Media jury looks for results, awards Canada two trophies
Canada struck Silver and Bronze in the Cannes Lions’ Media competition, with BBDO Canada and Proximity Canada earning spots on the podium.
The wins are a nice one-two punch for the Omnicom sibling agencies, which have aligned their services in the past under the BBDO Proximity banner.
Similar to basic cable’s staple holiday fireplace channels, BBDO’s “Rotisserie Channel” for Swiss Chalet put racks of rotating, barbecuing chickens on a Rogers digital cable channel while discount codes scrolled across the screen.
The project (pictured, right) was created in partnership with MEC Canada.
Mark Sherman, executive chairman of Media Experts and Canada’s representative on the Media jury, said the jurists loved the humour of the idea.
Proximity’s “Find Red” won Media Bronze after becoming a double-Bronze Lion winner in the Promo & Activation contest on Monday. It is also shortlisted contender in Cyber. The campaign (pictured, right), which had Proximity staffers hiding red M&M’s candy throughout Toronto ahead of Google’s Streetview car photographing the city. Three candies made it into Google maps, kicking off the virtual scavenger hunt.
Sherman said the amount of work that went into planning the campaign was “remarkable,” and a risky investment considering none of the candies might have appeared online.
What held this work back from being a Gold? “The work that came out after [the Google maps] wasn’t as rigorous as what came before that.”
The Media Grand Prix went to Cheil Worldwide‘s Seoul office for its work with Tesco (which operates as Home Plus in South Korea). Working on the insight that Koreans dislike spending time grocery shopping, Cheil developed large transit displays that looked like Tesco shelves stocked with food.
QR codes beneath each item could be scanned to create a mobile shopping cart. Food purchased this way would then be delivered after the shopper returned home from work.
The campaign also won Gold in the Direct competition Monday night, and is South Korea’s first Grand Prix Lion. (On Monday night, Romania also became a first-time Grand Prix winner in the Promo & Activation contest.)
When asked what Canadian agencies can do to better present their work to Cannes juries, Sherman said results are an absolute must.
“We saw many good, creative ideas that list results as ‘not yet available.’ All it takes is an impatient juror to notice that and your case video won’t even get watched.”
Media is one of the festival’s largest competitions. It received 2,895 submissions this year—a nearly 34% increase from 2010, also making it the fastest growing.
Canada ranks in the lower half of contributors by volume with 59 entries in 2011, up from 48 last year.
