Despite three entries on the shortlist — one each from Rethink Toronto, Jungle Media and John St. — Canada is leaving Cannes without a Media Lion this year.
Penny Stevens, Media Experts president and a member of the 12-person awarding jury, told Marketing Canadian submissions this year were solid but, compared to other work in the competition, they were “generally middle of the pack.”
The problem, she said, isn’t necessarily the work itself, but the quality of the submissions. A quality case video is extremely important when a jury has to sift through 3,000 submissions, and each is given only two minutes per video in the first round of judging, she said.
“It’s an immediate reaction, so the video is extremely important in demonstrating results. I’m not sure we’re very good at doing that,” said Stevens. “We’re very good at showing our commercials, but that does not make a case.”
The other issue, she said, is other countries do a far better job at profiling and magnifying the creative and media product on their home turf.
“South Americans have a fantastic body of work they celebrate beforehand and it’s all published,” she said. “As a small industry, it’s tough. You need money to do that, but we have to rally together and take a stand.”
Nick Emery, jury president and global chief executive officer at Minshare Worldwide, told reporters at the press conference with industry reporters Tuesday morning about the themes that emerged around this year’s submissions. Though work from big corporations is good, there isn’t a “wow factor” that a lot of not-for-profit and charity organizations have. It doesn’t push boundaries, he said, and so there’s a big gap between what the Samsungs and the McDonald’s of the world are doing compared to work for NGOs.
The Media jury handed out 10 Gold Lions in total and awarded The Grand Prix to Mindshare Instanbul for “Vodafone Red Light Application” – a phone app designed to help victims of domestic violence.
When a woman feels she is in danger of being abused, she can shake her mobile phone to automatically send a text message with her exact location to three trusted friends.
To keep the app a secret from men, the brand promoted it within online tutorials geared towards women and on underwear tags and home wax strips.
The campaign, said Emery “had technology, it had results, it had personalization, it had adaptabililty… But importantly, it had a lot of media rigour around it… It ticked all the boxes.”
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