Day 3

Forget the blue skies and the azure sea. There’s gold in Cannes. And Aussies and Kiwis are taking a lot of it home so far.

Last night saw the 57th Cannes International Advertising Festival ceremony award the PR, Direct, and Promo & Activation categories in the Palais de Festival. A capacity audience watched as the Lions were handed out, and it certainly felt like Australia and New Zealand took a lot of stage time.

Our region usually does well in the Direct category, but last night the Grand Prix, 8 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze Lions were awarded to us by the biggest jury ever to preside over the direct category. Of the 19 gold Lions awarded in total, Australia/NZ have taken a staggering 42% of them.

The coveted Grand Prix went to Special Group NZ for their brilliant Orcon + Iggy Pop campaign for Orcon Broadband. The campaign also collected gold. Pablo Alzugaray, CEO of Shackleton and president of the Direct jury, recognised the campaign as a winner as soon as he saw it.

“The idea of having Iggy Pop re-record The Passenger in real time, using a band in New Zealand chosen via online auditions with Iggy Pop in Miami, was one of the very best uses of celebrity I have ever seen,” said Pablo. “It’s intelligent, experiential and response-driven.”

Three of the gold Lions went to Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s Nothing Soft Gets In for Toyota, spearheaded by ECD Steve Back and then-CD Dave Bowman with creative heavyweights Steve Jackson and Vince Lagana.

DDB NZ’s Live Rescue for Coastguard NZ collected one gold and one silver. Leo Burnett Sydney received a gold, a silver and a bronze for Canon’s Photochains, and a bronze for Canon’s Photo5. Droga5 Australia picked up a gold and a silver with their 4320 LA/SYD Twitter-based campaign for V Australia, while a gold Lion went to Clemenger BBDO for Support Scent for Guide Dogs Australia.

A silver each went to GPYR Melbourne for It’s No Picnic, and 3 Drunk Monkeys for Sunsound, with a bronze each for BMF’s 6 Beers of Separation, DDB Sydney’s AWARD Call-for-entries, and AIM Proximity NZ’s Missing Pictures.

For Promo & Activation, Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney took two more golds for Toyota, Clemenger BBDO collected a silver and a bronze, Leo Burnett another silver, with Special Group NZ and BMF taking a bronze each.

In the PR category, 3 Drunk Monkeys and Leo Burnett were each awarded a silver Lion.

In today’s issue of Lions 2010 Daily News, the finalist list has been announced for the Design and Cyber Lions that hope to be awarded tonight.

For Australia, GPYR Brisbane and Landor Sydney each have a Design nomination, with Droga 5, Visual Jazz and Longtail Perth each earning a nomination for the Cyber category.

New Zealand’s Colenso BBDO and Alt Group are nominated for Design, and Tribal DDB, Colenso BBDO and TBWA/Tequila are the kiwi hopefuls for Cyber.

Congratulations to all, and good luck for the coming ceremonies.

And on a final note, today (June 22) is the birthday of Lester Wunderman, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Wunderman, father of Direct Marketing, and advertising legend. From everyone at the Wunderman Creative Directors’ Summit in Cannes, happy birthday Lester.

in Cannes,
Matt Batten
Creative Director
Wunderman, Sydney