Cannes 2014: The final word on Media Lions from the jury

Everything starts from an idea. We were looking for campaigns which were innovative and which drove results. Results are critical. To some extent we disregard Facebook likes. They can be bought. They don’t have that much merit. We also looked particularly at campaign objectives.

 

We are obviously very proud that the Grand Prix was partly a Havas Media campaign. Coke’s ‘Happy iD’ campaign was about bringing happiness to people. Coke submitted a lot of entries but this one was more than just a stunt. It had fantastic insights at its core and the use of government ID cards as reward cards and as a media channel was an original idea. The campaign became a country-wide phenomenon as well as harvesting ‘people data’ to enable continued communication. 

 

A campaign for Unilever in India [by PHD India and Lowe and Partners Mumbai] was also notable. It was awarded two golds in two categories; one in mobile and one in radio. It was another truly innovative campaign, this time targeting low income, rural communities in India - those with no access to radio. It was aimed at people who don’t have landlines but analogue mobile phones and it enabled them to use their device as a radio service, in which Unilever commercial messages were mixed in with news, sports and entertainment. 

 

In total, some 40 jury members assessed over 3,000 entries. As a result of previous allegations of collusion we were split into groups, all from different networks and different parts of the world. The groups changed every day so you never saw the same people. There was plenty of debate as well as some differences of opinion as we reviewed the short-listed cases on three elements - strategy and idea, creative execution and results. 

 

We saw a lot of innovation in traditional media channels – in radio, outdoor, even in magazines. Everyone focuses on mobile, on digital or on social, but we were less impressed by the innovation in these areas. We were also seeing very integrated work. Very few entries had no digital or social component whatsoever and what we found was that those components were helping to re-energise more traditional formats. 

 

And a lot started from owned media – such as Coke’s photobooths. I see owned media as central to an organic media strategy. Your chances of success in generating earned media are much greater when owned is leveraged. Why not leverage something that’s already yours and use it as a comms vehicle? 

 

I particularly liked those campaigns which had some kind of meaning. Coke made people smile and Unilever gave rural communities radio. An element of doing good enriched these campaigns.

 

At Cannes, I got to spend time looking at great work. This is valuable as it inspires you. You learn from conversations and peers in your industry. It’s fun. It’s exhausting. It’s also a great networking opportunity. You are only permitted to be a judge at Cannes every five years. Would I do it again in five years? Absolutely; I’d do it in three.

My judging experience at Cannes reminded me of when I first visited Tokyo.  It felt like a strange trip into the future, where all my senses were over-loaded.

 

Reviewing 3,500 cases from around the world, we saw an incredible amount of originality. Creative people are clearly experimenting with the media canvas, blurring the lines between categories and using technology to re-invent the craft.

 

Cases like BA's the Magic of Flying point a path to the future. By using technology to deliver real-time engagement, the campaign re-imagined Outdoor.

 

Initiatives like Unilever’s Kan Khajura Tesan re-defined what mobile innovation looks like, while media-firsts like Warner Bros.’ all-LEGO ad break showed how creativity is alive and well in media. 

 

And culture-shaping ideas like Grand Prix winner Coca-Cola Happy ID showed that literally anything can be media – even the Peruvian government. An imaginative, well-orchestrated campaign that Opened Happiness in Peru by getting people to smile in their ID cards.

 

Whilst debating the recipient of the Grand Prix, it was interesting that we weren’t obsessing over the shiny, futuristic stuff.  Instead we were impressed by cases with real strategic rigour.  The best work was creative, but also integrated, with scale and linked to solid results.

 

It was a full-on ride, but ultimately reaffirmed for me the absolute importance of media agency thinking.

 

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk.