IS IT really a disaster that Australia didn’t win any Film Lions at Cannes, or are we being too hard on ourselves? Do marketers benefit from winning international creative awards?
John O’Brien
Managing director
Kiwicare
Note: Kiwicare’s campaign for No Bugs by Grey Auckland won the Poster Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival.
Winning an award like this has the potential to make the world more aware of our products and we are currently exporting to the UK, Germany and the Middle East.
In terms of these types of countries, the manufacturers would be more aware of the world’s best of the best.
I am very happy that they won the award and company morale has increased significantly.
The campaign wasn’t designed to win awards and I wasn’t even aware [the agency] had entered it in Cannes—I don’t ask them to enter awards. But we didn’t expect them to win anything.
Our sales staff think it is magnificent—especially for a little country like New Zealand to win this.
The value [of this campaign] has been immeasurable and it has got the message across and has consumer appeal.
Frank Cohen
Marketing director
Jim Beam Brands
Upon hearing that “1900-9-JIMBEAM” had done really well at Cannes this year, this achievement re-ignited my passion for the Cannes Advertising Awards which I used to watch annually at free lunchtime screenings for several years as a marketer living in South Africa.
On studying the Cannes website extensively this year I was struck not only by the fact that New Zealand appeared to have done remarkably well, but also that South Africa continued to also perform well—in the same categories that they did a decade ago and with the same advertising agencies behind the creative.
Comparatively, Australia on the other hand did not appear to have performed as well as New Zealand and South Africa.
As a marketer, for me advertising is first and foremost about clearly communicating the intended brand message and generating sales, with winning awards a nice cherry on the top.
I don’t pretend to know why New Zealand and South Africa perform better than Australia, but I would hazard a guess that simplicity, single-mindedness and relevance of communication would be important ingredients, which is why I believe “1900-9-JIMBEAM” did really well.
Bring on the annual screenings of the Cannes Advertising Awards to Australia and let both creatives and marketers judge for themselves what others in other markets might do better!
Ed’s note: Cannes representative Fairfax is planning some Cannes reel screenings this year.
Warren Brown
Executive CD
Brown Melhuish Fishlock
I think it’s a disaster [that Australia didn’t win any film Lions at Cannes], but not entirely unexpected. We’ve always done pretty well, [but it’s difficult] because our output is limited.
I think in the past we have relied on the jury to make us look good, but I don’t think you can blame the jury [for not awarding Australia any film Lions].
If [marketers] do win one, they get pretty excited, especially when it’s in a competitive category. It’s global recognition for everyone’s efforts.
We just have to hope we can do better next year.
Anna Fawcett
Executive producer
Film Graphics
I’ve been going to Cannes for 12 years and it’s a way of keeping in touch with the rest of the world and what they are doing.
Also our market is global now and we get scripts from everywhere and it’s a chance to meet up with contacts in one fell swoop.
We should be hard on ourselves. Because good ideas generally win awards and fresh ideas is what we should all be striving for. It is tough these days to get [work] through the marketing people who are now running our business along with the lawyers.
The end product shows this.
The innovative and entertaining commercials are not the norm these days but the exception.
Getting people to talk about your brand in a positive way has to be part of the equation.
At the Cannes Festival this year, most of the spots that won awards were comedy-based and this has been the case for as long as I can remember.
I can’t speak for marketers about how relevant it is to them to win awards.
But it has been great to witness the winners of the Advertiser of the Year award at Cannes, this year Nike, in the past Diesel, Budweiser and Virgin—all companies that have taken their brand ahead with good strong creative ideas.
These clients give the agency some freedom and let them do their job. They’ve taken risks and pushed the envelope.
Would their brands be as strong if they had done safe advertising based on research and market reports?
Matt Keon
Principal
If Your Mind Was A Room
[Australia didn’t win any film Lions for] the same reasons as last year and the year before and the year before: we as an industry didn’t have anything decent to enter.
We’re too busy asking questions and bitching about who said what to whom.
The quality and quantity just wasn’t there. A lot of people have given up trying to fight the “creative” battle.
Is there a creative crisis? Well, sort of, if clients are happy to accept mediocre ideas and if creatives are happy to present them.
And no, definitely not.
We have some of the best creatives in the world. It’s probably got more to do with nervousness and lack of opportunity than lack of creatives cracking big ideas.
The fact is a lot of marketers ask for the big idea then ignore it, then research something else. It’s really boring. I’m sick of writing about it.
Also, the phrase “gut instinct” does not apply to a lot of marketers here, but that’s another article.
Cannes is a good calibration for what people universally like. So if a client’s ad does well in Cannes, it’s generally assumed that people have responded well, and getting people to like your ad is a good start.
If marketers don’t think this is important then they don’t think the Olympics is important, the Nobel Peace Prize is important, the Academy awards are important, or the Logies are important (okay, so you got me on the Logies).
John Kananghinis
GM marketing (incoming)
BMW Australia
It’s always nice to have the work that’s done for you recognised as being the best of its type in the world. But at the end of the day, we’re here to sell products.
There are numerous cases where there is fantastic creative that has produced ooohs and aahs from educated observers that doesn’t end up selling the product. The creative can in fact overpower the message.
I don’t think it’s an indication that there’s a lack of creativity just because Australia doesn’t get any [creative] gongs for one or two or three years in a row. There’s no reason to fear there’s a lack of creativity in the Australian market.
When we do create film advertising here, obviously we try to make it cut through creatively, but we have to carefully balance creativity with the message to buy the product.
Forum is a fortnightly section covering topics of interest to agencies and marketers. Send suggested Forum topics to Danielle Veldre. E: Danielle.Veldre@reedbusiness.com.au. T: (02) 9422 2903 F: (02) 9422 2949.
