Cannes Lions Advertising Festival

This year, the Cannes Lions also introduced a new craft category, Industry Craft, which  honors the creative artistry, talent, and skill required to deliver a perfectly executed solution. It exemplifies expertise and vision in the application of creative techniques. As we all know, brands need artistry in order to make a significant connection with people. In this awards category, they explored the works of 16 countries. They are identified as typography, art direction, illustration, photography, and copywriting. The sections include Brand & Communications Design, Packaging Design, Print & Publishing, and Outdoor.   1,720 entries were received and 47 Lions awarded: 5 Gold, 13 Silver and 28 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to  ‘Ali’  by Ogilvy, Chicago for SC Johnson, USA. The Grand Prix winner was part of a print and outdoor advertising campaign called Kiwi First Steps.  The campaign  tells a story of six iconic figures, narrating the moment they took a stand and started changi

This morning, I attended the Inside the Jury for Innovations. I found this session interesting because Google won Grand Prix for something that was already done. ChaCha was a search engine where you were able to text a question and receive the answer through SMS. However the judges chose Google for most innovative? I just want to know if the judges did their research before picking a winner. I then attended the Covergirl panel on Can We Redefine Femininity with Creativity? I thought that the moderator asked some really great questions on the beauty industry and how marketers have the power to transform the original standard of beauty to a more inclusive one. Before, men were the CEOs and marketers for female beauty products. That explains why the ads before were very shallow and it made the models out to only care about beauty and looking good for men. But now, insight shows that women apply makeup to build confidence and have fun. Covergirl also is the first to start including women

3AM FEEDING BBDO NEW YORK CAMPBELL’S A new mother wakes up in the middle of the night to find her newborn babies and husband are with Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Zuechly. The ad is humorous and fun, which is perfect for the Campbell’s brand. This is an information on the Campbell’s Chunky Max line of soup. I really like how they partnered with the Carolina Panthers. I am assuming the target market involves dads who don’t have time to cook and love football. Their problem is that they need more energy throughout the day so Chunky Maxx’s 40% more meat is the answer to their prayers. I think this advertisement is effective because they incorporated two things a lot of people like. Campbell’s and Football. I would recommend the ad to talk more about the ingredients that go into the chowder. By adding in this imagery, it would make people more prone to trying a new recipe.

Hope SRA RUSHMORE, Madrid International Committee of the Red Cross This Red Cross advertisement tells a story of a father rushing to the hospital in a war torn country to save his young daughter, who has indirectly become a victim of this type of attack. The ad is filmed in a way to look it is in the perspective of another person. The camera is a little shaky to emphasize that he is in a panic rushing to the hospital. The camera then moves back and forth to the father and to the daughter. It mimics someone’s perspective as they look to each person. They want you to feel like you are sitting right there witnessing all this go down. I would hypothesize that this is to show the authenticity of the story and to increase its effectiveness. This appeals to emotion and is meant to make one feel sympathy for the family. As the daughter proceeds to pass out from losing blood, the dad’s voice starts to muffle in the background and the music starts playing. The music builds up to the poin

This morning, I attended the Jason Kreher event in front of the Palais. Jason is a UGA alumni who is currently working for Weiden + Kennedy as a creative. He revealed that the key to getting into the ad industry has less to do with your networking ability and more to do with your path. Employers look for someone who is doing what they’re passionate about even if it’s blogging or being an influencer. That encourages me because I’ve been interning to a nonprofit as their communications strategist and I hope this will lead me to more opportunities in the future. He also mentioned that the award winners at Cannes don’t ever set out to make award winning ads. Their primary goal is to do what is best to their clients. Awards also help younger teams gain some negotiating power. After this, I went to the basement in Palais 1 and spent some time watching advertisements. Then I went to the Unknown Soldier discussion where they talked about how marketers can use the same practices that movie ma

Moments Foreman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg  VOLVO CARS This Volvo Cars commercial tells a story where two lives become parallel. It involves a dialogue a mother has with her daughter about her future dreams and aspirations. The young girl talks about how she wishes to make long term friendships, have a good education, travel the world, get into a relationship, and start a family. As she is walking to her first day of school, a women who is running late for work in a Volvo car, almost hits the young girl. But thanks to the front sensor of the car, the Volvo automatically stops and doesn’t harm the child at all. This commercial was effective because it involved a storytelling narrative that had an emotional appeal. The way it was shot and the way it incorporated some common dreams a lot of people share (traveling, making friends, falling in love) it allowed the audience to feel attached to the young character and feel the same feelings she was feeling. So when the car almost

In the Conan & Shaq talk, these influencers and entrepreneurs share their stories and how marketers can use the same practices to keep people coming back for more. Both Conan and Shaq see themselves as selling their personality. They try their best to be true to themselves and their brand. Although they have a marketing team, they are not being told who to be. In recent events they have been working with cultural collision projects such as filming Haiti and giving the country a voice in American television after Trump’s statement. I love this piece because Conan went to another culture and connected with them on a human level at perfect timing for what was happening back home. Consumers have a preference for brands and influencers who are the most authentic. Even if they are promoting an ad, it has to have a human connection.  In my next event, I saw  How to be Human. It revealed tips on how to approach clients in a pitch. We have to realize that clients are human too. They want

This morning, I attended the discussion with the Chief Creative from eBay. She really opened my eyes on what it’s like working on the client-side creative team. eBay’s brand is centered around creating an open market for all people in the world. Questions that raised my attention were how this brand manages to maintain diversity in different cultures. If diversity is one of their best attributes, how does it look in each marketplace? Another brand purpose  she discussed was giving data some humanity. Through an entirely digital platform, tons of big data is being collected from its users. How do they maintain the humanity in those numbers and use it effectively? My next event focuses on developing authenticity in the age of resistance. Richard Edelman hosted a talk called Fame or Fail starring Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo. Consumers are now asking for more from brands in terms of what good are they doing for this world? Are they taking on social activism stances? Just like social

The first event I attended was Burger King’s Hackvertising presentation, where they shared useful tactics on how to break into the online conversations. In one situation, they noticed that the emoji pictures sparked a debate on which side the cheese belongs. On Facebook, the cheese is on the bottom of the patty. On our phone, the cheese is on the top of the patty. Whether you’re #TeamAppleEmoji or #TeamFacebookEmoji, you are able to enjoy a burger YOUR WAY at Burger King by stating which emoji you want it to look like. In another clever hackvertising strategy, they were able to turn a 15 second advertising slot into a 30 second advertisement without spending any extra money. In the ad, they called out to the audience’s Google Home and asked what is a Whopper? Then, the long and descriptive Wikipedia definition of the Whopper was answered through the user’s Google Home device. This method of hackvertising was proven to be risky (they got into some legal trouble) but the ROI was well wor