Ritson & Sharp spend longer refuting LinkedIn posts about their Cannes debate than their time spent on stage

Marketing’s heavyweight academics, Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp have reportedly spent more time correcting LinkedIn interpretations of their Cannes Lions Festival appearance on stage together than they spent delivering the presentation itself.

The session, which outlined the five core marketing principles both marketing men broadly agree on, was immediately followed by a flood of LinkedIn posts confidently explaining what the pair had said, but many misinterpreting the points being made.

One associate marketing professor published a 2000-word post declaring he'd been "left underwhelmed”, not before revealing he was not even in the room. With one commenter asking “How can you be underwhelmed when you weren't even there?” to which Mr. Ritson replied simply, “This.”

Sharp entered one discussion with frustration from his views on distinctiveness and differentiation being misinterpreted, "No no no. Differentiation is not a myth”. While encouraging many that posted about the event to “Please read How Brands Grow."

Marketing commentator Elise van Dijk, 43, said the phenomenon has become increasingly common. “It’s marketing’s version of Chinese Whispers,” she explained. “One person slightly misunderstands a marketing practice, the next adds their own opinion, and by the time it reaches LinkedIn, Byron Sharp has apparently declared differentiation dead.”

Organisers of next year's session are said to be considering introducing a compulsory comprehension test of what they hear on stage before attendees are permitted to publish their LinkedIn takeaways.

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