel like that that was something that a lot of people were excited about is like how can we show up against the machines and and kind of, you know, outsmart them a little bit. There was a a sports equipment brand called True Hockey, which, you know, compared to like some of the big you know, retailers that sell all the sports equipment, you know, they they were a very specialty brand. And they had an idea called Game On Ball, which was all about how s playing in streets is actually a way that a lot of kids learn sports. Like it's not necessarily on a formal team or a field. it's just, you know, playing outside in your neighborhood, but cars and you know, like urban sprawl get in the way and it's actually not safe if if there's, you know, traffic heading through those areas. So they actually created this tech where inside of you know, a a ball or a hockey puck or whatever they were playing with would actually trick traffic apps into thinking that there was a traffic jam and it would reroute cars to go other places. my god. speaker-2: There's no more game on, game off. I love that. speaker-1: It was so good. Amazing. And it was just, it was such a simple visual symbol that they created of like our belief is that more kids should get to play outside and have like a safe time doing it. whether it's hockey or any other sport. And it it it was so simple, but it was just really, really memorable. And again, like this this very human touch, human feel to it where it was like. The machines have no idea what's actually going on here. We're gonna outsmart them so that we can have this moment of like humanity and connection and fun for children. speaker-0: I can't wait to look that one up. I'm so excited about that one. speaker-1: But was there someone I feel like just some of these really good insights, like as a strategist, especially, like those are the ones I really gravitate towards. my creative partner and I could not stop talking about this Dutch furniture brand called Ludes Five, which I hadn't heard of before. But I actually had seen this one on my feed right before Can, not because it was being entered, but because it it was just that popular. It was such a good insight. They were talking they they're a furniture brand. They sell, you know, tables and chairs, things like that. And there was this Dutch tradition of when you learn how to ice skate in order to balance, people would use old chairs. So you would skate around and the chair would like help you balance. And they were like, what if we turned that into a showroom for our chairs that we're trying to sell from this like nice furniture brand? So Instead of like an old rickety chair. They had these like beautiful mid century modern chairs and and each of them had the little price tag and a QR code. And it was the first showroom on ice, which I just thought was so such a simple my god, it was so good. I the work that makes me jealous. I'm like, man, I wish I thought of something like that. It's so good. speaker-2: yes, Margot. I love that. You're so right though. It's the work that makes you jealous. Like, yeah, I wish I was involved. And you know, before I ask the last question, I don't want to leave anything off the table here, Margo. Anything else from the experience you wanna you wanna touch on? It sounded like a fantastic couple of weeks. speaker-1: So much inspiration. so so much sweat. So all the things. I really loved there was there was a session that was outdoors and it was like a million degrees, but I was like, I am staying the whole time because this one is so incredible, like it's worth it. it was a strategist, a creative, and an entrepreneur who had met through the CAN MBA program. And it was called the kill list. And what they did was they did basically a a tarot deck of all the different personas of people who kill ideas. And it was, you know, really it it was an empathetic look. It was like people are are killing ideas with good intentions. Like they're well meaning. They're trying to do what's right for their brand, or sometimes it's internal people and they're trying to protect the business, all those things. But it was how do you understand the deeper motivations that each of these people have, whether it's, you know, the historian, we've tried that before and it didn't work. Or the accountant, that's gonna be out of budget. It's not feasible. How do you take their fair point, understand it, and then bulletproof what you're presenting to or or what you're continuing to fight for over time to keep great work alive, which I think we need a lot of in our industry. 100%. Someone else at Ken talked about like survivorship bias, where when you go to Ken, you see all this work and it is amazing. And some of the things I'm like, I wish I thought of some of the campaigns. we had thought of and we had pitched and we had come up with really similar ideas. And I think it's so hard when you see like, man, those are the people that got it through and good for them. Like, but but I think that's a big thing I'm bringing back to my team is how do we get that that creative resilience and strategies for how to do it and like practical tools for how to fight for the work that we love and that we're passionate about. to to make sure that it can make it to to the world and to maybe a place like Cannes for lucky. speaker-2: Totally. And I think that is where the intersection of client relations, strategies, creative comes together as a team who can have the right conversations to sell in the ideas you believe in, right? It it it creates tension internally, but then when you kind of win it, it is like the party of the century. So that's pretty cool they address that in that format too. speaker-1: So useful. speaker-2: all right. So Margo, we close every episode with this question about impact. so the question is what has been your impact this week? It can be professional, personal, big scale, small scale. speaker-1: I love you guys students. This is a great question. I think it it it gave me a chance to just reflect even more deeply about can. and I think something that I I also didn't expect because you know, you you fly 6,000 miles to get quality time with the people that you work with every day. Yeah. Like it was a lot of inspiration, it was a lot of you know absorbing of the work, but it also was just Hey, how's your family? Or, you know, how's it going? Like how are you? Let's catch up and you know, let's have a rose. I think that is something that I really, really want to take back. I don't want us to have to travel six thousand miles to hang out. To do that. I I wanna make sure that we're we're making time and prioritizing just like quality hangs and getting to know each other and and and not just, you know, meeting, meeting, meeting, talking about the work every single moment. Like we want to fight for the work and the work we're passionate about. But I think we also just want to support each other's passions outside of work. because especially for strategy, I think the most interesting strategists are just the most interesting people who have creative outlets and who have interests and passions and rabbit holes they go down. So I want to make sure that we support those too. So thank you for giving me that. speaker-2: That reports. Phenomenal answer, Margot. It's so important. Just even in person for a solid amount of time outside of the work atmosphere just strengthens that bond. And it's it's amazing every time you do it how much it helps and therefore it creates better work. So thank you, Marg, for joining us today. speaker-0: Thank you so much for filling us in on your time and experience there. We appreciate you coming on, being our guest here. speaker-1: So yeah, and I'll see you guys there in a future year, right? We'll all guys. speaker-2: That's right.