The biggest competition of Cannes Lions saw Canada’s biggest performance so far with 17 shortlisted entries for Canadian agencies in the Outdoor competition.
Leading the way, again, is Leo Burnett, showing up six times for its campaign to promote the U.S Open tennis championship on Bell Media’s TSN. Three different executions were each listed in two different categories: Illustration and Adapted Billboards and Outdoor Posters. The campaign created murals of tennis stars using the chain-linked fences around local tennis courts as the canvas with 15,000 tennis balls stuffed into the fence as the paint. Leo Burnett also had a strong day Sunday, day one of the Festival when the first shortlists were out, showing up several times for #LikeAGirl as well as for the TSN campaign.
Another familiar campaign also made the Outdoor list. Grey Canada’s work for Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense in America made the list for three different ads, “Skateboard,” “Ice Cream” and “Shirtless.” Matching Grey’s Outdoor performance was Brad Montreal, making the list three times with “Laeticia,” “Mika” and “Tam,” for client Lego.
(The jury could award single executions, but traditionally is more likely to award a campaign Lion to multiple executions from the same campaign in a category.)
Two ads from LG2 for Farnham Ale & Lager were nominated, while single nominations went to:
- Y&R Toronto for “Waiting Room” for Pfizer Canada;
- Sid Lee Montreal for “Forrest Gump” for Videotron Le Superclub; and
- One Twenty Three West for “Only Pay For What You Use” for Mercedes-Benz Canada
Despite an 11% drop in submissions, the Outdoor Lions are the most popular competition in Cannes again this year with 5,037 entries, down from 5,660 in 2014. (Press is next most popular with 4,470 submissions.)
Canadian entries were the lowest they’ve been in the past five years with just 141 submissions compared to 201 last year and there is no Canadian representative on the Outdoor jury. The winners will be announced in the Tuesday evening awards ceremony along with the Media, PR, Glass and Creative Effectiveness Lions.
The shortlist for the Creative Effectiveness Lions was also announced Monday morning, though none of the three Canadian entries made the list.
Now in their fifth year, the Creative Effectiveness Lions are awarded to work that has produced a “measurable and proven impact on a client’s business.” Entries require detailed explanations of the effectiveness of the work including demonstrable results.
To be eligible for the competition, work has to have either won or been shortlisted in Cannes previously. In the first years of the competition, that win or shortlisting had to have come from the previous year, but in 2015 the eligibility was changed so that work that shortlisted or won a Lion from the past three years could enter.
Entries for the competition doubled this year with 160 campaigns entered compared to just 80 last year. While just three entries were made from Canada, fully one-third came from the U.S. and U.K. combined.
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