Day 7: The final chapter
Place: Palais des Festivals, Cannes. Dateline: 9.45pm Monday, 22 June 2009
Well it's about 9.45 on Monday night. The cat's out of the bag. The winners will be quaffing their body weight in expensive shampoo and I've forgone the closing night cocktails at the Carlton for one last entry and room service.
So what won?
Without doubt the runaways winners of the evening were Cummingsnitro, Australia, with their campaign for the barrier reef islands, The best job in the world. From a number of tiny direct response ads bearing the same headline, placed in 7 countries across the globe, the campaign got about 26,000 video applicants. Embracing the YouTube generation it is the
very epitome of UGC, a deserved winner of three golds and the Grand Prix.
And it's good to know we were not alone in thinking so, since the PR Lions and the Promo Lions also handed it their respective Grand Prixs too. Wow.
I hope the gang from Cummingsnitro were traveling light. I know how heavy those lions are, and I reckon three Grand Prixs and 7 or 8 golds are not gonna fit in handluggage.
The other big winners in Direct were 'The town where nothing happens' from Shakleton, Madrid, who with two other campaigns doing very nicely, walked off with Direct Agency of the Year.
And the Belgiums did rather well too. Several bronzes and silvers and four golds. Two for a bank which built boxes
in the shape of banners and then asked up and coming bands to squeeze into them to play tunes. These were then played live on the web, inside the banners. Of all the campaigns this seemed to get most audience appreciation.
It is pretty cool.
Or maybe that could have been because two thirds of Belgium's ad industry were in the audience. Another Belgium agency also picked up two golds for a driving safety campaign which got viewers to watch a YouTube film of someone driving down a road from the driver's viewpoint.
During the film the viewers own phone rings. On answering the car swerves off the road and crashes.
And finally, one mention for the UK. T-Mobile Dance walked off with a much deserved gold, and it was nice to see some familiar faces picking up the award from the UK. Well done guys. You pulled it off. And I can tell you, you got well over the 2/3 majority required from the judges for gold.
Right. My fries have arrived, so I shall bid you au revoir once more from Cannes. Au revoir.
Day 7: All over bar the shouting
Place: Palais des Festivals, Cannes. Dateline: 4.45pm Monday, 22 June 2009
Monday – Somewhere over the rainbow…
After another grueling day of voting, and re-voting, and then a little bit more voting for good measure, champagne corks were popped and just as the sun was setting, we all wandered out onto the balcony to be greeted by a spectacular rainbow arcing over the bay.
And because you can’t have a rainbow without rain, we were also rewarded with a thunder storm too. Hurrah. We finally get to party and the heavens open. So, were there any golds at the end of the rainbow you ask?
Yes, of course, is the short answer. But as it said in huge letters on the handout we were given at the press conference this morning, I’m not allow to spill the beans until 7.30 this evening. All I will say is congratulations to everyone who made it onto the shortlist from the UK.
From memory (which is dangerous after the several beers I had last night on an empty stomach) that includes CMW for Lotus, Proximity for Royal Mail (and another which escapes me), Story for Horny Young Man, Wunderman for screensaver Microwave, the office tan viral and last but not least, Saatchi & Saatchi for T-Mobile Dance, a campaign our gang back at TMW have had a lot of fun with bringing to life on the response side over the last year.
So, fingers crossed for tonight.
And finally, let’s hear it for Belgium. Until recently a country known to me only for Jean Claude Van Damn, chocolate and beer. (Not a bad combination I admit) Well after today we can add, brilliant Direct advertising to that list. Despite its size, these mussel friendly folk have entries popping up all over the place.
Indeed, according to Stijn – our Belgian judge – nearly all the main agencies there have something on the shortlist.
By the time you read this, the big prizes may well have been announced, so I expect this will be my last entry. So, all I’d like to say is, thank you for anyone who has taken the time to read my daily rambles (Jo B and her team from Chemistry especially) and good luck once again to all the UK shortlists.
Day 6
Place: Hotel Martinez, Cannes. Dateline: 7.10am Sunday, 21 June 2009
Happy Father’s Day. Quite appropriate as we have the daddy of all judging days ahead of us. (Once again, starting at 8.30).
Not that yesterday was a breeze. Billed as ‘agreeing a shortlist’ – the idea was to make sure all 30 of us were happy with what we had collectively put in the top 12.5%.
And when I say short, I mean more in the way going to Egypt via the Suez Canal is short compared to sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. 180+ entries, in 24 categories. Oh my.
I was ahead of Steve until lunchtime, and then I hit a bunker (otherwise known as Ambient) and he pipped me about 4. Both of us being in the front runners, it was going to be another hour or so before all the ipaqs could be collected and the points collated.
So I took the opportunity to walk up the castle and church we had spent the last 4 days staring at. And very nice it was too. Handsome French couple getting spliced.
Any hopes that we should be nearly done when I got back were quickly dashed when we got into a huge academic discussion about what should be allowed on the shortlist. I’ll tell you, we (TMW) were disappointed last year to only get a Bronze for Guinness. I realize this year, these judges are fierce. A Bronze is quite an achievement.
When we won a gold a couple of years ago, I see now we should have closed the agency for a day and set up a kind of VE day celebration in the King’s Road. The intense discussion over the shortlist ended in a UN style directive, several rounds of votes and 12 hours after filling my first Styrofoam cup with coffee we were released into the sunshine again.
And now the biggie. The mass debate. Who gets Gold and who gets nowt’. Let the battle commence.
Day 4 & 5
Place: Hotel Martinez, Cannes. Dateline: 7.45am Saturday 20 June 2009
It’s 7.45 on Saturday morning. I have to be at the Palais for 8.30 to start trawling through the 12% that made it to the short list. So, anyone who thought judging was a jolly, will be sorely disappointed.
That said, finishing early (3pm) yesterday I did have chance to relax with two of my fellow judges from yesterday, Gunner from Sweden and Gerdt from Austria, from whom I learned
a) that midsomer’s night in Sweden is a huge event and is marked by everyone drinking a lot and doing a kind of frog dance around a pole, accompanied by a special song (don’t remember that one from Abba Gold) and
b) that Falco had other hits in Austria after his global smash Amadeus.
Insightful huh?
To be honest after a morning wrestling with the question ‘what is direct?’- a few beers and idle banter was a welcome respite.
So why the hullabaloo about defining direct? Whoosh. Lots of reasons, but in essence, unlike the other Lions (Cyber, TV, Press etc) Direct is not so much about a specific channel, but a way of talking to someone that can be done in lots of channels. As such it is open to all sorts of definitions.
In my head, and this is the view I shall be arguing today, direct is a piece of targeted communication that has been crafted to elicit a fairly immediate response. Not necessarily to buy something, just to show interest in something. Just cos a TV ad has a URL does not in my book a Direct ad make.
Online and mobile, yes of course, but in a way that gets a trackable response or collects data somehow so we can build a relationship.
And don’t get us started on ambient! It is a can of worms. And that, my friends, is the Cannes I shall be wriggling in today. Wish me luck.
Day 3
Place: Palais des Festivals, Cannes. Dateline: 18.46pm Thursday 18 June 2009
Thursday – flat out.
Still day two of judging. But we whistled through today’s categories, this entry is fresh from the Palais des Festivals, where the judging takes place.
The shorter than expected day was one of extremes for me. In the morning a glimpse into the future with direct advertising using mobile – and in the afternoon, the slightly less bleeding edge category of flat direct mail.
And while the mobile category had far fewer entries, I couldn’t help thinking like the old adage, that less is indeed, more.
Quite frankly some of the things that agencies in other countries are doing with mobile just blew me away. Yes, you saw examples of augmented reality, yes there were some great things with QR codes (those Sudoku looking black and white square things that you snap with your phone) but the killer work for me was that which then used these technologies to start a dialogue and get sales. In a totally entertaining way.
On the flip side of that, while there were undoubtedly some really brilliant examples of idea driven, beautifully designed and well written flat direct mail, the feeling from the floor was very much déjà vu. And that’s not just a European perspective. It seemed to be backed up by my fellow judges from Latin America and India. Who it seems were also left feeling a little… well… flat.
But it’s not all game, set and match to digital. The big chatter away from the judging tables was about how so often in digital campaigns the idea plays second fiddle to some clever wizzy bit of tech. Surely the idea should dictate the execution, not the other way around.
So, while it’s natural – especially for creative directors – to chase the next shiny new thing, the really excellent stand out ‘wish I’d done that’ digital work in Direct is that which is powered by an idea – not just an execution.
Right, I’m off to meet Mr Aldridge in the bar to see what he thought about today.
Day 2
Place: Martinez Hotel, Cannes. Dateline: 6.15am Thursday 18 June 2009
Have you all judged the rubber knickers? Can I see the Chinese love balls again please? Who was the dog turd mailed to?
Just some of the phrases you’d only hear when judging the Multi-dimensional category at Cannes.
Certainly there are few situations you’d be able to cover these subjects quite openly with complete strangers – and with a straight face. Let’s say it certainly broke the ice with my fellow judges from Holland, Denmark and Brazil.
And how refreshing that in the current economic gloom (known in the Hispanic world I found out yesterday as THE CRISIS – so much more dramatic than our Credit Crunch) creatives and clients everywhere have still got a sense of humour. It certainly kept us going through the 60 entries.
Suffice to say, apart from the occasional five-minute coffee breaks, the parasols and deck chairs, and the rows yachts bobbing gently in the bay below, were strictly out of bounds. An irony not lost on me as I settle down to judge the travel and leisure category in the afternoon.
And while there were still a good number of boxed up beach paraphernalia, this category’s entries were far more integrated in nature. And with most of the 50 plus entries coming with a short movie, the afternoon was more akin to Saturday afternoon in at the movies on a really hot day.
That’s the thing about these kinds of award competitions. You NEED a movie. Even if your campaign is a set of postcards, even it’s an online piece with moving images, with so much to get through, and so many different nationalities on the panels, it is so much easier to ‘get’ what the campaign’s all about if you have someone talk you through it. (Orson Welles style voice-over optional).
Right, it’s now day 2 of judging so I’m off to meet my fellow judges for pop corn and ice-cream for today’s matinee.
Day 1
Place: Martinez Hotel, Cannes. Dateline: 6.40am Wednesday 17 June 2009
To go to Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is amazing. To be invited as a judge. Wow. As I was picked up at Nice airport in a swanky car yesterday, I couldn’t help thinking how glamorous direct had got since my first job at an agency in an industrial estate in Tewkesbury. I can say immediately that Cannes is beautiful, the 'otel is beautiful, the weather is beautiful and the people are beautiful. Let's hope the work we’re here to judge lives up to its setting.
Arriving at the Martinez Hotel on La Croisette did nothing to dampen my excitement. Cotswolds to Cannes. Who’d have thought it?
Hotel Martinez: Hosting cream of the world's advertising and direct marketing
But what about the mood of my fellow judges in these difficult times? Well let’s nip that in the bud straight away.
While stories abound that , spirits are not. In fact, with around 1400 entries to sift through, Direct is the biggest category. So like in previous recessions, maybe accountable advertising is holding its own.
Not surprising then that the speaker at the welcome dinner last night hoped that we had enjoyed the afternoon’s sunshine, since for the next five days we’ll be locked in a notoriously chilly room pouring over the cream of the world’s direct advertising.
Which gives me two things to look forward to today. Some great work. And an eclectic array of global knitwear. Especially as there seems to be no corner of the world that the gimlet eye of one-to-one advertising has not reached. And whether it’s bangtails from Bangkok or litho from Lithuania (perhaps even a cross from Malta), no country’s view point will be left out over the next few days.
Sat between Victoria from NYC and Farouk from Singapore last night, the hot topic not surprisingly is digital. Mobile marketing of course, Twitter yes, but Google Wave! No wonder the chair suggested we all had an early night. Which I did.
Now let the judging begin…