A year ago at this time at the International Festival of Creativity, Canadian agencies had won seven Lions. Today, after two days of award galas, Canada still has no medals to show.
Mobile Lions
The Mobile Grand Prix went to an idea that was executed using one of the most traditional of media—print.
“Protection Ad” by FCB Brasil Sao Paulo for Nivea let parents at the beach monitor their kids by tearing a bracelet from a magazine that could be placed on a child and tracked with an app.
“It excited us as people in the industry and just as people in general,” said jury president Jaime Robinson, executive creative director, Pereira & O’Dell, at Tuesday morning’s press conference to announce the winners. “It was just absolutely gorgeous.
“It was the perfect marriage of the right media delivering the right utility, which expresses the right brand message at just the right time and place for the brand audience,” said Robinson.
Two clear themes emerged as the jury reflected on the winning mobile work for 2014: utility and simplicity.
“One thing I’m getting really excited about seeing is how people are using mobile to move their way around barriers either in the media… or just the world,” said Robinson, citing the gold-winning Offline Book as an example.
“There are a lot of great hacks happening right now, and they are hacks of the world and trying to find how marketing can put itself in the right space at the right time,” said Robinson.
“One of the trends that we are definitely seeing was a frictionless user experience,” said Mark Tomlinson, executive creative director for South Africa’s Hello Computer.
“I know how difficult the user experience can be and that is often the reason why a lot of these applications are’t adopted. But I’m surprised how good and how simple some of these things have become,” he said.
A simple experience can also be incredibly powerful for the user, said Angela Steele, CEO of Ansible, citing “A Trip Out To Sea,” an interactive video where users/viewers had to constantly scroll with their finger to stay above water and avoid drowning.
“It’s a very simple user experience, but it evokes an emotion unlike anything I’ve seen on television or on the big screen,” she said. “So simple, but so creatively brilliant.”
Outdoor Lions
The Outdoor contest saw 18 campaigns and single executions earn golds, capped by a Grand Prix win for “GayTMs.” When ANZ bank in Australia became the premier partner in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, it converted several of its ATMs into bedazzled, illustrated and outrageous art installations. Bank statements printed from each of the uniquely designed GayTMs had rainbow flags printed on the back, and bank fees incurred at the installations went to charity. The endeavour became a media sensation.
The campaign was created by Whybin\TBWA Group Melbourne.
The jury was debating whether or not to give Honda‘s “Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989” by Dentsu Tokyo (a favourite among many Cannes juries so far) the Outdoor Grand Prix, but when jury member Keiichi Higuchi—Dentsu’s creative director—voted for Whybin\TBWA’s work, the conversation irrevocably swung to ANZ.
“We wanted to award brave work,” said jury president Jose Miguel Sokoloff, chairman and CCO of Lowe SSP3 Colombia, adding that he felt the jury was “stingy” with its awards after receiving 5,660 entries.
As jury member and Fallon Worlwide CCO Jeff King put it, “flat billboards didn’t do very well” at a time when outdoor media often integrates leading-edge technologies (like British Airways’ “magic” billboard) and a high-bar for creative craftsmanship set by work like Whybin\TBWA’s.
Outdoor has never been one of Canada’s strongest fields in Cannes; it’s won only seven trophies since 2009 (compared to the likes of Brazil’s 74 or Germany’s 47). While Canada was blanked in the category this year, overall there were 129 Outdoor trophies handed out Tuesday night.
Media Lions
In the Media Lions, the Grand Prix was awarded to Coca-Cola and McCann Lima, Peru for “Happy ID,” an initiative to get more Peruvians smiling for their government ID photos.
Coca-Cola put photo booths around the country where people could have their pictures taken for their IDs. When people entered the booth, the only thing they had to do to activate the camera was smile.
“It was a brilliant idea with a brilliant use of media,” said Media jury president Matt Seiler, global CEO for IPG Mediabrands. “They’ve used so many channels, and the results were excellent. And it was really consistent with who Coke is.
“But we also loved the really unusual channel, which is the Peruvian government. Everything is media today, how about the government being a media channel?”
TouchéPHD’s Karine Courtemanche was on the 40-person jury this year, but not on what Cannes now calls its “awarding jury”—a 12-person group charged with choosing the medal winners from the shortlist that’s determined by the larger group. After years of complaints of block voting in this competition, Cannes introduced changes last year to address the problem. The entire jury was divided into eight groups of five, and each group did nothing but score campaign videos. Depending on their role, judges could not vote on certain work. So if they are at a regional level, their votes are blocked for their agency/network for the entire region. Or if they are at the global level, their votes are blocked for their agency/network for the world.
“Debate was almost frowned upon,” said Courtemanche.
The TouchéPHD exec praised the process for allowing the jury to move through the high volume of entries (3,127 this year), and likes the added benefit of reducing the chances of block voting. But she now believes it is even tougher to win a Media Lion—even for those who weren’t benefitting from voting alliances in the old system.
Entries simply must be well-presented and the case videos need to be exceptional, she said, because the fate of the entry will be determined by just a few judges. If one or two judges have a bad day, you could be in trouble, though the process ensures a higher quality for the awards show overall.
“I had no idea how big it was and how good you have to be to make the shortlist,” said Courtemanche. “It is just incredible what it takes to make it to the shortlist.”
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