June 2007 Archives

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
Producer: Angela Bray/George Mackenzie
Production Company: Independent Films Sydney/Believe Media (UK)
Film Company: Believe Media (UK)
Client: Mandi McPherson & Melissa Rogers from Cricket Australia

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 Sunday and Monday....

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

Monday – Day One for me, Day Two for the Festival

OK, here’s the idea.
This is my first trip to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival and CB co publisher Kim Shaw has asked me to write a few words each day giving the perspective of a ‘suit’ at what has always been seen as the advertising world’s creative party.
I knew a little of what could be expected following Mike Edmonds’ trip here last year as a radio judge and Kim had warned that “it’s full-on".
When Kim says that, you know not to expect anything small.
I have tried not to bring any pre-conceived ideas to the process, such as for example that it’s a creative wankfest or it’s just one big party.
So let’s start with my initial motivation for coming here.
It sounds bloody obvious or even trite but account management people should feel an integral part of the creative process. They should understand it and they should be driven by the desire to be involved in great creative work.
Sadly, I’m not sure that they all do these days and if I’m right it means that not many account management staff are going to read this so I’m relying on those who may stumble across my ramblings to pass them on.
Cannes is not cheap, about $4,000 to register and at least the same again for accommodation and, ahem, subsistence.
My first impression of the place is the sheer scale of things. There are 11,000 delegates from all over the world, over 40 seminars and more than 30 workshops.
Then of course there are the awards, a showcase for the very best advertising in the world in every category imaginable. What I find hard to fathom is that they only recently introduced radio awards.
To be honest, it’s all a bit overwhelming.
There is so much stimulus for the advertising mind that I don’t know where to start. After farting around this morning not knowing whether to do breakfast, seminars or look at work I dipped my toe into everything.
And like I said, it’s overwhelming.
First I went to a seminar where the guys from Zenithoptimedia told me that I am heading straight into ‘The Perfect Storm’ so if I don’t get to grips with the new world of communications I will drown. Like the movie, it’s frightening but interesting all the same.
Then I went and had a peek at some of the press, outdoor, direct and media finalists.
Some incredible and very visual work which should inspire anyone who sees it to reset his or her horizon. But so overwhelming that I can hardly remember any detail so I’m going back for a closer look.
Australia seems to be doing OK so far and my little old home town of Perth has three finalists, one each for 303, Marketforce and Brand. Well done boys and girls, I’ll be cheering for you.
And well done to the suits who helped in that success.

Australia had its worst result of the festival so far with the release
of the Cyber Lions shortlist with only six campaigns recognised.
BMF’s ‘Platiunum Human Testing’ was among the shortlisted Cyber
entries, continuing its dream run having won a Silver and Bronze Lion
yesterday in Direct. Leo Burnett Sydney was shortlisted for Wesley
Mission’s ‘Shelter'.
The other shortlisted entries were 303 Perth for Zu Shoes ‘Girls with
Shoehorns’, Tequila Sydney for Newline Cinema’s ‘Tenacious D in the
Pick of Destiny’, Clemenger Proximity Sydney for Mitsubishi ‘Revolution
4D’ and Host Sydney for Staedlter ‘Mouse v Pencil’.
New Zealand fared evn worse, with only four campaigns recognised.
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland had two Cyber shortlists, one for Women’s Refuge ‘Sound Bruises’ and the other for New Zealand Army’s ‘Bluetooth Mission’. Clemenger BBDO Wellington had one shortlist for Land Transport NZ ‘Phone Legends’ as did Publicis Mojo Auckland for Coca-Cola’s ‘Spoons’.
There were 2711 entries in Cyber from 49 countries. New Zealand only entered 25 pieces of work and Australia entered 77.

Independent Films’ directing collective FAMILY. are in the shortlist for the Cannes CFP-E / SHOTS Young Directors Award 2007 with their “HAPPYMART" Spot for MTV UK.
They are in the Broadcast section, so vote online for them if you get a moment – www.yda2007.com

Synopsis:
In a town where nothing much happens, there is a supermarket where nothing much sells. So to pass the time, for shoppers and assistants alike, it’s 2 for 1 in aisle 3.

Client: MTV UK
Agency: MTV Direct
Creative: Jo Moore
Director: FAMILY.
Production Co: Colonel Blimp / Independent Films Sydney
EP: Bart Yates
Producer: Sarah Chatfield

In a major coup for New Zealand, the Cannes Promo Grand Prix went to TBWA\Whybin Auckland for the New Zealand Rugby Union/Adidas’ ‘Bonded by Blood’ campaign.
New Zealand picked up four other Promo Lions while Australia won three. Because this is only the second year for the Promo Lions, entries have not reached the critical mass, which would see awards divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze. Australia entered 32 Promo Lions and New Zealand 21. In total, there were 786 entries, up from 622 entries in 2006.
New Zealand and Australia between them picked up eight of the 21 Promo Lions awarded.
Andy Blood, executive creative director of TBWA\Whybin Auckland, said that he was completely shocked to pick up the Grand Prix: “I am shocked, stunned, and completely mindblown," he told the Blog by phone from New Zealand. Blood is in the middle of a major pitch preventng him from flying to Cannes, but on hearing the news broke open the champagne. The award was accepted by the agency’s Corey Chalmers who had already stepped in for him as a judge on the direct jury.
TBWA\Whybin also won a Promo Lion for ASB’s integrated campaign for its online service Pago. Other winners were Clemenger BBDO Wellington for the New Zealand Netherlands Foundation’s ‘World Press Photo Exhibition’ and Ogilvy Auckland for Soul Bar ‘The Bet’.
For Australia, George Patterson Y&R Melbourne won a Promo Lion for Cricket Australia 'Big Warnie;, while two Promo Lions went to Leo Burnett Sydney’s ‘Earth Hour’ initiative, which encouraged Australians to turn off their lights for an hour on March 31 as a conservation message. However, it was excluded from winning the Grand Prix because Cannes rules prohibits charities from winning the Grand Prix.
Jane Canapini, managing creative director of Capital C Communications in Canada, says ‘Earth Hour’ is an idea that is not only relevant to Australia, but is an idea that can travel the world.
“What I really liked about it that as an idea it is doing something good. I know that it is for public service, but we felt it was a really really big idea," she says. It was also commended for suiting the categories it was entered in.
Overall, Asia put in a comparatively average performance with only five Promo Lions across the whole region. Japan won two – Dentsu Y&R Tokyo’s ‘No Pain, No Gain’ for the North Face and Hakuhodo Tokyo for Matsushita Electric’s ‘Manned Airplane Project’. India won one Promo Lion for JWT Mumbai for The Vegetarian Society’s ‘Nodding Bull’. Publicis Singapore won for Nike ‘Stadium’ while BBDO Bangkok won for Home Product Centre’s ‘Anyone can sell’.

Australia has walked away with seven Lions in direct - two Silver and five Bronze. And Clemenger BBDO Wellington won one of only nine Gold Lions handed out in Direct for Land Transport New Zealand’s ‘Phone Legends’. In total, New Zealand won three Direct Lions, also picking up two Bronze.
The Grand Prix went to Spain for Shackleton Madrid for Banco Gallego’s ‘Lopetegui Deposit’. Australia’s best bet for the Grand Prix has traditionally been in Direct which Host won in 2004 for Virgin Mobile’s 'Warren’ and Young & Rubicam Sydney won in 2003 for 1900-9 Jim Beam’.
Australia’s Silvers went to Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for Olympus ‘Here’s Proof’ and BMF Sydney for Tooheys Extra Dry Platinum Human Testing Program, which also picked up a Bronze. The other Bronze Lions went to DDB Sydney for VW Golf R32 ‘Short Car Songs’, Host for Virgin Mobile’s “Exciting offers need exciting ads’, M&C Saatchi for British Council of Australia’s ‘Poms will Whinge’ and the little known Sydney creative team Hoopernagel for Olympus ‘World’s Smallest Ad’.
New Zealand’s Bronze Lions went to TBWA\Whybin Auckland for Pago for ASB Bank’s online payment service ‘Pago Money Sticker’ and OgilvyOne Auckland for Soul Bar’s ‘The Bet’. In total Australia entered 64 pieces of work in Direct and New Zealand 27.
Paula Keamy, creative director Rapp Collins Melbourne, who sat on the jury, says there’s no ‘LynxJet’ this year, however Australia did well in a diverse range of categories showing the strength of the local industry in direct.
She thinks Australia’s best chance for Gold was TED’s Platinum 'Human Testing Program', which was much talked about during the judging and the breaks. However, it divided the jury with some people loving it and pushing for Gold and others talking it down, which balanced out to Silver and the Bronze.
Keamy also expected the Virgin Money and British Council of Australia work to do better than Bronze. At last year’s ADMA awards ‘Poms will Whinge’ picked up Creative Award of the Year, the Winged Messenger award and three Gold. While the British and Australian contingent explained the cultural context, the humour was possibly lost on the international jury.
Across Asia, Malaysia dominated, winning a Gold Lion for the Arc Worldwide KL ‘Smoke is Poison – Tanker’ for the Paper Recycling Campaign, a Silver Lion for NAGA DDB Selangor for Iseo Asia’s ‘Break-In’, and a Bronze Lion for OgilvyOne KL for IBM Malaysia ‘Small, medium or large’. Other winners were India with two Bronze, one for
Everest Brand Solutions The Soundsmiths Demo CD and O&M Bangalore for Hutch ‘Incidents’. Japan won Bronze for Nike Japan’s ‘Nikecosplay’, and Hong Kong with Bronze for Grey for Amnesty’s ‘Hangman Clothes’.

It rained all day Sunday, the beaches were deserted, but the delegates kept arriving and there was one or two good seminars to go to (highlights soon). The festival will really kick in Monday...

Australia and New Zealand's performance at the shortlist stages of the Outdoor Lions and Press Lions was modest compared to the rest of the region:
Singapore led the way in the Press Lions with a massive 53 shortlists, closely followed by Thailand with 48. Malaysia had 23, India 20, the Philippines 10, China 9, Japan 3, and Hong Kong 2.
In Outdoor, Singapore have 33 on the shortlist, again closely followed by Thailand with 31 and Malaysia with 27. India scored 13, The Philippines 10, China 9, Japan 5, Indonesia and Korea 4 apiece and Vietnam 1.
Ogilvy Singapore lead the agency tally with 22, when combining Outdoor and Press, closely followed by Saatchi and Saatchi Singapore with 20 on the shorlists.

Australia picked up 11 shortlists in Radio with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne getting four for its Snickers campaign ‘Hoedown’, ‘North Korean Missiles’, ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Soccer’. Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney had two for its Foxtel Crime Programme work ‘Stabbing’ and ‘Girl’.
Five agencies received one shortlist each: JWT Melbourne (Ford Falcon Ute ‘Dial a Date’), Marketforce Perth (Scitech ‘Special FX), M&C Saatchi Melbourne (RSPCA ‘Animal Fall’), 303 Perth (Royal Life Saving Society of WA ‘5 Kids’) and DDB Sydney (NAPCAN ‘Road Rage’).
New Zealand had six shortlisted entries for Radio, three for Draft FCB New Zealand for Prime TV’s L Word Television Show ‘At the River’, ‘Fresh Baking’, ‘Morning Visitor’ (Gold Lion for sure) and two for the DDB Auckland work for Sky TV ‘Experts’ and ‘Voice’.
The other shortlist went to Colenso BBDO Auckland New Zealand Book Council’s ‘Booked Out’.

The Australian winners of the Fairfax Young Creative Competition 2007, Iggy Rodriguez (left) and Justin Carew (right) from DDB Sydney 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 guys are seen here moments ago in Cannes celebrating their performance, a mobile phone pic taken by DDB Australia executive creative director, Matt Eastwood.

Australia picked up 12 shortlists in Outdoor, with Leo Burnett Melbourne and JWT Sydney picking up three shortlists each. Leo Burnett was recognised for its Connex SMS update campaign ‘Chicken Feet’, “Beaver’ and ‘Hamster’ while JWT’s three shortlists were for the Pet Pantry campaign ‘Snoop’, ‘Fluffer’ and ‘Rocko’. Leo Burnett Sydney had two shortlists for WWF ‘Switch Off’ and ‘Fish’.
Other agencies to be recognised with one shortlist each were DDB Sydney (Wrigley ‘Bubble Tummy’), The Campaign Palace Melbourne (Target ‘Toy Sale’) Cummins & Partners Melbourne (Stihl ‘Christmas Tree’) and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney (Pedestrian Council of Australia ‘Prison Food’).
New Zealand picked up eight shortlists in Outdoor, a performance dominated by Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland which won five shortlists with two across Wellington Zoo ‘Donkey’ and ‘Ape’ and three for the NZ Army campaign ‘Forest’, ‘Jungle’ and ‘Snow’.
Other NZ agencies to pick up one shortlist each were TBWA\Whybin for NZRU/adidas for ‘Bonded by Blood’, Draft FCB Auckland for Drum City ‘Chop Sticks’ and Colenso BBDO Auckland for Mini ‘Blur’.

Australia has scored 12 shortlists in Media Lions with Naked picking up three shortlists for its Icon Clothing work ‘Hypnomarketing’. This is followed by Ikon and Universal McCann with two shortlists each with Ikon awarded for Atari Tomb Raider game ‘Search for Lara’ and Vodafone ‘Experience 3G’ and Universal for Xbox 360 ‘Living the Game’ and the Defense Force ‘Virtual Life at Sea’.
Other shortlisted agencies with one shortlist each were OMD (Nivea ‘Make a Difference’), Cummins & Partners (Virgin Atlantic ‘Get used to feeling posh’), Leo Burnett (WWF ‘Earthhour’), Brand Agency (Watercorp ‘DAB’), and Starcom (Masterfoods ‘Oh my Dog’).
New Zealand picked up six shortlists in Media with OMD picking up three, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand two shortlists and Clemenger BBDO one.
Saatchi’s was recognised for its Stark Vodka campaign ‘Starkish’ which saw it create a word of mouth campaign around the made-up word ‘starkish’ and Wellington Zoo’s ‘Close Encounters’.
OMD Auckland was recognised for its ASB Bank work for TBWA\Whybin with ‘Money goes Digital’ awarded two shorlists and ‘Money is the Medium’ one. Clemenger BBDO’s shortlist was for Land Transport New Zealand’s ‘Bloody Legends’.

Australia picked up only eight shortlists in Print, a result dominated by Publicis Mojo Australia and The Furnace Sydney with three shortlists each. The Furnace was recognised for Skins ‘Whipper Snipper’, ‘Swing Splinter’ and ‘Nutcracker Sweet’ while Publicis Mojo was shortlisted for its Womens Refugee Movement ‘No 28’, ‘No 80’ and ‘No 5’.
Other shortlisted Australian agencies were George Patterson Y&R Sydney for Tourism NSW’s ‘Pole’ and JWT Sydney for Pet Pantry’s ‘Snoop’.
In contrast, New Zealand has a got a better chance of winning Lions in print than Australia, having picked up 16 shortlisted entries. The best performing agency was Saatchi & Saatchi with four shortlists, followed by Publicis Mojo with three, Draft FCB Auckland with three. Colenso BBDO, Lowe and DDB had two shortlists each.
Saatchi’s recognised work was for three shortlists for its Wellington Zoo Augmented Reality campaign ‘Bear’, ‘Cheetah’ and ‘Giraffe’ and its Army Recruitment ‘Psych Recruitment ad’.
Draft FCB’s shortlist was for Little Boys Sausages ‘Smoked Venison’, ‘Chicken and Herb’, and ‘Duck and Porcini’. Publicis Mojo’s three shortlists were for its Amnesty Human Rights campaign ‘Bolivia’, ‘Fallujah’ and ‘Sudan’.
DDB’s shortlist was for VW Genuine Parts ‘Cat’ and ‘Deer Head’, Colenso BBDO for Monaco’s $9.95 PC Games for ‘Mum & Daughter’ and ‘Dad & Son’, and Lowe for Save Animals from Exploitation’s ‘Bear’ and ‘Alligator’.

Following last year’s highly awarded “Poms Will Whinge" campaign, British Council, via M&C Saatchi, Sydney, has today released two viral spots that further push creative boundaries to launch the British Council’s 2007 Realise Your Dream scheme.
“We are thrilled with the virals created by M&C Saatchi. Like 2006, this year’s campaign showcases inspiring and creative work – it’s daring and cheeky and illustrates exactly the kind of innovation and originality that we seek to promote in our own competition," British Council director Christopher Wade said.
Realise Your Dream is a scholarship program open to anyone between 21-28 years of age working or studying in creative fields such as design, architecture, advertising, music, film, fashion, animation, multimedia, performing arts and computer games.
The British Council uses its powerful UK network to find suitable mentors and money-can’t-buy work experience for the six winners. The prize also covers return airfares to the UK and $8,000 toward relevant course fees, accommodation and living expenses for each of the six winners.
The two virals suggest the Realise Your Dream scheme is the best way to meet top UK professionals.
For example, the first viral, ‘Cow’, shows a man cutting himself out of a dead cow in the middle of a design studio in a bid to meet Damien Hirst. The second viral, ‘Fashion’, shows a girl posing as a naked mannequin in a fashion designer’s studio, hoping to meet Stella McCartney. The virals suggest entering the British Council’s Realise Your Dream competition is an easier way to meet creative mentors.
Last year’s campaign was one of the country’s most awarded campaigns for an Australian agency, winning a host of national and international gongs.

Creative Director: Ben Welsh
Creative Team: Dave Shirlaw and Michael Jones
Director: Paul Middleditch
Production house: Plaza Films


Entries will open on April 16 and close July 31, 2007. Visit the Realise Your Dream website for more details: www.realiseyourdream.org.au

With $32m in new business added so far in 2007, BWM Sydney continues to attract fresh creative talent, with Clive Blackstone and Michael Dole taking up senior creative roles at the agency this month, and creative team Annika Johansson and Jessie Jordan joining from Clemenger BBDO Sydney.
Rob Belgiovane, BWM Executive Creative Director said: “We have been searching out
exceptional creative talent from around Australia, who are challenging thinkers with a breadth of experience and a commitment to creating challenging communication.
“Over the last few years we have reengineered our creative process to a more
contemporary model, rather than teams of writers and art directors, working with larger groups of people with a broad range of skills to create multi-platform, multi-channel communications for our clients."
Clive Blackstone joins as Creative Group Head at BWM, bringing a wealth of integrated
experience across DM, digital and above the line in the UK, Asia and in Australia. He will work across all BWM clients.
A former Wieden & Kennedy creative, Michael Dole brings an excellent eye for design
across both static and moving media in his new role as Design Director. Michael will work closely with all BWM creative teams to further enhance the creative output, and will manage design-specific projects across a range of clients.
Luke Chess, BWM Creative Director, said BWM’s unique hub model that brings together a
broad range of strategic and creative skills and people, is attractive to a new generation of creative talent.
“We are always on the lookout for the next creative leaders and the freshest creative
thinkers. Clive and Michael are exciting senior additions to our creative department, and we are also expecting great things from new team Annika and Jessie."
Belgiovane added: “Luke’s appointment late last year signalled a new style of working at BWM, which the growth of our creative department is also reflecting, and that is the agency’s recruitment of creative people skilled across all contemporary media including content and digital."
These new hires take the BWM creative team to 22 people, as the agency continues to
grow with $32m in new business added so far in 2007.

With the release of the Direct Lions shortlist the biggest question for the Aussie contingent at Cannes was “who the hell is Hoopernagel?". The unknown Sydney 'agency' is actually a young freelance creative team, who picked up two shortlists for Olympus’ ‘World’s Smallest Ad’.
Overall, Australia put in a strong performance in Direct, with 16 on the shortlist. BMF led the pack with three shortlists for Tooheys Extra Dry Platinum Human Testing Program, followed by M&C Saatchi and Hoopernagel with two each. M&C Saatchi’s shortlisted work was for British Council of Australia’s ‘Poms will Whinge’ and Optus ‘Contacts’.
The other shortlisted Australian agencies were DDB Sydney (VW Gold R32 ‘Short Car Songs’), Host/The Glue Society (Virgin Mobile’s ‘Exciting offers need exciting ads’), GPY&R Sydney (Telstra ‘Street Idol’), Smart Sydney (Smart’s ‘Great Offices of the World’), Leo Burnett Sydney (Optus ‘Safari’), JWT Sydney (Food Donation Apeal’s ‘Setbacks’), BWM (World Movie Channel’s ‘Deep Throat’) CHE Melbourne (Mazda ‘Deepthroat’) and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney (Olympus ‘Here’s Proof’).
New Zealand had seven shortlists in Direct, dominated by AIM Proximity with three shortlists across its Auckland and Wellington offices. The Auckland office was shortlisted for Westpac ‘Westie Pac’ and Haunui Stud ‘Spem’ while the Wellington office was recognised for New Zealand Post’s ‘Mailed Anything Sexy Lately?’. This was followed by TBWA\Whybin + Tequila with two shortlists for the agency’s promotional campaign ‘Apology’ and Pago for ASB Bank’s ‘Pago Money Sticker’.
Other shortlisted New Zealand agencies were Clemenger BBDO Wellington for Land Transport NZ’s ‘Phone Legends’ and Ogilvy One Auckland Soul Bar ‘The Bet’.

Australia scored nine shortlists in the Promo Lions, dominated by Naked with three shortlisted entries, Leo Burnett Sydney and Host/The Glue Society with two each and one apiece for Saatchi & Saatchi and George Patterson Y&R Melbourne.
Naked picked up three of its shortlists for Icon Clothing’s Golf Punk’s ‘Hypnomarketing’ and one for BMW’s ‘Mini Chase’. WWF Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’ gave Leo Burnett Sydney its two shortlists, while Host/The Glue Society picked up two shortlists for Virgin Mobile’s ‘Exciting offers need exciting ads’.
Saatchi’s shortlist was for Olympus ‘Here’s Proof’ and GPY&R was shortlisted for Cricket Australia’s ‘Big Warnie’.
TBWA\Whybin Auckland dominated the shortlist for the Promo Lions for New Zealand picking up four entries consisting of three for Adidas All Blacks ‘Bonded by Blood’, and one for Pago Mobile Top Up’s integrated campaign.
Clemenger BBDO Wellington and Ogilvy Auckland were the other two successful New Zealand agencies, picking up two shortlists each. Clem's work was the New Zealand Netherlands Foundation ‘World Press Exhibition 2006’ while Ogilvy had two shortlists for Soul Bar’s ‘The Bet’.

Not much happening yet, so don't expect too much from the videoblog of Saturday, settling in day....

With the opening of their new Sydney office, Cummins & Partners has appointed Bettina Clark and Carolyn Diamond as joint creative directors.
Having worked for most Sydney agencies over the years as both full time and freelance creatives and with a respectable swag of awards in tow, Diamond and Clark take on the creative output for Cummins & Partners’ new and existing Sydney clients and will be integral to growing the agency - and ensuring fun is had along the way.
Says Clark: “Sean’s not your average ad man by any means. He says what he means and does what he says. It’s refreshing and inspiring. Together we hope to create a Sydney agency that will be as successful as Melbourne and Brisbane and one that’s not only known for great work, but with a reputation for being a damn nice place to work. That’s the plan."
Says Diamond: “We feel really excited to be working alongside such a fab bunch of talented people and with a great start-up list of clients too - not to mention working opposite the Tilbury Hotel and with Harry’s Café de Wheels at our doorstep. You can’t be unhappy with that."

The 2007 MADC Awards were held on Friday night, with two agencies dominating the night: George Patterson Y&R and Publicis Mojo. The former won 6 Silvers, 5 Bronze and 2 Best of Category, while the latter won 4 Silvers, 5 Bronze and 4 Best of Category.
Leo Burnett came a distant third with 2 Silvers, 2 Bronze and 2 Best of Category, while Cummins and Partners were the only agency to win Gold on the night.
The Chairman of Judges Award – Best of Show went to Publicis Mojo for Tourism Victoria 'Labyrinth', while the Blackley Award for Creative Leader of the Year went to the 'Big Ad' lads Grant Rutherford and Ant Keogh, formerly at GPY&R, now at Clemenger BBDO.
The annual Honorary Life Membership was awarded to Jack Room.
The CHE Mentor Award went to Tim Pashen, RMIT University for Keep it real!, Grill'd.
The MADC Award for Client of the Year was shared between ANZ for DDB Group Melbourne - Whatever it takes and Nestle Peters for Publicis Mojo - Drumstick and Maxibon.
Full results: www.madc.com.au

Publicis Mojo New Zealand scored a massive 5 Gold World Medals, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze at the 2007 New York Festivals, announced tonight in New York. They were the big winners with only a total of 5 Gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze winners announced for New Zealand as a whole (Australia's total was only 2 gold, 7 silver and 2 bronze awards). Entries for this year were up by about 20%, and many high profile creatives were amongst this year’s judges, including Toby Talbot and Ron Mather, and director David Denneen.
Publicis Mojo NZ picked up Gold for CALM (Campaign against landmines), Amnesty and Greenpeace, with Dashwood Design and Dow Design each winning a Bronze medal.
Australian production companies were clear winners over advertising agency entrants with Animal Logic winning a Gold for best computer animation, Sydney Film Company a Gold and Bronze for best direction, Filmgraphics 2 Silvers for best special effects and best editing, Fresh Music a Silver for best Music and original lyrics and Good Oil films a Silver for best direction.
Other Australian winners were Smart Melbourne, with a Silver for Adicolour, Leo Burnett won Silver for Connex, John Williams and Richard Taylor won a Silver for SBS Sport and Clemenger BBDO Adelaide won Bronze for SkyCity.

The Campaign Palace Melbourne is set to launch a new PURA Milk product – PURA Kids.
The PURA Kids campaign launches nationally on Sunday 17 June. With PURA Kids, children get the goodness and great taste of PURA Full Cream Milk, plus the added benefits of omega-3 DHA – brain food for kids under construction. The 30 and 15 second TVCs will be supported with Point of Sale, Magazine advertising and Seeding.
Client: National Foods
Creative Directors: Christine Isaac and Tony Leishman
Director: Sally Shapcott
Production Company: Pod
Clients: Julie Torok, Cara Smith
Account Management Team: Poppy Owen, Freya Holland

The new Telstra campaign, ‘Spread the Good Stuff’, via George Patterson Y&R Sydney, which includes two 30 sec spots, ‘Pass the Magic’ and ‘Box Party’, promotes the telco’s new service offerings on the next generation of 3G mobile phones. The creative team at George Patts Y&R hit upon the idea of a magic box as a symbol that can take on many meanings, encompass different ideas and contain any number of items: think Pandora’s Box, a jack-in-the-box, a box of tricks. A box is a very convenient metaphor for a company like Telstra that offers such a diverse range of products and services. Directed by Sydney Film Company’s, Josh Baker, all 4 spots demonstrate that good things do come in small packages.
Fuel has worked with Baker on a number of high-profile, award-winning commercials - for Heineken, Sony and McDonald’s - all of which feature significant visual effects, so it was a nice change of pace to focus on design. Fuel designer Ben Kovar worked closely with both the agency and director on developing the end logo and its reveal – a carnival of colour and exuberant imagery.
Ben drew on many eclectic influences in the design phase – Tibetan sand paintings, South American art, even Japanese flower arrangement. He explains, “I was definitely attracted to a bold colour palette, especially considering some of the brands and services the design had to represent like MTV, Comedy Channel, ‘dating’, ‘SMS’ and ‘search’. It took a lot of ‘to-ing and fro-ing’ to get it right - to make a whole lot of stuff work as a whole".
Fuel’s VFX supervisor on the campaign, Simon Maddison, remembers that the director didn’t want the design to look superimposed on the commercial, “Josh was very clear that he wanted the animated logo to look as if it belonged in the shot. To this end, Fuel gave the design a slightly weathered texture like that of creased or torn paper to compliment the ‘pass the parcel’ motif, matching the lighting to the location and grading the logo in Flame so it would sit seemlessly in with the live action".

Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Sydney
Head of TV: Brenden Johnson
Agency CD: Michael Stanford
Agency Copywriter: Bart Pawlak / Maryanne Plummer
Agency AD: Paolo Meucci / Robbie Kantor
Agency Producer: Marcus Eley
Production Company: Sydney Film Co.
Director: Josh Baker
Producer: Nicole Crozier
Editor: Drew Thompson - Guillotine

Fuel Credits
VFX Supervisor: Simon Maddison
VFX Producer: Dave Kelly
Designers: Ben Kovar, Marianne Khoo, Luke Bubb
3D Lead: Chris French
3D Team: Sebastian Fletcher, Roy Malhi, James McCallum, Anders Thonell
Flame: Karen Fabling, Edwin So, Chris Scott

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has snared former Wieden + Kennedy Portland’s Head of Planning Sudeep Gohil has joined its senior ranks.
Gohil was also the former global Planning Director of NIKE while at Wieden + Kennedy and returns to Australia after eight years.
Beginning his strategic career at George Patterson in Sydney, after 3 years and tired of working in an agency, Gohil then left to form his own planning consultancy company called Vertigo focusing on youth brands.
His departure from Australia back in 99 was because of an offer he could not refuse. BBH London recruited Gohil to set up its Tokyo office, where after 3 years Gohil then relocated to BBH London to lead pan European planning on it flagship client Levi’s. A true heavyweight in his field, Gohil’s previous client adds weight to this claim, Nike, Starbucks, P&G, Johnnie Walker, Electronic Arts, Millers Brewing, and Sony Play Station.
Says Saatchi & Saatchi Australia CEO, Simone Bartley: “It goes without saying that both Nobby and I are incredibly excited to have Sudeep on board. Sudeep is a rare talent in this market and he will add great value to the agency, our client’s business and brands."
Previous Head of Strategy Adrian Barrow leaves to head back to the US. His new role is yet to be announced.

The start of Cannes week is only days away, with the Australian contingent anticipating a disappointing Lion haul - at least compared to last year's boonanza. But one never knows at Cannes. Here are are just some of the Aussie chances this year....

AUSSIE CONTENDERS (Part One)...





AUSSIE CONTENDERS (Part Two)...





AUSSIE CONTENDERS (Part Three)...





AUSSIE CONTENDERS (Part Four)...





AUSSIE CONTENDERS (Part Five)...

Perhaps in contrast to the Aussies, the New Zealand contingent is anticipating a significant Lion haul. Here are just some of the Kiwi chances this year....

KIWI CONTENDERS (Part One)...



KIWI CONTENDERS (Part Two)...



KIWI CONTENDERS (Part Three)...




KIWI CONTENDERS (Part Four)...

Legendary UK adman John Hegarty has demonstrated his support of Lensmodern, a unique on-line photolibrary, by joining its board of directors.
Throughout his award-winning career John Hegarty has been a leading proponent of imagery as the prime means of communication, but like many top creatives has tended to shun traditional photolibraries:
Says Hegarty: “Today we live in a ‘visual culture’ where the value of a powerful image is ever more important. Over the last decade, photolibraries have played an ever-increasing role in the search for outstanding images. (Sadly most libraries are about quantity not quality.)
“Lensmodern is unique. Set up by and for award-winning photographers, it pursues a policy of quality not quantity. It represents the best of the best. Many of its growing list of photographers have made available a lifetime’s work - a priceless collection of personal and public pictures that inspire the creative process.
“We live in an increasingly competitive world where any advantage to our creativity is sought after. Lensmodern helps deliver that. I do my best to avoid most stock libraries. They are dull, dreary and a waste of time. Lensmodern is exactly the opposite. It kick-starts the imagination with brilliant ideas and images. It’s somewhere you’d like to spend a lot more time - and that’s exactly what I’m going to do."
Hegarty, who joins the board as Non Executive Chairman, has been a supporter of Lensmodern (www.lensmodern.com) from the time of its inception and has closely observed its progress since its launch in January of last year. Lensmodern was founded by a group of award-winning photographers who had perceived the need to provide an outlet for the work of top photographers who were reluctant to join any of the monolithic libraries already in existence. By maintaining an invitation-only approach and offering photographer-friendly terms along with the ability to control usage, Lensmodern has successfully attracted contributions from many of the world’s best photographers, resulting in a unique on-line collection of exceptional, creative images, many of which have never been available before.
Speaking on behalf of Lensmodern’s board of directors about Hegarty’s involvement, Max Forsythe said: “John has been interested in Lensmodern from the start and we have benefited from his support and advice. In just a little over a year, Lensmodern has gained a presence across the world and we are sure that John’s involvement will accelerate our growth and raise our profile. We are delighted to have him on board."

LENSMODERN
A visit to the States in the late 1990s by photographer Bob Miller provided the inspiration for the idea that was to become Lensmodern. Whilst touring the agencies there with his portfolio, he began to realise that, unlike the days when he himself was an art director and ideas were produced literally on the drawing board, modern agencies were using existing images from magazines and stock libraries to produce ‘finished advertisements’ to present to the client. It was obvious that less work was being commissioned and advertising was suffering, mainly due to the bland quality of available stock.
On his return from the States, Bob soon realised that the same thing was happening in the UK agencies, and during a conversation about the problem with a former copywriter friend, the concept of an on-line library and gallery offering stimulating and exciting images was formed.
Knowing that many top photographers were wary of existing stock outlets, Bob and his co-founders Max Forsythe and Rolph Gobits, set about creating a photolibrary for photographers who don’t like photolibraries, working with The Association of Photographers to produce approved terms & conditions and offering free shares in the company for the first 50 photographers to join. They also provided the opportunity for photographers to sell fine art prints of their images through the same site, an area which has quickly become the showpiece of the Lensmodern site.
www.lensmodern.com was finally launched in January 2006 and it has quickly gained the attention of many of the world’s top creative directors who, like John Hegarty, welcome such an easily accessible source of consistently creative imagery.

Former Lowe NZ creative director Josh Moore has been appointed to head up the creative department of the newly formed Razor Junior in Sydney.
Moore, who departed Lowe NZ after the agency lost Vodafone last month, is one of Australasia’s most awarded creatives of the last few years, and will take on the role of Creative Director for the agency that was only recently formed as a joint venture by Sydney’s Razor and the Sydney arm of Brisbane agency, Junior.
He will begin the task of building on the creative offering and building up the Razor Junior agency business this month. “The Razor Junior team is pretty excited about having someone of Moore’s talents onboard," said Andrew Wynne, Director of Razor Junior.
In another arm of the Razor business, Ryf Quail, ex Marketing Director for digital and CRM at business consultancy Deloitte has also been recently appointed, further strengthening Razor’s digital offering.
“We want to build a team structure that can engage multi-discipline skills, ready to tackle any assignment, within any part of the business."

GPY&R Melbourne has secured the services of award winning American writer Scott Cooney. Scott is down in Melbourne for the next month with a view to a permanent position. He has previously worked at Fallon, both in Minneapolis and New York. He has won a number of international awards including gongs from Cannes and The One Show.
Executive creative director, Paul Catmur said “It’s great to have someone of Scott’s talent giving us a different perspective. Advertising is becoming increasingly global and we want to have the most talented people to help us wherever they’re from."

Complimenting Flying Fish’s roster of directors Fish have
added a fresh young Sydney director and a selection
of the best Scandinavian talent. The new directors include:-

JONAS ARNBY a brilliant young Danish director who’s fantastic
Quicksilver campaign, Original Thinking, has so far had over 25
Million downloads. His commercials are regarded as some of the
most cut through work of the moment.
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=302

MARTIN AAMUND is another talented director from
Denmark and is known in Australia for his Holden Astra
commercials and projects for Ikea, GE and RBSK
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=286

THOR, orginally from Iceland, won the Audience and Silver
Awards at the Nike young Directors Awards and was in the
Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes. He first
came to notice through his Nike Autograph ad and the Young
Guns bathroom spot.
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=291

FREDRIK CALLINGGARD is from Sweden and is a remarkable
DOP Director. His work is stunning, clever and moving.
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=274

JENS MIKKELSEN returns to Flying Fish after a short hiatus.
Jens has some of the oddest, yet most compelling work.
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=282

MARC FURMIE is Fish’s latest young director signing.
His work is captivating and he is a delight to work with.
Even before he formally started as a commercials
director he has been nominated at Cannes for Amnesty.
http://www.flyingfish.co.nz/newsite/pages/video.php?id=314

More of their work, and work from all the other Flying Fish
Directors, can be seen at www.flyingfish.co.nz. Reels can
be viewed by calling the Flying Fish office on + 61 2 9018 4150

To promote NAB's sponsorship of the Socceroos for the forthcoming Asian Cup games, Digital Pictures was recently commissioned by Clemenger Blue to design and develop a large scale interactive Flash game. Featuring fully animated and photo-real 3D versions of John Aloisi, Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Archie Thompson, the game allows players to take control of their favorite Socceroo and run him through a series of post-goal "Celebration Dance" moves.
Clemenger Blue and Digital Pictures collaborated to craft a game that pushes the boundaries of what is technically possible using Flash, 3D animation, video, sound and engaging gameplay. The finished game was delivered within a month of the initial briefing which was only possible thanks to Digital Pictures' uniquely converged services. With Creative Direction from Clemenger Blue's Damian Royce, all the 3D modeling and animation, Flash development, database connectivity, video encoding, sound effects and game design were handled internally at Digital Pictures.
Aaron Cooper, Head of Interactive Media at Digital Pictures, commented that "this project represents a huge step in the shift towards interactive advertising. Here you have Australia's largest bank opting to forgo traditional advertising in favour of a cutting edge interactive piece. Clemenger Blue's vision and Digital Pictures' convergent media expertise have come together to produce a targeted campaign with real viral potential."

www.nab.com.au/socceroos or www.digitalpictures.com.au

Former Lowe Hunt, Sydney senior executives Ben Colman, Dejan Rasic and Rebecca Carrasco have joined forces to launch the Sydney-based ideas company colman rasic carrasco.
colman rasic carrasco (CRC) will work in partnership with clients to create media- neutral brand solutions driven by creative ideas; as well as creating idea-led content for CRC’s own distribution.
Starting with two key clients – Cerebos Australia (Riva Coffee, Gravox, Saxa Salt, Fountain Sauce) and Paper Tiger Publishing (Yen Magazine, Dazed & Confused Magazine) – as well as project work for MTV Networks Australia, colman rasic carrasco opens its doors in Stanley Street, East Sydney, with $9.5 million in billings.
Colman (pictured right) was most recently CEO of Lowe Hunt Sydney and before that held senior marketing positions in Sydney, London and New York, and was a client of many Sydney agencies before moving to the agency side of the business.
Rasic and Carrasco will drive CRC’s creative product as joint Executive Creative Directors.
Rasic (pictured left), the former Creative Director of Lowe Hunt, was recently ranked joint No. 1 Creative in the CB rankings - based on award show success over the last two years. He has over 12 years experience working at agencies in Singapore, London and Sydney.
Says Rasic: “The decision to start CRC was made the minute we realized each of us had the same creative vision for the agency. This was really important for me moving forward. The quality of work for our clients is the driving factor for all of us. Our aim is to cut through the jargon and create work that is driven by engaging ideas, regardless of the medium, because a strong idea should be able to work across any channel."
Carrasco (pictured centre) has been a Creative for the past five years, working on both sides of the Tasman. She’s had results and been invited to judge at many award shows, and is also doing a PhD on the role of a conceptual creative idea in advertising.
Says Carrasco: “There’s a lot of talk about through-the-line, multiple-touchpoint, interactive campaigns with consumer-generated content, but if we’re not talking about work underpinned by a strong conceptual idea, we’re just left with a big game of buzzword bingo. And nobody wins. Now more than ever marketers need engaging, original ideas because in a time-poor, media-saturated world where people actively avoid ads, the idea has to create the audience. So it’s great to be working with partners the caliber of Dejan and Ben to build a business based on this belief."

CB BLog hears former Lowe Hunters Dejan Rasic and Rebecca Carrasco are joining forces with their former MD Ben Colman to form a new shop, Colman Rasic Carrasco, with founding client Cerebos Foods. Their office will be in Stanley Street, East Sydney. More on this tomorrow.

There's been a bit of debate about Planning that has grown on the 'Forever is overrated' post. Here are some of them that should keep the particular discussion on Planning going....


Anonymous said...

Love it.

But on another note, anyone else having problems with their planners?

I'd like to know why they have so much control over the creative process. Once the brief is approved they should leave it to the creatives to do their jobs.

But time and time again they're running the show. The problems is not getting your ad through your Creative Director, it's getting it approved by planning.

Planners. The new Client.

Please explain?
10:22 AM

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Anonymous said...

epkpi10:22 does raise a good point about planners. I have tried to go along with them but I seriously cant see the value in it. They just provide a time wasting and frustrating layer of bullshit. Even worse they all seem so desperate to hang in your office and be "part of the gang". Even worse again when they move into the creative dept! WTF?!
8:54 PM

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Anonymous said...

Re 8:54pm's comments about Planners, it is you who is talking bulshit. Planners should be a part of the creative dept as planners are a critical part of the process of GOOD advertising. Planners uncver the insights that give direction to advertising, making good ideas great ideas. There is a direct corelation between the recent upswing in Australian advertising and the involvement of planners in the creative process.
8:16 AM

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Anonymous said...

sorry. not very good. i don't care if Glue worked on it and so did some ex-Patts folk. The ad doesn't make much sense.


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Anonymous said...

8:16 AM...Ah don't tell me, you're a planner?
10:25 AM


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Anonymous said...

Planner's - also known as support staff
5:14 PM

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Anonymous said...

The only really good planner I've ever come across was a creative who crossed over. Unfortunately, all the others were average AE's who really wanted to be CDs. Most of them do good jargon and not much else. As for Fling, it seems to an insight-free zone. (LIke 99% of the stuff we all produce.)
11:50 AM

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Anonymous said...

OMG 11:50am, we've just had the announcement that a failed account guy is moving into Planning at our agency. And the freaking Planning Dept has just moved into the middle of the Creative Dept. Most of them were already hanging in our offices way too much - now it'll be worse than ever. On the bright side though, it is funny watching them try and retro-fit their mumbo jumbo to great concepts when the outcome so cleary did not "spring" from a planning "insight".
8:00 PM

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Anonymous said...

8pm... Retro fit to great concepts? Where are they then? Why are there so many crap ads on this blog? Oh it must be the planners fault... Err hang on
12:24 PM

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Anonymous said...

Planners are just another one of those clever ideas agencies invented to convince clients they were worth hiring: "See, we've got this new specialist who will do all your thinking for you." Clients generally love planners because their only real specialty is taking a client's dumb thinking and selling it back to him in neat marketing jargon. Always looks great on the overheads; always contributes zero to the actual content of the ads. They just give the rest of account service a great excuse for doing even less thinking.
10:05 PM

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Anonymous said...

Good planners help.

Crap planners hinder.

There aren't many good planners around.

The problem isn't with the planning function, it's with the quality of the people doing the job.

Advertising fails to attract enough high calibre people. Tight margins, long hours, the indignities of working in a service industry... if you had a double degree from a good university and were smart enough to discover insights that could make a real difference to the life of a brand - would you really choose to work in the advertising industry?

Some do, but most don't.
9:44 AM

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Anonymous said...

If any one actually thought about this, for a second, and tried to not be a childish "creative" then they would see what utter nonsense, they are talking. One of the most awarded ads ever, is Honda "grrr", if you look at the wklondon site you will see just how much credit is given to their planners who have co-ordinated a very ordinary client into an extraordinary body of work. Even in our fair shores, planning and account startegy have produced the thinking behind the big ad, which would never have been possible without work put in by the planners. In Australia there is so much emphasis on ads and no real thought behind campaignable, sustainable ideas. Saatchis work especially lacks a clear direction for any of their work and it suffers accordingly, why for instance are there now two tooheys ads which are not even linked by the same end line. The fox sports work is all over the shop, and Toyota is only linked by a jump universally panned by creatives, directors and the overseas client.

Planning at it's most simple would see these faults immediately and try and correct them.
12:25 PM

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my gut feeling said...

Some Planners are great. They're passionate about contributing to the process around developing brilliant ideas and they do this by researching and understanding the consumer, then sharing that information with the broader team through a well-written brief. But they don't presume to be the concept developers. And they don't presume to come up with the conceptual creative insight. They provide an understanding of the consumer and the context for the work.

Other Planners, bad Planners, wait for the creative department to come up with the idea, then post-rationalise it into a strategy which they pretend was theirs to begin with. And in doing this they appear to have derived the conceptual insight – making it seem like the creative department simply brought their idea to life through the execution. But they also do it to safeguard a job that is only tenuously connected to the actual ideation process and creative product – which is the future of our industry. At the end of the day that's what we're all selling. And so, naturally, that's the one indispensable commodity moving forward. Hence the emergence of this new and dishonest representation of planning – both within agencies and as external consultancies – as the idea originators.

And subsequently, as this new delineation of the Planner’s role is propagated within marketing circles (because a new role/additional service from an agency equals an opportunity to ask the client for more money), the function of Planning has to live up to the new, perceived role that it has in the creative process. Which means that we are headed toward a future where Planners are expected to crack the thought / insight / idea – and the creative department is just expected to execute it.

Sound familiar?

But we can’t just blame the Planners.

If you take a look at the Planning Awards you will find that Planners are awarded for the amount of influence they had over the idea. They are encouraged to claim ownership of the concept development if they want to further their careers and/or just keep their jobs. Please, have a look at the APG Planning Awards website and the criteria in the call-for-entries. Last year on the CB Blog Christine Blackburn, chair of the APG Creative Planning Awards, said: “We’re very proud of the body of work presented at the second APG Creative Planning Awards. The planners have uncovered some fantastic insights and applied their craft to bring these insights to life in many different mediums".

This is where the delineation of concept development is heading.

Our industry is putting pressure on Planners to develop something they’re not trained or hired to develop. Conceptual thoughts. Ideas. Which leads to dishonesty and appropriation. But we Creatives are often too consumed within our own bubble to realise what is going and how that will affect our own job in the long term. Which is a big oversight on our part. Because as the role of Planning takes shape, so too does the future role of Creative. So lets make sure we all like where we're headed - before it's too late for us to change it. The APG Planning Awards are only in their second year. Read through the entry criteria. Find out if your agency is entering your work. If they are, find out who will be taking credit for the thinking / the creative insight / the idea. And if it’s a slimy mess of dishonest lies SAY SOMETHING to your CD, CEO and Planners. If your Planners are post-rationalising your ideas into strategies, then entering them into Planning Awards to take ownership over the idea, you really need to speak up.

http://www.accountplanninggroup.com.au/public/content/ViewCategory.aspx?id=139

If we can stop Planners from appropriating the ideas, we can fix the current perception of the Planner’s role in the creative process and all the problems that lie therein.

12:26AM

With awards fever in the air - Cannes is less than two weeks away - it seems appropriate we pay tribute to the granddaddy of them all with our first bit of outdoor. No planners were harmed in the making of this shameless bit of self promotion which went up overnight in Sydney and Melbourne, both near the airport. A parody of a pisstake of irony seemed a good place to start this campaign - ironically using the oldest medium of all to promote the youngest. Stay tuned for the next installment.

Yahoo!7 today announced the ten finalists in its international Big Shot in Cannes competition in which an Australian creative team is included. Ben Smith and Neil McGuirk (pictured), from Lowe Hunt, Sydney, have been handpicked by a distinguished panel of judges for their environmental online campaign, ‘Switch Off’.
The Big Shot in Cannes competition was launched in April and offered the industry the chance to win a trip to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival by creating a campaign which raised awareness of a worthy environmental issue in the form of an online video public service announcement. This user generated content initiative was launched across the United States, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Spain, United Kingdom and Australia.
The ten finalists include:
• “Switch Off" by Ben Smith, Lowe Hunt - Australia
• “Change One Bulb, Change the World," Bill McBrayer – United States
• “Paper Plane" by Oorna Datta, Lowe – India
• “Talking Fish" by Robert Meagher, Martin Agency – United States
• “Recycle for Life" by Diego Duprat, Freelance – Spain
• “Paper Earth" by Eva Miquel, Conill Advertising/Saatchi & Saatchi – United States
• “Trees" by Evan Barber, Student (The Art Institute Fort Lauderdale) – United States
• “Play Responsible" by Nicolas Gregoire, TBWA Interactive/Paris – France
• “You vs. Him" by Pranav Harihar Sharma – India
• “One Sunny Day" by Kristen Cahill, freelance – United States
The finalists entries can been viewed at http://promotions.yahoo.com/bigshot.
Says Ben Smith from Lowe Hunt: “It is great to be named as one of the top ten finalists in this international Yahoo! Competition. Neil and I created our ‘Switch Off’ ad by concentrating on the idea that small things can make a big difference - turning off a light switch is effortless and something that anyone can do. We borrowed a few pairs of hands from our circle of friends and colleagues and filmed them switching things off at home and around the office. Hopefully the ad demonstrates an important environmental message in a simple, but powerful manner and encourages people to act."
Smith and McGuirk graduated from AWARD School in 2005, and have worked at The Glue Society, Three Drunk Monkeys and now Lowe Hunt.
Markus Barnikel, Chief Sales Officer, Yahoo!7 added: “It is fantastic to see a local team in the top ten which showcases Australian creativity on the worldwide stage. More importantly, The Big Shot in Cannes competition has demonstrated how key messages and environmental issues can be driven through user generated content. We believe this competition will help the advertising community better understand the opportunity that online provides for building message awareness and reaching Australian communities."
The distinguished panel of judges choose the top ten finalists and will choose the three grand prize contest winners. Judges include;
Danny Searle, Creative Director and Deputy Chairman, Clemenger BBDO Sydney
David Apicella, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather New York
Jeff Benjamin, VP and Interactive Creative Director, Crispin Porter+Bogusky
Susan Credle, EVP, Executive Creative Director and Board Member, BBDO NY
Marie Catherine Dupuy, Vice Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, TBWA Paris
Pete Favat, Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner, Arnold Worldwide
Jeff Goodby, CEO and Co-Chairman, Goodby Silverstein
Bob Greenberg, Chairman, CEO and Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA Associates
Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather India
Linda Kaplan Thaler, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, The Kaplan Thaler Group
Mark Waites, Partner, Mother London

Just weeks after Comm Bank pulled its brand work out of the STW Village concept, Vodafone has dived in, appointing various STW companies to their business, with Mick Hunter and Ian Morton's creative consultancy Brain Surgery to lead creative.
The agency’s first TV work (below) has just launched, featuring a Monk who leaves his silent order to discover a more enlightened life in the outside world with Vodafone.
Hunter (pictured) worked briefly with Morton on Vodafone while CD at JWT Sydney in early 2006. It was a short lived stint, a mere three months. Before that, they worked on AAPT for a year at Whybin TBWA Sydney after a highly successful, award-winning decade as the top team at The Campaign Palace, Sydney.
At The Palace they were responsible for such highly acclaimed campaigns as the Westpac “Athlete’s Parents" Olympic campaign and the “Red Meat. Feel Good" campaign which won the 2003 Gold Pinnacle at the AFA Effectiveness Awards.

Sydney-based DRAFTFCB Executive Creative Director, Michael Simons, has been appointed Asia/Pacific Regional Executive Creative Director.
“Michael’s appointment is both a great credit to the local creative talent here in Australia and an enormous bonus for the local Australian DRAFTFCB offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Michael has for some time now worked with many of the company’s most senior people – to have an ‘official seat at that table’ is a real plus for us and our clients," said Noel Magnus, Managing Director of DRAFTFCB Sydney.
“Michael’s appointment to Regional Executive Creative Director will also provide an opportunity to further cement the already close working relationship between the Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland DRAFTFCB offices.
Of his new role, Simons says, “It’s more about mentoring and leveraging leadership throughout the region, rather than dashing all over Asia and the Pacific.
“With technology being what it is, I don’t need to be travelling all of the time. Part of the new role will be to establish the lines of communication among the creative teams – steering, facilitating and mentoring to get the most out of our collective creative firepower."
“This really is an opportunity for me to use my experience and expertise across a broader range of clients and cultures and to help the creative teams throughout the DRAFTFCB creative network. It really is a chance to give something back," continued Simons.
Adds Magnus: “Michael Simons now has a bigger canvass on which to display his creative and leadership talents. He’s worked with FCB for eight years and previously held Creative Director positions in four agencies across three continents.
“We have anticipated this move for some time. And Michael and I have built up the senior resources within the Sydney office creative team to support Michael’s new role. Michael is still very much focussed on Sydney clients and the Sydney office is in the very fortunate position to have a senior resource under Michael in Simon Edwards who has held Creative Director level positions at two other agencies prior to joining DRAFTFCB Sydney a year ago."
Simons is replacing Kiwi expat Rob Sherlock as Regional Executive Creative Director. Sherlock has moved to DRAFTFCB’s Chicago office to take a lead role in the newly merged agency. DRAFTFCB Chicago is now the largest advertising agency office in North America and Sherlock will over-see a department of over 200 creatives.