Cannes diary: oversized yachts, toy dogs and creativity celebrated
Looking back on the biggest Cannes ever, I’m struck by two things – the quality of the work and the fantastic people I met. The challenge now is to ensure that I share everything I’ve learned and follow-up on the great connections made and ideas generated.
Some random observations following a week spent on the Croisette include: a huge variety of toy dogs, a lot of moustaches (very creative), inspiring winning Lions (that includes the rugby), ridiculously large yachts, the biggest chocolate fountain I’ve ever seen and some very, very happy people clutching their well-deserved Lions while dancing to the festival’s unofficial theme tune, Daft Punk’s ubiquitous ‘Get Lucky’.
These winners were far from lucky, however. The talent, experience and geographical spread of the jury assembled across all categories at Cannes is humbling. It’s great to get an insight into this rigorous process during the awards ceremonies and hear from the jury presidents about the lively debate.
I have to confess a particular interest in the Film Craft and Film categories and was blown away by the quality of the Gold and Grand Prix winning campaigns.
Channel 4 won the UK’s only Grand Prix on Saturday night when its in-house creative team, 4Creative, took home the biggest prize in the Film Craft category for ‘Meet the Superhumans‘.
This multi-award winning campaign also took a Gold in the Film category and continues to give me goosebumps every time I see it, particularly on the big screen.
Truly great ideas do seem to transcend categories and there was an overwhelming consensus that the one piece of work everyone wishes they’d done was ‘Dumb Ways to Die‘ [unless you’re Dominic Mills – Ed].
The campaign, by agency McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains, took five Grand Prix awards in the Film, Radio, PR, Direct and Integrated categories – the most that a campaign has ever been awarded at Cannes Lions.
Propelled by an insanely catchy song (which I’m still singing in my head three days later), the campaign to promote train safety features animated characters involved in extremely dumb ways to die…
Due to the quality of work in the Film category, the jury took the unusal step of awarding two Grand Prix prizes this year. The other was given to a long-form piece of content from Intel and Toshiba. Hollywood actor Topher Grace was there to take the stage and claim the award in recognition of his part in playing the role of a man who wakes up every day as a different person.
Ultimately, taking away all the other events, parties, seminars and meetings, what continues to make Cannes special is the quality of the work and the recognition of the people behind it.
My final highlight was seeing Lee Clow, Chairman of TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Director of Media Arts, TBWA\Worldwide, take the stage to accept the biggest accolade in advertising – The Lion of St Mark. There have only been two previous recipients – Dan Wieden (2012) and Sir John Hegarty (2011).
Lee’s work is perhaps best defined by his 30+ year partnership with Steve Jobs, which included the iconic ‘1984’ commercial for Apple’s McIntosh and the famous ‘Think Different’ work for the rebirth of Apple in 1997. Lee believes that, “today everything can be considered media.
“The internet has changed the way people interact with brands. If you like a brand you can seek it out, if you don’t like a brand, you can criticise it publicly. So everything a brand does must tell its story in a disruptive and artful way. Then people will decide whether they like your brand or will ignore it.”
On accepting the award, Lee finished by stating: “Get up every day and love what you do”. The last week has certainly inspired me to do that.