One wonders if San Francisco based Goodby Siverstein's first work for Australia's Commonwealth Bank will be a similar tone of voice and as predictable as this debut spot the agency has produced for Sprint, which has just gone to air in the U.S. ...

Cummins and Partners Brisbane recently produced a new viral and print campaign promoting the Adshel Creative Challenge, an annual event held by the BAD club. Brisbane creatives gathered last night (June 28) at Cutting Edge Brisbane, with one hour to compete on a brief for a charity client. Adshel sponsored the event, and have donated media space to run the idea that wins over judges: Steve Minon from Junior, a representative from Adshel and the client. As it turned out, it was a tie between Cummins and Partners and Junior.
The brief to Cummins and Partners was to ‘capture the feeling’ and kudos that comes with winning the Adshel Creative Challenge. The campaign features Brisbane creatives being seduced by an egotistical version of themselves.

AGENCY: Cummins and Partners Brisbane
ECD: Sean Cummins
CD: James Burchill, Nancy Hartley
Copywriter: Richard Taylor
Art Director: Amanda Dunne
Production: TAXI
Director: Liz Murphy
Producer: Andrew Wareham
Music: Pete Jones

Whybin TBWA/Tequila Sydney has launched it’s first integrated campaign for eBay, having pitched and won the business in April of this year.
The campaign tagged ‘Make Shopping Exciting’ will run across Online, Onsite, Ambient, Viral, Press, Outdoor, Cinema, Free to Air and Pay TV over the coming months.
The campaign is headlined, by ‘Whistler’, a 60’ film that was shot entirely on location in Whistler BC Canada, by Australian director Brendan Williams.
The music track is ‘1, 2, 3, 4’ is from little known up and coming Indie artist Feist.


Client : Nicolas Cabrera, Sharon Scheepers - eBay
Agency : Whybin TBWA/Tequila Sydney
Creative Directors : Garry Horner, Matt Kemsley, Claire Gillis (Tequila)
Creative Team : Garry Horner and Matt Kemsley
Agency Producer : Ian Ford
Account Directors : Olivia Hall and Rebecca Chalmers
Director : Brendan Williams
Production Company : 8 Films
Editor : Drew Thompson - Guilitine
Post Production : Post Modern
Music : Feist
Location : Whistler BC Canada
Media Planning : Match Integration
Media Buying : Total

The CB Videoblog cornered Australia's Nick Law, chief creative officer of RG/A, New York, who's Nike+ work won the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix earlier in the week and a Titanium Lion on the final night....

A series of radio ads for the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN), which aim to prevent child abuse, has won the overall and campaign categories for round one of the 2008 Siren Awards. The spots, 'Alcoholic', 'Football', 'Husband', 'Racist', and 'Traffic' were written by Simon Johnson, Charlie Cook, Ed James and Justin Carew from agency, DDB Sydney.
Judge and previous winner, Guy Lemberg from agency, Love Communications Sydney said: “The Napcan campaign’s clear insight and beautiful execution make it a worthy winner. It’s a very effective and memorable bit of work that stops you in your tracks."
Writer, Charlie Cook from DDB Sydney said the campaign goes where people are scared to go and confronts the issue of child abuse head on.
Two entries were highly commended in the campaign category. “Scrunch or Fold" for Sorbent, written by Richard Williams and Ant Philips from Flagstaff Studios in Melbourne and “Emergency" for Foxtel’s Crime and Investigation Network, written by Vince Lagana and Jason Ross from Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney.
Saatchi Sydney was also the winner of the single category with an ad for Foxtel's Crime and Investigation Network called “Stabbing", written by Vince Lagana and Jason Ross. This ad won a Silver Radio Lion at Cannes last week, along with a second in the Foxtel campaign called “Girls".
Two entries were highly commended in the single category. “Speaking for Everyone" for the Transport Accident Commission (TAC Victoria), written by Tom Martin and Julian Schreiber from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and “Restaurant" for Commercial Radio Australia, written by Ralph van Dijk from Eardrum in Sydney.
Winner of the craft category was “Ageing Woman" for ANZ Financial Planning, written by Doogie Chapman from Risk Sound in Melbourne with sound engineer, Dylan Stephens.
Judge and previous winner, Ralph van Dijk from Eardrum, Sydney said about the craft winner: “This sort of idea is deceptively simple and often done badly. The execution here was seamless."
Two ads were highly commended in the craft category. They were “Ageing Man" for ANZ Financial Planning, written by Doogie Chapman and produced by Dylan Stephens from Risk Sound in Melbourne and “Mutha’s Day" for the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, written by Rem Bruijn and produced by Ross Batten from Cutting Edge in Brisbane.
The national Siren Awards are run by Commercial Radio Australia and are designed to recognise the best radio advertising in the country. The winner of the 2007 Gold Siren Award was recently judged the world’s best radio commercial and received the Cannes Radio Grand Prix at the prestigious awards in Cannes. The Siren awards promote the importance of creativity as a way to make radio advertising more effective. To hear the winning ads or for more information visit the website www.sirenawards.com.au.

Katapolt’s phenomenal success at recent overseas award festivals has marked an incredible 18 months for the Sydney based photographic agency since its inception. In conjunction with its New York affiliate Branch, four of its photographers have picked up a combined total of 11 major medals. Julian Wolkenstein and Matt Baker picked up gold and silver Lions at Cannes while Jean Yves Lemoigne and Achim Lippoth had success at Cannes and Clio Festival with Achim also picking up a coveted D&AD pencil. Jimmy Fok and Kurt Stallaert were also finalists at Cannes and Clio respectively. Their global success reflects Katapolt’s commitment to working with the world’s leading photographers to produce cutting edge work on an international stage.

Videoblog footage of the last day in Cannes, culminating in the Film Lions followed by the Titanium & Integrated Lions later that night. But before that, earlier in the day we interviewed Australia's Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi....

The final night of the 53rd Cannes International Advertising Festival and once again the Aussies and Kiwis were right there in the pride of Lions - even if some of them were won for other countries - as this final access all areas Videoblogorama explains....

CB'S Heather Jacobs (left, at La Colombe d'Or last week during the CB Legendary Lunch in front of a $20m Picasso) reviews the highs and lows of a very busy week in Cannes from a journo's point of view...

THE HAVAS CAFE
Cannes was very full-on and some days were booked up from 9.30 to 2pm and it's really hard work. Really! But it was made a bit sweeter by the café set up by Havas (parent company to Euro RSCG) at the Carlton when they had really fast WiFi, coffees on tap, three course meals for lunch, views of the sea and generous servings of champagne, Rose and Evian water. It was also a great chance to eavesdrop on the deals being made except when they were in French and you couldn't understand a word they were saying. It got really busy after the first day when word spread among the journos about the free lunches. Stressed to buggery about filing before the other 855 journalists from Australia, Lynchy managed to nab us the last two seats right next to all the Havas head honchos preparing for a press conference. I was off getting coffee and Jacques Séguéla, chief creative officer and VP of Havas was hanging out with the chairman Vincent Bollore and went to sit down next to Micheal Lynch in the only spare seat and he said, "Sorry, Heather is sitting there". A Look of thunder crossed his face as he demanded to know, "And who is this Heather?" so loudly I could hear it from the bar inside and the whole place went silent. "Heather Jacobs, she works for me at Campaign Brief," said Michael innocently, looking up from editing that day's videblog. Havas must have spent 2 million Euro (no pun intended) on their cafe and the chairman couldn't even sit down.

LUNCHING
The best lunch was the Campaign Brief Legendary Lunch at La Colombe D'or, which was the most amazing restaurant I've ever been to. It's in St Paul de Vence and used to the hangout for the impressionists and there is priceless art on the walls and gorgeous sculptures everywhere which they used to donate in exchange for lunch when they were down on their luck. Offered to write a story instead of paying my share of the bill, but the offer must have gotten lost in translation. Security is pretty minimal, but one year thieves stole the work and the local Mafia came to the rescue, making them return the art in the dead of night and then they killed them in a gruesome fashion as a public lesson, and the gate has been unlocked to this day.

PARTYING
The best party of the week was Norman Jay playing at the Leo Burnett party. 1200 people dancing like crazy and tickets in hot demand. I was two rows from the stage and danced for five hours straight while Kim Shaw (co-publisher with his uncle Michael of CB Asia - and my new boss) delivered champagne and vodkas and I loved every second of it. The only irritant was some creative director from an unnamed international agency who wouldn't believe that I didn't want to 'take a rest with him' a lovely euphemism the local taxi drivers use on tourists. When I held my wedding ring an inch from his face as the final not so subtle hint, he merely said, "So, I'm not asking you to marry me..." Honestly, give some of these ad guys a Gold
Lion and they think they're Bono. Two guys were walking around making a video tape of people dancing with a sock puppet so somewhere on the internet is a clip of me (if I don't make the cutting room floor) busting the moves as if I'm Madonna. If I ever see it I'll probably never dance in public again.

TAXI SHORTAGE
I couldn't get a taxi home for love nor money, but eventually bumped into Jeff Goodby, one of the stars of the industry, who said he felt like a vagrant wandering from party to party by himself. I'm sure a 1000 aspiring creatives would have accompanied him if only he'd asked. I managed to get some great goss and if I ever remember what he said, I'll tell all.

AL GORE
Hamish McLennan, the Aussie wunderkind now heading Y&R, flew Al Gore in to give a seminar on the advertising industry helping spread the word on global warming which was a major coup except now he has to live with jokes about his green credentials everywhere he goes. Lynchy, who had his bloody video camera on during the whole festival, door-stopped him to ask whether he flew in on a Lear Jet and whether his suite was bigger than Al Gore's, prompting the PR rep -- or was she the secret service? -- to step in declaring it was a security breach. Must say the 'SOS' campaign Y&R is launching globally is stunning.
Shame it wasn't done in time to enter into Cannes or Y&R would have been doubly lucky. Managed to get a back seat in the Auditorium after giving away my VIP sticker to a fellow journo having diligently gone to the Cannes debate because David Droga was on stage and didn't think I would make both. We're expected to be multi-media journos these days and after botching up the recording of the Saatchi & Saatchi New
Directors Showcase I played the hopeless girl line and got BMF's Richard Morgan to frame the stage perfectly so I could tape the debate for the Aussie slackers still at the CB villa party. It was a proud moment for techno-phobes everywhere when I succesfully panned across the stage, except after five seconds the memory stick ran out.
Al Gore was so charismatic I was all teary and willing to join the cause of saving the planet immediately and will buy tickets to the Live Earth concerts on 7/7/07 as soon as Visa takes the ban off my credit card after I bought a round of drinks at the Gutter Bar. Al, unfortunately, didn't inspire the organisers to cancel the $200,000
fireworks display at the end that went for 10 minutes or give the Grand Prix to a public service ad, but that's the wonderful contradictions of the world we live in today.

THE WEDDING
But what's with Jamie Packer following me around? Not content to live in the same street in Bondi, he has to hang around Cannes (looking very happy I must say) at the same time. Saw his yacht when we drive through Antibes (at least I think I did, but I'm so shortsighted I have to pretend I've seen the whales and dolphins when they're passing through) and there was lot of buzz about 'the wedding' which Rupert Murdoch flew in for and someone called Tom Cruise. The SMH's Andrew Hornery (an ex-B&T journo) is said to have broke the worldwide exclusive instilling hope in trade press journos the world over.

Now, it's back to reality and I have to pick up the phone and ring ad execs for comments rather than walking across the bar. Although, by Saturday I was so exhausted I'd have agreed to catch a Greyhound bus to Dubbo to interview someone next week rather than ask one more person, 'so, what do you think about...' For anyone still lucky to be enough to be in Europe, stay there, it's cold and raining and that's not Al Gore's fault.

Those who couldn’t clear their diary for Cannes made sure they could cabcharge their way over to Ying’s Restaurant in Crows Nest to pay homage to the world’s greatest advertising festival and their lion-winning brethren. The FBI Recruitment ‘No Cannes Do’ celebrated its fourth year courtesy of sponsors UFO Films, Chivas & Cutting Edge Post. The 100 or so people who turned out were welcomed by Cutting Edge’s CEO Ray Smith and enjoyed a banquet selected by renowned Sydney foodie (and legendary TVC director) Les Luxford. Lunch was followed by a variety of Chivas-based cocktails distributed by the beautiful Chivas girls. Kevin McNamara from Clemenger BBDO collected the 4.5 litre bottle of Chivas in the ‘Line of the Day’ competition and Jol Temple from Leo Burnett won the Lucky D’Or prize. The lunch went on into the evening and then onto the Argyle Bar. Following are some photos of the attendees as well as a video capturing the highlights of the day–

Former Naked, Sydney Head of Creative Chris Round has been appointed a Creative Group Head at Leo Burnett.
Says Leo Burnett national CD, Mark Collis: "Chris comes to the agency with exactly the kind of expertise that this agency has been fostering for two years i.e. Brilliant ideas. It's no news that agencies have for some time been playing catch up with the changing landscape of communications. But it has long been our belief that the idea is central and it is what clients pay us for. Chris was formerly the Head of Creative at Naked and is re-united at Leo's with former Head of Planning Clare Graham."
Round says creatively it’s a natural progression from Naked to Leo Burnett: “Leo’s has one of the best creative reputations in the region and are fully embracing the new direction the industry is taking. Ideas like Earth Hour are testament to this. Also the opportunity to work with a great management team, that share the same vision of executing world class ideas is tremendous."

Another big day, culminating in the Campaign Brief Sweet Villa Pool Party, generously sponsored by Paul Prince at Auckland based The Sweet Shop, Australasia's world class TVC production company listed in the top 20 on the planet - for the second year running - by North America's Boards Magazine. Here's Part One....





And here's Part Two - if you can't view this one

CLICK HERE

Australian expat Leo Premutico, who is joint executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York with South African Jan Jacobs helped the agency win the coveted Cannes Advertising Agency of the Year title. The pair are second in seniority to Saatchi & Saatchi NY creative chief, Tony Granger - himself a South African.
The Saatchi win breaks the stronghold by TBWA Paris, who has won it for the past four years. Last year, Saatchi New York was third.
DDB London was the second most awarded agency of the year and Ogilvy & Mather Singapore third.
Saatchi New York’s award haul included the Grand Prix in print for Procter & Gamble’s Ultra Tide Stain Remover ‘Mayo’, ‘Soy Sauce’ and ‘Ketchup’. Winning the top prize for one of the world’s biggest packaged goods company signals a shift towards agencies winning awards for its biggest, and therefore most difficult, clients.
The Network of the Year was BBDO, with DDB in second place and Saatchi & Saatchi in third place. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, which won the Cannes Radio Grand Prix for Snickers ‘Hoedown’ and Clemenger BBDO Wellington, which won a coveted Integrated Lion for The New Zealand Netherlands Foundation ‘World Press Photo Exhibition’ and several other Lions earlier in the week, helped BBDO emerge as the leading network of the year.
The US dominated the Palme d’Or, which awards the top 10 production companies at the festival, a list led by Smuggler New York, Biscuit Filmworks Los Angeles, MJZ Los Angeles and Hungry Man USA. In fifth place was Rebolucion Buenos Aires, Epoch Films Beverly Hills, Gorgeous Enterprises London, Phenomena Bangkok, Partizan London and Rattling Stick, London.

Australia and New Zealand picked up two of the mere eight Titanium and Integrated awards handed out tonight in Cannes with Leo Burnett Sydney winning a Titanium Lion for WWF ‘Earth Hour’ and Clemenger BBDO Wellington picking up an Integrated Lion for The New Zealand Netherlands Foundation ‘World Press Photo Exhibition’.
Titanium and Integrated have emerged as the most coveted awards of the festival and is the hardest to win with the number handed out deliberately kept low to make sure they stay coveted.
Of the eight, two Grand Prix’s were awarded with Crispin Porter + Bogusky winning the Titanium Grand Prix for Burger King’s ‘Xbox King Games Innovative Campaign’ and the Integrated Grand Prix awarded to Vegaolmosponce Buenos Aires for Unilever ‘Axe 3’. Jury president was Alex Bogusky, co-founder of CP+B, (who had to leave the room during the vote because it was his campaign), says that Titanium and Integrated is a sanctuary for ideas that don’t have anywhere else to go.
The two other Titaniums handed out had an Australian influence with Droga5 New York, the agency started by Aussie advertising’s most famous expat David Droga winning for UNICEF Tap Water’s ‘Tap Water’ and R/GA New York for Nike+. The chief creative officer at R/GA is Australian expat Nick Law who was little known in Australia until he professed his nationality during the press conference announcing the Cyber winners with Nike+ winning the Cyber Grand Prix.
The other two Integrated Lions went to BBDO Argentina Buenos Airies for Nike ‘Barrio Bonito’ and Fallon London for Tate Modern Museum’s ‘Tate Tracks’.
A total of 50 campaigns were shortlisted with Australia and New Zealand scoring three of these each. Other finalists were BMF’s ‘Beach Cricket’ for Lion Nathan XXXX Gold Beer and The Glue Society Sydney for ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ for the ABC. New Zealand’s other contenders were DraftFCB Auckland for Prime TV’s ‘Weeds’ and TBWA\Whybin Auckland for its ‘Pago Campaign’ for ASB Bank.

The Cannes Film Grand Prix was awarded to Ogilvy & Mather Toronto for Unilever's Dove Self Esteem Fund ‘Evolution’, written, art directed and co-directed by Aussie expat Adelaide boy Tim Piper. Piper has been working in Canada for the past two and a half years and presented the work to Will Awdri, the global creative director for Dove, based out of Ogilvy & Mather London, who in turn reports to Kiwi expat Malcolm Poynton - ex ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney.
But Australia and New Zealand failed to translate its 30 shortlisted entries for film to significant metal with Australia only winning three Bronze Lions and New Zealand picking up one Silver and two Bronze.
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland won Silver for DB Breweries Tiger Beer ‘Taste it in this Life’. Bronze Lions were awarded to Colenso BBDO's Frucor’s Frank Beverages ‘Nail’ and Publicis Mojo Auckland for Greenpeace ‘Breathe’.
Australia’s three Bronze Lions were won by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne for Carlton Draught ‘Flash Beer’, DDB Sydney for ‘Children See, Children Do’ and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for The SCA Hygeine Australia ‘The Folder’ for Absorbent Toilet Paper. (This was counted as a New Zealand win because it was entered by The Sweet Shop, but Campaign Brief is counting it in the Australian tally.)
The jury was queried by the trade press during the announcement of the winner because the category was shifted with it being moved out of the fund raising category to the corporate image category. This is because public service work is not eligible for the Grand Prix, however as jury members pointed out it was still an ad for a cosmetics brand, which is about selling more make-up than saving the world.
Cannes Festival, executive chairman, Terry Savage says that the rule was originally enforced because of a similar debate about a large number of public service work winning Grand Prix with the feeling that the entry bar is lower. With Al Gore in town to encourage agencies to lead the way on endorsing the crisis on climate change sentiment is that this ruling is now out of date. Savage would not commit to
changing the rules, but did say they will be reviewed. Jury president DDB Worldwide creative director Bob Scarpelli says that personally he thinks public service ads should be eligible for the Grand Prix but a request for a show of hands from jury members was rejected by Scarpelli on the grounds it was unfair.
Last year’s Titanium award had the category extended to include integrated following the furor (started by the CB Blog) over a Japanese 'BarCode' handed the only Titanium.
It was a disappointing performance for Asia this year with no Film Golds. The heavily fancied Perfetti Van Melle ‘Happy Dent Palace’ spot from McCann Erickson Mumbai only got a Silver and a Bronze despite it being Asia’s frontrunner for Gold. Last night Trevor Beattie was sporting a t’shirt reading ‘Happydent for Grand Prix’. The other
strong contendor from Asia, the Smooth E Babyface Scrub campaign only had one sport awarded with ‘Materialism’ picking up Bronze.
Overall, Thailand got two Silvers and a Bronze, India a Silver and two Bronzes, and Japan a Bronze.

Amanda Johnston, Director of Sales and Marketing, Bigpond, Australia reviews the best of the seminars at Cannes this year, exclusively for the Blog. Here is her take on what she attended from Tuesday through to Thursday....

Paul Yole, General Manager, Gatecrasher, Perth reports exclusively for Campaign Brief...


Wednesday – Day Three
The ads that won the press Grand Prix are bloody great. They’re for Ultra Tide stain remover and there is an Aussie connection as one of the ECDs at Saatchi New York is Australian – Leo Premutico.
Have a look at the ads on the Cannes web site - they are stunning.
Another press gold was won by TBWA New York with an Aussie creative team coming up with the winning idea for Snickers. When Rob Klemen picked up the award he did three one-handed press-ups on stage, which was very funny if you know Rob.
Wednesday afternoon was spent in St Paul de Vence at a stunning restaurant called La Colombe d’Or in the company of FBI, CB and around 50 Australian people. It was great to be able to talk to people like Garry Horner, Warren Brown, Tom Moult, Craig Davis, Rowan Dean and my old Perth colleagues Matt Eastwood and Steve Back.
In the evening we went to the Getty Images Massive Music party on the beach, accompanied by Getty’s gorgeous Rachel Dennis. Then it was on to the infamous Gutter Bar until daylight.
Which brings me on to the tricky issue of combining the social side of Cannes with the more educational and inspirational side. It’s very easy to get sucked in to the all-day-and-night party culture and miss out on some really good stuff.
So if you are thinking of coming for the first time, be prepared for working on very little sleep but do resist the very strong temptation to neglect the serious side of the Festival.

Thursday – Day Four
Here is a classic example of what I said yesterday. After a very late night I overslept and missed one of the highlights of the Festival, the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase.
Thankfully Murray Laird from Marketforce Perth was able to give me a full report. Murray is over here courtesy of winning the fellowship award given by The West Australian newspaper.
I did sit through a fairly dull debate on a very interesting subject – user generated marketing. The MC lost her way a little bit but some of the examples from the likes of Nike and Dove were really good.
Today the film shortlist was released. It’s ironic that despite online being such a red-hot topic these days, television advertising is still what everyone wants to see.
They have screenings of all the TV entries every day so if you have the patience you can sit through them all, but be warned it may be better to wait to see the more quality-intense shortlist screenings.
Or you can sit at the bank of Macs and search to see work from any category.
There is so much to see and do here that it is easy to miss something but you can catch up through the 80-page full colour magazine that is produced every day. It’s a full-on magazine just like ad Age or Campaign Brief, but it is published daily which must taking a huge effort.


Friday – Day Five
Although this is my fifth day at the Festival, it is actually the seventh day of the event proper because seminars started last Saturday.
I’ve heard some interesting stuff this week. In no particular order, here are some facts, figures and findings.
This year there are a record 11,000 delegates with several thousand more coming along just to hang out.
25,660 entries is also a record.
The Internet now has a 21% share of media consumption worldwide.
One in four USA workers spend an average of 3.5 hours a week (9% of their working time) reading blogs at work.
55% of 12-17 year olds in the USA are reported to be members of an online social network. In reality, that figure will be higher now.
Zenithoptimedia has just invested the equivalent of over A$12m on a new ROI tracking tool called Touchpoints. They are obviously keen to work out how all this money that is being poured into new media is actually working.
In the past 4 years, we have been subjected to 48% more door drops.
In the UK, 80% of people who own the Sky+ DVR skip the ads. I’m sure that means the sales guys are going to be reducing their rates by 80%.
The USC Annenberg School has produced a study called ‘Surveying the Digital Future’, which tells us that dial up Internet was actually a bigger threat to TV viewing than is broadband. This is because broadband users tend to use the Internet more often but for less time each visit so they often have the computer near their TV set. In fact, USC predicts that TV will actually grow in the future, in conjunction with the Internet not in competition to it.
Music licensing firm Ricall has just announced a new online platform that connects buyers of music rights directly to the license holders, thus eliminating some hefty commissions and finders’ fees.
Manchester United has 75 million fans worldwide. The several billion other soccer fans in the world hate them, so you could say Man U is a niche brand. But it’s a bloody big niche.
WGSN (which stands for worthglobalstylenetwork) tracks the new and innovative cultural drivers. They predict four new trends for 2008: New Frontiers, Curated, Elusive and Disturbed.
In the USA, 100,000 canned drinks are consumed every 30 seconds.
I could go on but suffice to say that although topics such as user generated marketing, digital media and content are major themes here, nobody is saying that the so-called old media are dying.
Today was the day of the Campaign Brief Villa Pool Party, sponsored by Paul Prince at The Sweet Shop. Although the Festival ends tomorrow we still have the highlight of the Film Lions and the closing gala to come. After a long week already I’m not sure whether the pool party was a wind down or warm up but it was great way for the very strong Australasia contingent to let their hair down together and do a bit of bonding.
I’ve met a lot of new friends this week and many of them have talent that I am in awe of. I guess that is what they call networking and that is what I’ll tell my employers when I get back.
This afternoon was the Cannes Debate about the future of agencies with four of the world’s greatest ad men - David Droga, Andrew Robertson, Daniel Morel and Jeff Goodby. One clear message was that the task remains the same but the canvas is just bigger.
The message I took out of this summarised the whole week: no matter what medium you use it is the idea that counts. You just need to make sure you surround yourself with people who can create those ideas and execute them in whatever medium counts.
And then, as Andrew Robertson so eloquently put it, “craft the snot out of it."

The day after Big Wednesday is Thirsty Thursday, the day the Film Shortlist is released and when the big guns start coming into Cannes...

Australia and New Zealand have a good chance of picking up a Titanium/Integrated Lion after getting six campaigns through to the shortlist stage. Only 50 campaigns have been shortlisted worldwide.
Australia has three contenders:– BMF Sydney’s ‘Beach Cricket’ for Lion Nathan XXXX Gold Beer, Leo Burnett Sydney’s ‘Earth Hour’ for WWF and The Glue Society Sydney for ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ for the ABC. The whisper around the traps is that Earth Hour has lots of fans, especially with the Al Gore factor this week.
New Zealand’s three contenders are Clemenger BBDO Wellington’s ‘World Press Photo Exhibition’ for The New Zealand Netherlands Foundation, DraftFCB Auckland for Prime TV’s ‘Weeds’ and TBWA\Whybin Auckland for its ‘Pago Campaign’ for ASB Bank. Cannes Media Grand Prix winner Pago looks hot to continue its run.
Droga5 has two campaigns shortlisted: UNICEF 'Tap Project' and Lion Nathan's Steinlager 'Win Nick's Life'. Like Earth Hour, Tap Project is predicted to do well.

A message from Karen Sproul, producer Exit Films, Melbourne, received prior to the start of CB Villa Pool Party today...

Just to let you know that Garth (Davis) and I have more finalists.
Our Boots ad 'Summer Rush' with Mother, London (thru Anonymous @ Independent, UK); our XBox ad 'Cops and Robbers' with McCann WorldGroup, San Francisco (thru Anonymous Content, USA) and our Minute Maid ad 'Bloom' with Ogilvy & Mather, Hong Kong (thru Exit Films, Aust), have also made it to the Cannes Film shortlist, in addition to our Sony 'Kiss' spot with Saatchi's, Sydney.

See you at lunch today!

Cheers,

Karen

Paul Yole, General Manager, Gatecrasher, Perth reports exclusively for Campaign Brief...

Tuesday – Day Two

When somebody mentions the Cannes Lions the first thing that comes to mind is of course the creative awards, which is hardly surprising since there are over 25,000 entries. It is very much the best work in the world, but more of that next time.
Another side of Cannes (by the way, it is NOT pronounced ‘Carn’, it's 'Can') is the opportunity to meet people and talk about our industry. For a suit like me such ‘networking’ is invaluable but more to the point here is that it can be very inspirational.
Last night I spoke to several eminent creative directors, the Regional Director of a top photo library, a TV producer from London, the chairman of the radio jury, an Irish planner from Singapore and a music guy from Germany who happens to live just down the road from I used to live in Westphalia. Eine kleine world indeed.
Earlier on Fairfax had a party for all us Aussie delegates and I caught up with, among others, Matt Eastwood and Warren Brown. Good onya Fairfax, it was bloody beaut.
I also saw an old school mate who is in the design and digital world so who knows we may even be able to do some work together. His office in California certainly has some appeal for our next meeting.
All of this helps to enrich the experience of Cannes and open the mind to new possibilities. As it says on the conference bag, “the more things you see, the more ideas you have".
After last night I now know a lot more about our business and I’m sure that if I hadn’t stayed up until 5am I may have remembered even more of it.
Yes, it is true what they say about the partying but hey, we are a long way from home and we need to relax.
Tonight is the awards ceremony for radio, outdoor and media Lions. Some good Aussie chances, Asia is doing great and so too are Argentina and Brazil. After the awards there is the official opening gala on the beach.
It may be another late night so I had better get some rest.

The shortlist for the Cannes Film Lions were released at 3pm Cannes time this afternoon with Australia nabbing 20 and New Zealand 10.
Across Australia and New Zealand, Clemenger Group dominated with nine shortlists - six for Colenso BBDO Auckland, two for Clemenger BBBO Melbourne and one for CHE Melbourne. Publicis Mojo had seven – four shortlists for Australia and three for New Zealand. George Patterson Y&R Melbourne had three shortlists and Saatchi & Saatchi had three, two from Australia and one from New Zealand.
In Australia, Publicis Mojo had the most work recognised with four shortlists - two for Nestle Peter’s Drumstick Ice Cream ‘Ritual’ and two for Melbourne Tourism ‘Labyrinth’
George Patterson Y&R Melbourne had three shortlists, one for Foster’s Carlton Draught’s ‘Flash Beer’, one for City of Melbourne’s ‘Imaginary Guide’ and one for Victorian Government’s Climate Change Awareness ‘Black Balloons’.
Three Australian agencies had two shortlists each: BWM, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney.
BWM’s shortlisted entries were Sumo Salad’s ‘Sumo Kid’ and Telstra BigPond Entertainment on Demand ‘Limo’.
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s was shortlisted for SCA Hygeine Australia, one for Libra Tampons ‘The Comparison’ and the other for Absorbent Toilet Paper ‘The Folder’.
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s two shortlists were for Sony HD Handycam ‘Kiss’ and one for Foxtel Sports Channel ‘Mrs’.
Seven other agencies had one shortlist each.
Draft FCB Melbourne (Honda Odyssey ‘Curfew’)
Grey Melbourne (John West Salmon ‘Flying Fish Tackle)
CHE Melbourne (Nando’s ‘Nando Fix’)
M&C Saatchi Sydney (British Council of Australia ‘Artist’)
Whybin/TBWA Sydney (Special Olympics’ ‘The Office’)
DDB Sydney (NAPCAN Child Friendly Australia ‘Children See, Children Do’)
The Furnace (TAC Victoria ‘Curtain Airbags’.)
New Zealand picked up 10 shortlists, dominated by Colenso BBDO Auckland with six - four shortlists for Frucor Beverages with ‘Nail’, ‘Aldulterers’, ‘No Friends’ and ‘Beach Party’, one for Hair Products for Men Mix Limited ‘Dominate’, and one for New Zealand Book Council ‘No two People’.
Publicis Mojo Auckland had three - two for Coca-Cola’s Mother ‘Natural’ and ‘Lemur’ and one for Greenpeace ‘Breathe’.
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland had one shortlist for DB Breweries Tiger Beer ‘Taste it in this Life’.

It's Big Wednesday, and the highlight of Cannes week for the lucky few invited is the Campaign Brief Legendary Lunch at La Colombe D'Or, the world's most beautiful garden restaurant...

It was Super Tuesday for both the Aussies and Kiwis at Cannes, with one Grand Prix apiece, TBWA\Whybin + OMD nabbing Media Grand Prix for Pago and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne wining the Radio Grand Prix for Snickers 'Hoedown'....

Australia and New Zealand both bombed at the Cannes Cyber Lions, with only a single Bronze going to Tequila\Australia Sydney for Newline Cinema’s ‘Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny’.
There were three Grand Prix handed out to Sweden, USA and Canada. Sweden won for Diesel’s ‘Heidies 15MB of Fame’ by FARFAR Stockholm (www.farfar.se/awards/cannes2007/heidies/), the USA won for R/GA New York’s Nike+
(www.rga.com/award/nikeplus.html) and Canada won for Ogilvy & Mather Toronto’s ‘Evolution’ for Unilever Canada (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFPGa0pKyTg).
Nick Law, chief creative officer for R/GA, told the blog that Australia could claim the Grand Prix as its own since he is an Australian. He thinks Australia is very much still a TVC led market, but expects this to change with TIVO arriving in Australia which will force a shift in focus.
Jury president Tom Eslinger, creative director for interactive and emerging technologies Saatchi & Saatchi, says getting onto the finalist list at Cannes is hard: “Australia and New Zealand had finalists in categories, they had really strong work but we were looking for the most exceptional digital cyber ideas in the world and the ones that were awarded were far and away the best work," he says.
“Australia has had some really strong years, New Zealand has had some strong years in cyber but this year they didn’t. This jury creates some of the best work in the world so when you have that sort of level of people judging the best work it’s tough. Hopefully we have set the standard that will create even better work next year."

While Australia completely bombed at the Cannes Press Lions tonight, there was some comfort in knowing an Aussie expat had something to do with the Grand Prix.
The Grand Prix went to Saatchi & Saatchi New York for Procter & Gamble's Ultra Tide Stain Remover campaign ‘Mayo’, ‘Soy Sauce’ and ‘Ketchup’ - the co ECD was Australian expat Leo Premutico, formerly of Colenso BBDO, Auckland and before that, Ammirati Puris Lintas, Sydney. Saatchi New York also won Gold for Glide Dental Floss ‘Sleeping’, ‘Big Night Out’, ‘Manhattan’ and ‘My Girfriend’, ‘Music’ and ‘New Sports Car’.
New Zealand won two Silvers and a Bronze, Silver going to Draft FCB's Little Boys Sausages campaign ‘Smoked Venison’, ‘Chicken &’, and 'Duck & Porcini’ and Colenso BBDO PC Games ’9.95 PC Games’ ‘Dad and Son’, ‘Mum and Daughter’ , while Bronze was awarded to Publicis Mojo for Amnesty.
Tony Granger, executive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi New York says he was stunned on hearing the news. “I ran into Kevin Robert’s office and said Kevin, we’ve just won the Grand Prix for Tide and he said, tell me again. We’ve just won the Grand Prix for Tide. Tell me again… he made me say it three times. It’s a massive brand, it’s the biggest marketer in the world and hats off to them because they have been at Cannes for a long time studying, learning, taking notes, I think it’s wonderful."
Asia continued its dominance in Print with Singapare taking out two Golds, one for Ogilvy & Mather Singapore for Hospice Care Awareness ‘Death’, ‘Lung Cancer’, ‘Six Months’ and ‘the End’ and the other to Saatchi Singapore for Thai SPCA ‘Couch’, ‘Walkies’ and ‘Sticks’. Malaysia won three Silvers with JWT KL winning for Scott Kitchen Towels ‘Oil’, ‘Wine’, ‘Coffee’ and ‘Bacon’ winning two Silvers and Saatchi Malaysia winning the other for ACP Magazines Breast Cancer Association. Singapore won two Silvers, both by Ogilvy & Mather for Scotts Emulsion and FHM. The other Silver for Asia was for JWT Manilla for Greenpeace.
Overall, Asia won 12 Bronze with three for India, five for Singapore and three for Thailand.

Here are more pics of the Australian winners of the Fairfax Young Creative Competition 2007, Iggy Rodriguez (left) and Justin Carew (right) from DDB Sydney, together with the winning work. The pair, who continue to have a ball in Cannes at all the functions, came equal second (a Silver Lion) at the Cannes Young Creative Print competition against the world's best young creative stars. This is the best performance by a young Australian team in the history of the competition.

The Aussies in the 2000 strong crowd - all 200 of them - erupted when Clemenger BBDO Melbourne won the coveted Cannes Radio Grand Prix with its two-minute Snickers ‘Hoedown’ - voted the best radio commercial in the world.
Written by Paul Reardon (pictured right) and Jonas Peterson (left) and produced through Nylon Studios Sydney, it won over a campaign for Geronimo Condoms by Grey Johannesburg asking people to imagine their parents having sex in vivid detail by just one vote.
Set to banjo music ‘Hoedown’ features three Hillbillies - two Americans Johnny May and Sonny Ray singing a song about how hungry they are with Aussie Bill saying his hunger could be sated by eating a Snickers Bar. It won Australian Commercial of the Year at the Siren Awards in May. (To hear the spot go to: www.sirenawards.com.au)
It also broke the Bud Light dominance of the Radio Grand Prix, having won it for the past two years although it did win a Gold Lion this year and was a contender for the top prize along with TBWA\Chiat\Day New York for Masterfoods Combos Pretzels. It was obviously a tough judging year, with only seven Gold Lions handed out in radio.
Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney won a Silver Lion for their Foxtel campaign - ‘Girl’ and ‘Your Marriage’ - produced by Song Zu Sydney/Eardrum Sydney.
It was a lean year for NZ, with only DraftFCB Auckland winning a Silver Lion for Prime TV - The L Word ‘Fresh Baking’ and ‘Morning Visitor’, produced by Digital Post Auckland.
David Guerrero, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO Guerrero Ortega, who was the Jury President, says ‘Hoedown’ had some passionate advocates as did its closest rival Geronimo, which would have been given a Grand Prix if they could award two.
“It is impeccably crafted, it is brilliantly on brand and it is a very simple, universally admired campaign," he said of ‘Hoedown’.
Australian juror Ralph van Dijk, creative director of Eardrum, who spent a lot of time outside of the room, because he was the producer on the Foxtel work, expects the win to raise the kudos of radio among Australian creatives, a process gaining momentum with the Commerical Radio of Australia’s efforts to raise the medium’s profiles with Siren Awards, creative workshops and massive branding campaign.
Australia had 47 entries in Radio this year and New Zealand had 27 entries.

New Zealand has pulled off the near-impossible winning its second Grand Prix of the festival with OMD Auckland awarded the Media Grand Prix for ASB Bank's Pago ‘Money goes Digital’ campaign promoting its online banking service. Creative agency on the campaign was TBWA\Whybin Auckland. The same agency won a Grand Prix in Promo yesterday for its NZRU/Adidas ‘Bonded by Blood’ campaign.
It is the second Media Grand Prix won by New Zealand since the awards inception in 1999 when 141 Palace Plus Auckland won it for Sony Computer Entertainment. Australia has won the Media Grand Prix twice since the Media Lions started – in 2006 for Lowe Hunt’s ‘LynxJet’ and in 2002 for Universal McCann Magnum ‘7 Deadly Sins’.
New Zealand also picked up a Silver Lion for Clemenger BBDO Wellington’s Land Transport ‘Bloody Legends’ work and the ASB work picked up two Bronze Lions, taking New Zealand’s total to three Lions and a Grand Prix in media.
Australia had two Media Lions, one for Ikon Sydney’s Atari Tomb Raider Computer Game ‘Search for Lara’ and Bronze for the Naked Sydney campaign for Icon Clothing ‘Hynomarketing’.
Australia had 48 entries and New Zealand entered 21 pieces of work in Media.

It was Cannes Grand Prix Day for New Zealand on Monday and the Aussies also toasted their success... The Videoblog was everywhere - even on stage - to record the highs of the day....

TBWA\Whybin Auckland picked up the only Gold Lion for New Zealand at the Outdoor Lions for their already highly awarded Rugby Union’s Adidas ‘Bonded by Blood’ work.
Australia won three Outdoor Lions – two Silvers and one Bronze. The Silvers were for The Campaign Palace Melbourne Target poster ‘Big Hands’ and JWT Sydney for the Pet Pantry campaign ‘Snoop’, ‘Fluffer’ and ‘Rocko’. The Bronze went to Leo Burnett Melbourne’s Connex campaign ‘Chicken Feet’, ‘Beaver’ and ‘Hamster’.
The Grand Prix went to South Africa’s Net#work BBDO Johannesburg for Nedbank’s ‘Power to the People’ .
A total of 90 Outdoor Lions were handed out, the same as last year, split between 19 Gold (same as last year), 26 Silver (two more than last year) and 44 Bronze (three less than last year). Australia had 140 entries and New Zealand had 128 entries.

While we were on stage collecting their Promo Lion, the "Big Warnie" team from George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, celebrated their win on the beach, just south of Cannes, in St Kilda. Left to right: Ben Coulson, Tom Martin, Richard Muntz and Romanca Jasinski.

Creative Team: Richard Muntz & Tom Martin
Agency Producer: Romanca Jasinski
Creative Director: James McGrath
Creative Group Heads: Ben Coulson & Josh Stephens
Account team: Amanda Price & Kirsten LeRoux
Agency: George Patterson Y&R
Director: Tim Kirkby
Pro