News direct from Cannes Lions: Day Seven

MEDIA RELEASE
26 June 2011
News direct from Cannes Lions: Day Seven

Fairfax Media is the NZ Representative of the world’s largest advertising festival – Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2011 - and has sent journalist William Mace to report exclusively for them from Cannes, France.

Silver, Bronze and Cannes "Effie" captured on final Lion hunt

WILLIAM MACE
New Zealand has taken three prizes at the final awards show of the 2011 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

A Silver for Colenso BBDO and Flying Fish for their "Rear View Girls" campaign and a Bronze for DDB and Robber's Dog for their Volkswagen "Milk Run" TV spot in the Film category are welcome additions to the Kiwi medal haul.

Colenso is also a recipient of one of seven inaugural Creative Effectiveness awards for its "The Pacific" campaign for TVNZ, which won two Bronzes at last year's Cannes Lions.

The final three award haul brings the Kiwi awards tally to six, well short of the 25 Kiwi agencies brought home in 2010.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/nz-cannes/cannes-news/5193815/Silver-Bronze-and-Cannes-Effie-captured-on-final-Lion-hunt

Air raid reaps results for TVNZ and rewards for Colenso BBDO

WILLIAM MACE

FRONT BENCH: Colenso BBDO's James Hurman [second from right] sits next to Jean-Marie Dru [left] and Giles Hedger [second from left] - just two of the big names he joined on the new Creative Effectiveness jury at the Cannes Lions this year.

Reproducing and sending real war-time letters to 346,000 Kiwi homes and staging a mock dog-fight over the Waitemata Harbour have helped Colenso BBDO grasp one of the first Cannes Lions trophies awarded for Creative Effectiveness.

Colenso’s managing director Nick Garrett and planning director James Hurman were in Cannes to accept the award last night at the closing show of the six day advertising industry event.

Hurman was also on the jury that selected the Creative Effectiveness awards – a new category which reflects on Lion winners from last year and rates them on the business results that flowed directly from them.

Although he abstained from judging his own agency’s work, Hurman said sitting in the room while it was being considered was “brutal”.

But Hurman, who this week released a book on effectiveness in advertising titled The Case For Creativity, said he probably learnt more in two days working on a Cannes jury than in two years elsewhere.

“I don’t know if I’m the youngest but I certainly felt like the baby of the jury because the calibre of all the jurors was frightening, so for me it was kind of an education,” he said, speaking exclusively to BusinessDay after the winners were announced to media in Cannes today.

He said "The Pacific" campaign, which promoted a television mini-series, found favour with the judges because the agency clearly showed how their creative idea flowed through to business results for the client, TVNZ.

“Even though we only had a little bit of results information and it was a small campaign, the entry paper really managed to step you through how it attracted a lot of attention then it lifted the brand metrics, then people watched the show, and then because people watched the show TVNZ could charge a higher price for the ads in the show.

“Therefore the return back to TVNZ in financial terms was a large one.”

The Pacific campaign won Bronze Lions in both the Outdoor and Media categories at the 2010 Cannes Lions.

“The cool thing about this new award is that until now we’ve had creative awards and effectiveness awards separate ... this is the first time we’ve asked ‘how do we give an award for something that does everything?’

“For me that’s the ultimate goal – I want to be doing work that wins at Cannes in creativity and at the Effies in effectiveness – for myself that’s the yardstick, and this gives the whole industry a point to aspire towards.

“It sets up the expectation that to be the best it’s not okay to be just effective or just creative, you have to be both.”

The jury, headed by chairman of TBWA Worldwide Jean-Marie Dru, selected Walkers Crisps “Sandwich” campaign by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London for the Grand Prix.

The campaign centred on giving the English town of Sandwich a day of celebrity interactions to remember, and which spread throughout social networks, online video sites and mainstream media.

Walkers eventually managed to secure more supermarket shelf space, allowing it to sell an extra 1.5 million packets of “crisps”.

“I think it’s a brilliant creative idea,” said Hurman, noting that it won Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions at last year’s festival.

“It’s an example of nowadays how you do an idea that is genuinely participative, and it had widespread media appeal, it was hugely engaging and fun to watch, and hugely populist and accessible.

“One thing I learned was the way it engaged the trade – the retailers and the sales-people of Walkers crisps ... if you can get those people feeling great about the campaign and involved in it, they will work hard for the campaign and it stands a much better chance of being effective.”

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/nz-cannes/cannes-news/5193750/Air-raid-reaps-results-for-TVNZ-and-rewards-for-Colenso-BBDO

Useful Links:
• For more NZ news and views visit: www.stuff.co.nz/nzcannes
• Click here for images from Cannes Lions
• Visit www.canneslions.com/work/ for all the international winners’ information to date
• For Cannes Lions festival information check out www.canneslions.com
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