In the wake of recent company closures in the post production industry The Lab Sydney today gave details of its strongest commitment yet to colour grading in Australia.

The Lab's General Manager Lewis Pullen (pictured) said, "We are continuing to do what we've always done and commit to the Australian colour grading industry for the long term. Where other companies are cutting back or closing we are actually investing. We have been in the business for many years and are not going anywhere. We have just completed a full upgrade of our two Baselight systems to version 4.1 which now gives these excellent grading desks even more power and functionality. We are also investing in the next generation of colour grading systems and will be making a big announcement on that soon. The initial testing is like nothing people have seen before - it's mind blowing."

Nando's pulls off saucy stunt at Bruno premiere.
 
The Sphere Agency has pulled off another stunt for Nando's at the glitzy red carpet premiere of Sacha Baron Cohen's latest movie Bruno, where he himself was Brunoed. A Bruno double and his 'entourage' rolled up in a hot pink Hummer limo and made it onto the red carpet, fooling security, awaiting fans and the media. View the stunt
 

The Clemenger Group, including Campaign Brief's current Australian + NZ Agencies of the Year Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and Colenso BBDO Auckland, has topped the list of awards in Cannes, with an all time record of 16 Lions. This makes the Group the Number 1 agency network in Australia and New Zealand. And, for the third time in a row, BBDO was named the international Network of the Year, taking home 52 Lions.

Campaign Brief asked The Brand Agency, Perth's Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye on the final day.

So the Palais has been swept up, the (Lynchy named) Gutter Bar has returned to 72 Croisette, and the battle-weary delegates have begun wheeling their bags into the glaring Sunday sun. So long Cannes, I knew ye well. So what have we learnt? Here's some rambling thoughts on what went down this week:

On Friday, back in Sydney, many in the industry celebrated Australia's success this year at Cannes at FBI Recruitment's 6th Annual 'No Cannes Do' Lunch, which was proudly sponsored by Flying Fish and Cutting Edge. Guests included Noah Regan, Josh Moore, Simon Langley, Richard Morgan, Dejan Rasic, Rebecca Carrasco, James Procter, Monty Noble, Rodd Martin, Rocky Ranallo, Paul Bennell, Dan Gregory, Kieran Flanagan, Mick Hunter, Ian Morton
Michael Spirkovski, Paul Bennett (CEO of Euro RSCG), Jason Ross, John Lam, Matt Smith and Russell Smyth.

Designed to recognise and promote exceptional new commercial directors in the Asia Pacific Region, the KODAK AWARD New Director Of The Year honors outstanding commercial directors whose fresh thinking and creativity sets them apart from the rest.

Entries for the KODAK AWARD New Director of The Year is now open and closes on Friday, 31st July 2009.

A distinguished line up of international judges has been selected;

Simon Langley, Creative Director, BMF Sydney (pictured top right)
Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising, India
Toby Talbot, Executive Creative Director, DDB New Zealand
Mark Molloy, Director, Exit Films Melbourne
Romanca Jasinski, Head of TV, George Patterson Y&R Melbourne (pictured)
Hamish Rothwell, Director, Goodoil Films Sydney
Sheung Yan Lo, Executive Creative Director, JWT Shanghai
Ted Lim, Executive Creative Director, Naga DDB Malaysia
Gavin Simpson, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Hong Kong
Richard Copping, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore (pictured top left)
Scott Nowell, Executive Creative Director, Three Drunk Monkeys Sydney

View the Call for Entry web film

CB catches up with Tom Eslinger, LA based worldwide interactive creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi.

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

The New Directors' Showcase. Not just because we did it but also because it was great to see so many people get so excited about the work. Most of the works that we show here has a certain amount of criticism with it, or bitchiness about it, but this was overwhelmingly positive as people were walking out afterwards. Everybody saw something they liked, or thought was really kind of cool. The Contagious panel was good, 42 Entertainment was awesome.

LOWLIGHT?

Still being out at 4.30 this morning. The longer I stayed out the lower it got. 

CB catches up with Richard Myers, Saatchi & Saatchi's creative director of global culture, who has taken over Bob Isherwood's role presenting Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase.

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

I've been pretty obsessed and focused on the New Directors' Showcase so I haven't seen an awful lot. It has been a real highlight because there is an expectation of it at Cannes and I'm fully aware of the expectation of it and the need for it to be very special still. Reaching 20 years next year is a significant milestone. It's great to get the reactions we get and the expectation has been brilliant.

LOWLIGHT?

Cannes is a seaside place so when it rains - like any seaside resort - you think I could have stayed at home. I'm a Brit so I do talk about the weather a lot. 

CB catches up with New Zealand Radio Juror James Mok, executive creative director, DraftFCB New Zealand

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING CANNES 2009?

The jury. What an outstanding group of people. Judging awards can be fraught with challenges because you've got really smart people, and opinionated people, coming together and you've got different cultures together and you could have a real clash of ego going on there but this jury was an absolute pleasure to deal with. Everyone was generous, warm, friendly, communicative and involved. Matthew Bull, chief creative officer, Lowe Worldwide, South Africa, was a fantastic jury president. He was a brilliant leader because he asked us to think of ourselves as a single group, not as 16 individuals. He asked us to constantly talk about the work and share our thoughts either as a wider group or one on one and that was liberating because he set an agenda that was an open and generous agenda.

CB interviews New Zealand's Titanium and Integrated Lions juror: Andy Blood, group ECD, TBWA\Whybin\Tequila, Auckland.

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING CANNES 2009?

The quality of the people in the room - you always enjoy something more when the caliber of conversation around you is so high, that's kind of irreplaceable. I have been on juries before where I've gone, 'why is so and so here, should I really care about what they think?' That was in evidence in the room; we were in at all. It was an incredibly high level of thinking and conversation.

CB catches up with New Zealand's Direct Juror Wayne Pick, executive creative director, RAPP New Zealand

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING?

I'm travelling with my wife and daughter but my partners during the judging week were the other jury members. It's been long hours but I've loved it.

LOWLIGHT?

In this year of economic strife, it just made me really pissed off and angry that people spent money entering work that had absolutely no results in a category where results are so vital. Time and time again we saw people taking complete punts on pieces of work thinking they would get through without the slightest hint of results. The word that came up again and again was 'countless'. If you couldn't count them why did you bother mentioning them? 

CB interviews Mark Ashley-Wilson, head of interactive, Three Drunk Monkeys

 

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

Handing out the three Grand Prix. We'd been pulling 14-hour days for six days and to whittle that massive list down to those three and then to see the three side-by- side was phenomenal.  The first two, Fiat's 'Eco Drive' and 'Best Job', were fantastic because not only were they great in themselves as mediums but they involved people in the real world. They created emotions.

LOWLIGHT?

The 14-hour days. The first couple of days we had to get through 300 sites per day. 

CB interviews Glen Condie, experiental marketer and regular Cannes delegate.

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

That's tough because there has been many. Chatting with Spike Lee, Geldof's speech, Roger Daltrey's acoustic versions of 'Who Are You?' and 'Ring of Fire', Australia doing so well, drinking Rose in white pants.... But, if I absolutely have to choose one its got to be the girls on Rue d'Antibes. My God.

LOWLIGHT?

Leaving my passport in Zurich was a contender and I was a little disappointed with the Print and Outdoor this year but the biggest lowlight had to be the Naked seminar. Just awful.

CB interviews Australia's Film Lions juror: Steve Back, ECD, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney.

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING CANNES 2009?

Finishing. By the end of each day your brain is mush, but seeing some amazing work has been really good. The first four days you are seeing everything and I was blown away by how much crap people were still entering. I was stunned. We did long days to get through categories and some of it was just shit. I was really depressed by the Wednesday and then we started to see the winners emerge and it was like, 'now you're starting to talk'.  The Grand Prix just rose to the top, which was just awesome. It wasn't an easy job, but they picked themselves as Gold. Meeting the other jurors - there was no politics, no block voting, just lots of conversation. Everyone had their say, it wasn't heated, there was heaps of discussion, not heaps of aggression. Everyone said you have to be in the room for seven days, and I had been warned that it would be a horrible experience. But all in all, it's been fun.

 

By Ted Royer, executive creative director, Droga5, New York

Forgive me, I have been slacking. No, I wasn't drunk the whole time, but I have been judging some long days, gotten the flu and have a very weird bump rapidly growing on my neck. Things are not looking good for me. But the work is great, and seeing how this is my last entry, I'll jump straight to the big winners, some of my favorites and comment on other stuff.

All week long we were worried there might not even be a Grand Prix, and seeing how the last time that happened the jury was almost run out of town, it was a huge relief when several things clearly rose to the top.

Campaign Brief asked The Brand Agency, Perth's Josh Edge to wander the streets of Cannes to bring you a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye on Thursday.

Okay, so a few wheels are beginning to fall off the Cannes gravy train as we head into the final stretch - I'm hearing a LOT of wheezing coughs around town. Lots of reports of dropped cameras, broken phones, lost phones, all the usual nonsense. Thankfully, some of us are still maintaining a professional attitude, and I've held onto my camera long enough to keep filling cyberspace with more Cannes-related shenanigans.
Pictured left - This mighty vessel is, as far as I can tell, a bit of a Cannes secret, only recently uncovered by some cunning Australian delegates. It's called a Girafe, which is probably because it stands 100 feet tall. You can buy it filled with Stella Artois for 32 Euro, or Leffe for 34 Euro. A bloody bargain, but susceptible to some pretty shonky pouring action.

One of the most popular seminars of the week is 'Wildfire', presented each year by Leo Burnett and Contagious magazine. View the presentation.

One of the highlights of Cannes each year is the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase. View the full presentation.

Australia has triumphed over New Zealand at this year's Cannes Lions, taking home 45 Lions compared to New Zealand's 21. The result is a big jump on last year and a continuation of Aussie success, following on from last year's tally of 24 for Australia to New Zealand's 21.

In a highly successful year for Australia the obvious highlight was the record-breaking three Grand Prix awarded to CumminsNitro, Brisbane's 'Best Job in the World' campaign.

Publicis Mojo Sydney won Gold for its James Boag's spot, 'Pure Waters' which was a contender for the Film Lions Grand Prix, while Y&R Auckland got a Gold Lion for 'Dying Old' for Breast Cancer Research Trust.

Australia added a few more to the metal tally with two Silver Lions. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne winning Silver for Foster's Group 'Woman Whisperer' and Droga5 Australia got its second Silver of the week for Victoria Bitter's 'Anzac Memories'. BMF grabbed a Bronze Lion for its Dare Iced Coffee 'Boss' and 'Girlfriend' campaign.

Despite winning three Grand Prix, Australia's favourite contender for a Titanium/Integrated Lion was snubbed by the jury for what has become the festival's most coveted award. CumminsNitro Brisbane's Tourism Qld 'Best Job in the World' was one of two shortlists for Australia, the other was Zuji's 'Helping Holidays Happen' by Happy Soldiers/The Hallway Sydney, which also failed to win metal.

New Zealand fared better, turning its two shortlists into a Silver Integrated Lion for AIM Proximity/Colenso BBDO Auckland's Yellow YELLOW TREEHOUSE and a Bronze Integrated Lion for Adidas/New Zealand Rugby Union All Blacks THIS IS NOT A JERSEY/ADITHREAD.

Obama for America's Obama/Biden Presidential Campaign won both the Titanium and the Integrated Grand Prix. It was the clear winner for the Grand Prix in both categories. A total of 15 entries were awarded in the category with the Grand Prix and three Titanium Lions handed out and the Grand Prix and 11 Lions in integrated.

By Heather Jacobs, Campaign Brief

In the five years that I've come to Cannes I've become rather fond of the press room with its tiny little wonky tables. So imagine my disappointment when Sir Bob Geldof announced this morning that in the not so distant future there will be no more press room - no lights, no chairs, no people sitting there - and no more Cannes.

No more Cannes!!! This is because climate change means that it will disappear along with the forests of Africa and the Murray River in Australia. He had me so convinced the end is nigh that when he asked ME (well, the press) to do my bit to fight climate change I signed on the dotted line. View the presentation.

Kofi Annan, bless him, was a graceful and noble speaker and if together they can't rally the troops to action then we'll all just a virus to be wiped away like a bad dose of swine flu as Sir Bob suggested. We need more passionate people like them in the world and hopefully the advertising industry responds to the clarion call first sounded by Al Gore at the festival two years ago.

CB interviews Australia's PR Lions juror: Naomi Parry, Director, Black Communications, Sydney.

CB interviews Direct Lions juror Pete Bidenko, ECD, Impact Proximity, United Arab Emirates

HIGHLIGHT?

I woke up this morning not judging and I really missed it because there's such a good group and we really had a good spirit of community.

LOWLIGHT?

There's a way of presenting a video which is so formulaic that it basically goes: here is the strategy, here is the campaign and then here's all the PR stuff that it got and that's how much it would have cost and here are the results. This section on PR is such bullshit because it usually doesn't go back to the objective and so all that does is publicise the campaign. It doesn't do anything for the job at hand and so you just see video after video and it's me-too's all the time. There was one particular one that went out of the formula but it probably shouldn't have. It was the account manager talking about the strategy and the copywriter and art director talking about the idea and how excited they were when they got it, but they never showed the campaign.

 

 

CB interviews Australia's Terry Savage, Cannes Lions chairman

HIGHLIGHT OF CANNES 2009?

For me the whole week has been a highlight - the seminars were greater and well attended, the winning work was outstanding and showed that the industry is understanding digital but most of all the feeling I get that the industry is feeling confident about the future was the best thing of all.

LOWLIGHT?

Never being able to spend enough time listening to and talking to the leading thinkers in the industry.

CB interviews Australia's Promo Lions juror: Shane Bradnick, art director, BMF Sydney

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING?

Meeting people from all the different countries. Out of the 17 people on the jury no two people were from the same country and it was a good spread of people. It was very interesting to meet share those opinions of a good range of people.

LOWLIGHT?

Sifting through a lot of work to get to the final choices and to get rid of everything else that you'd ever seen before or isn't a promo and that process ends up eventually getting to the soft work. It's necessary but sometimes you think why did people enter stuff that's clearly not....

 

CB bumped into all sorts of famous and infamous  people and ad luminaries at the various functions and seminars held so far. Here's some the iPhone pics that have somehow survived.

AWARD and Adshel have teamed up to host a Creative Challenge event on Thursday July 16th at Sydney Theatre in Walsh Bay. The Creative Challenge aims to promote creative excellence in outdoor advertising. Theatre Artistic Directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton (pictured) will discuss their vision for the Company, which will form part of the brief.

Entrants will have one hour to work on the brief, and the agency with the best idea will win an outdoor campaign of 300 Adshel panels and six 2010 Sydney Theatre Company season tickets. The coveted prize is valued at $225,000.

Australia has two shots at picking up a coveted Titanium/Integrated Lion with CumminsNitro Brisbane's 'The Best Job in the World' for Tourism Qld shortlisted along with Happy Soldiers/The Hallway Sydney's Zuji's 'Zuji Beans'. New Zealand also scored two shortlists for TBWA\Whybin\Tequila Auckland's Adidas/New Zealand Rugby 'This in not a Jersey/Adithread' campaign and Colenso BBDO Auckland for Yellow 'Treehouse Restaurant'. 

CB interviews Australia's Lions Media juror: Henry Tajer, CEO, Universal McCann Australia

HIGHLIGHT OF JUDGING AT CANNES?

Being able to spend some time with some fantastic people from all around the world.

LOWLIGHT?

The fatigue of judging.

BEST ADVICE?

We scored work and then went back and scored them again and what that allowed us to do was take out that score warming up issue.

Australia picked up eight shortlists in film with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne leading the pack with three shortlists for Foster's. These were for Carlton Natural Blonde 'Future of Beer is in our Hands', Foster's Group Carlton Mid's 'Speak Woman' and 'Woman Whisperer'. BMF Sydney had two shortlists for National Foods' Dare Iced Coffee 'Boss' and 'Girlfriend' while Publicis Mojo Sydney, The Furnace and Droga5 Sydney had one each. 

Campaign Brief asked Josh Edge, writer at The Brand Agency, Perth to wander the streets of Cannes to bring a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye on Wednesday.

So the wheels are turning much faster at Cannes now, especially with some of the higher profile workshops and seminars kicking in (Berlin School Of Leadership, Wunderman, 180 Amsterdam etc..). With some Australian Lions in the crowd, and no international network parties to muddy the waters, it was all hands to the Opening Gala for music, backslapping and storytelling galore. So without further adieu (see what I did there?)....


Above: This is what a Cannes party looks like when it has around 50% less delegates, a generally muted mood and is traditionally one of the quieter parties of the week. If you're thinking it still looks like a monster bash, you'd be bloody right.

Campaign Brief asked Josh Edge, writer at The Brand Agency, Perth to wonder the streets of Cannes to bring a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye on Tuesday.

Pictured left - As the weather turns nasty at Cannes, liquid nourishment provides much-needed relief at the Australian/New Zealand terrace catchup at Le Grande.

Campaign Brief asked Josh Edge, writer at The Brand Agency, Perth to wander the streets of Cannes to bring a different perspective to the annual global adfest. Here's are some of the things that caught Edge's eye on Monday.

Pictured left - An interactive presentation of cinema advertising and its ability to integrate 3D vision, 3D sound, smells, taste, touch and interactive digital gaming. I'm still waiting for 3D glasses that don't make you look like a complete plonker.

Cherub Pictures' Ben Briand has won Silver in the 'non European Broadcast' category at the 11th annual Cannes Young Director Award (YDA) with his 'Soccer Can' TVC for Ballantines. After picking up an award at this year's Adfest, 'Soccer Can' received entry into the YDA.
 
The winners were announced last night at the award ceremony which took place at Hotel Palais Stephanie in Cannes. 
 

A select band of Aussies and Kiwis, and a couple of Poms including Jeremy Craigen, ECD of DDB London and 007, were invited to the annual CB/FBI Legendary Lunch at La Colombe d'Or in St Paul de Vence yesterday.

Overseas guests included New York based Hamish McLennan, global CEO of Y&R and Sean Boyle, global planning director at JWT and John McCabe, ECD of BWM Dubai.

A highlight was being entertained by Roger Moore, who signed autographs for all the girls - including a special book on La Colombe d'Or for FBI Recruitment's Patsy Peacock.

Later, a few of us hooked up with the CumminsNitro gang for a late night Pizza feast, fresh from winning their record third Grand Prix of the week.

Saatchi & Saatchi was the only agency in Australia and New Zealand to take home Press Lions this year. Saatchi & Saatchi's Sydney office was awarded a Gold Lion for its campaign for Pedestrian Council Australia, and a Silver Lion for its 'Maps' work for Sony.

Across the Tasman, Saatchi's Auckland office was handed a Bronze Lion Vespa 'Police Gap'.

Australia won just one Bronze Design Lion tonight, while New Zealand picked up a Silver and a Bronze. The Aussie win came for Leo Burnett Sydney and its 'Earth Hour - Vote Earth Design'. ALT Group Auckland won Silver for its 'Hudson Gavin Martin Identity' and a Bronze for Colenso BBDO for its work for Papakura & Franklin District Council 'Bleeding Billboard'

CumminsNitro 'Best Job in the World' picked up its third Grand Prix of the festival tonight, awarded a Grand Prix in the Cyber Lions in interactive campaigns. A total of three Grand Prix were handed out this year- the others went to AKQA London in interactive tools for Fiat's 'Eco Drive', which allows users to plug a USB port into their car to analyse their driving habits, and 42 Entertainment's 'Why so Serious?' promoting the release of the Warner Bros film, The Dark Knight, won in viral marketing. A total of 80 Cyber awards were handed out.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Craig Davis has joined Publicis Mojo as co-chairman and chief creative officer across Australia and New Zealand. He steps into the creative role vacated by Darren Spiller who moved stateside this month as chief creative officer of Fallon US.

Davis - pictured left with Publicis Mojo co-chairman Graham Wills (far left), photographed by CB in Cannes today - one of the highest profile Australian creatives working on the world stage, resigned as global creative director of JWT six months ago. After a decade working overseas he wanted to return to Australia for lifestyle reasons and a desire to raise his young family in his hometown.

The Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) announced today a move to make Australia more attractive for international television commercials production.
 
Geoff Brown, Executive Director of SPAA, said that in response to feedback from international advertising agencies and a rapidly evolving marketplace for international production, Australian producers had decided to withdraw from the SPAA/MEAA Commercials Offshore Agreement which sets out terms and conditions for contracting of Australian performers for international commercials.

Rob Belgiovane, executive creative director of BWM, is Australia's Outdoor Lions juror at Cannes this year (pictured far right of the Leo Burnett Sydney gang that won a Gold Lion last night). He and other Australian and New Zealand jurors will be writing diaries for Campaign Brief over the next week....


It was a surprise to be invited to judge at Cannes this year but not many people get asked to judge Cannes once, let alone twice.

At Cannes there is so much benefit and learning through being able to attend, so having a legitimate reason to come in order to judge it for a second time, really gave us a reason to invest in the trip.

Leo Burnett Sydney has taken a Gold Lion for its WWF EarthHour 'Monuments' campaign, Australia's only Lion in Outdoor. New Zealand won three Outdoor Lions with one Silver and two Bronze.

The result will be a disappointment for Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, which had seven shortlisted nominations. Saatchi's Auckland office scored two Bronze Lions while top New Zealand honour went to Colenso BBDO, which won a Silver Lion for Rodney District Council's 'Haunting Girl'.

Australia and New Zealand bombed at the Radio Lions, picking up just one Bronze Lion for Saatchi & Saatchi's Auckland Toyota Prius campaign, 'Billboard', 'Newspaper Ad' and 'Direct Mail'. New Zealand had 11 shortlisted entries compared to Australia's five. Australia had 53 entries and New Zealand 26.

 

Australia were triumphant tonight, picking up three Gold Lions, one Silver Lion and six Bronze Lions at the Media Lions, including more metal for CumminsNitro's 'The Best Job in the World'. In total Australia won ten Media Lions and New Zealand won three.

Lowe Sydney's 'The Missing 'H' for Football Federation Australia and Starcom Melbourne's 'Strauchanie Sponsorship' won Gold Lions, while the Gold Lion for CumminsNitro, Brisbane adds to yesterday's stellar tally when the Tourism Queensland campaign won the PR Grand Prix and Direct Grand Prix.

Australians Lauren Cassar and Tristan Burrell of Universal McCann have won the Gold Medal in the Young Lions Media Competition. Silver went to Belarus and Bronze to the US.

The competition asked the 25 international teams to create an innovative media/contact strategy to raise awareness and funding to help feed 59 million hungry people for the World Food Program, the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger. 

By Heather Jacobs, Campaign Brief

So, if austerity is the new black in these tough times where does that leave Cannes, the most decadent of advertising festivals? The mood on day one, Sunday, was subdued. Talk of the GFC had many shakily handing over credit cards for over-priced drinks hoping they weren't declined and the Carlton Terrace was a washout. It's not supposed to rain in Cannes in June - didn't they move the festival a couple of weeks to avoid this? 

The Aussie and Kiwi delegates and many expats from around the world - including David Droga  - gathered at The Grand hotel terrace to celebrate a fantastic start to the festival for both countries (well, more for OZ at this stage!).

CumminsNitro, Brisbane was awarded the prestigious Grand Trophy at the 2009 New York Festivals Advertising Awards tonight.  The agency received the Grand Trophy in the Digital + Interactive category for their groundbreaking campaign for Tourism Queensland, "Best Job in the World." 

Australia has secured five shortlisted nominations in the Design Lions, while New Zealand has three.
Leo Burnett Sydney grabbed two shortlists, while JWT Sydney, Saatchi & Saatchi and BMF got one a piece.
For New Zealand Colenso BBDO was shortlisted twice, with the other going to ALT Group.
The total number of shortlisted entries from all countries this year was 157.
Both Australia and New Zealand had less entries into Design this year, with Australia going from 21 to 29, and New Zealand from 27 to 11.
Launched in 2008, Australia picked up two Lions in this category last year, with New Zealand walking away empty handed.

Clemenger BBDO Sydney dominates the shortlist among Australian agencies in this year's Cyber Lions, making up five of Australia's total of eight.
New Zealand's entries have resulted in just one finalist from Publicis Mojo Auckland and its campaign 'Signs' for Coca-Cola Eurasia.
Clems Sydney scored four shortlists for its 'Offset the Evil' campaign for Sega Australia and one other for its AWARD 'Call for Entries' campaign.
Australia put in a total of 76 entries to Cyber this year, while New Zealand had 16.

Australia and New Zealand won seven out of the ten Gold Promo Lions handed out in Cannes tonight. In total, Australia's haul of 11 Promo Lions - four Gold, one Silver and six Bronze - represents a quarter of the 44 awarded. New Zealand won four - three gold and one bronze - with TBWA\Whybin/Tequila's gold winning 'Adithread' for Adidas/New Zealand Rugby Union, a contender for the Grand Prix.

Tourism's Queensland  'Best Job in the World' , via CumminsNitro Brisbane, has lived up to expectations, taking out the inaugural PR Lions Grand Prix on day two of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

CumminsNitro Brisbane is celebrating both the Grand Prix and two other Lions for 'Best Job in the World'. The Grand Prix came in the best international PR campaign category, where it went head to head with Leo Burnett Sydney's 'Earth Hour' which also picked up a PR Lion.

CumminsNitro Brisbane winning the Grand Prix in direct for Tourism Queensland's 'Best Job in the world' topped off a stellar performance for Australia in the 2009 Direct Lions. It scored eight of the 50 Lions awarded in the category with three Gold Lions, two Silver Lions and three Bronze Lions.

New Zealand won three Direct Lions - one Silver for AIM Proximity/Colenso BBDO Auckland Yellow Pages 'Yellow Treehouse', a promotional campaign based around a woman building a restaurant in a treehouse using contacts found in the Yellow Pages, and two Bronze Lions. The Bronze went to DDB Auckland for Pascall's 'When will the fruit burst' and Rapp Auckland for ANZ Bank's 'GettinguThru'.

MADC Bushfire Appeal this Friday. Online bidding now open: madcbushfireappeal.com

You can go online now and bid for any one of the images that have been donated well in advance of the final auction to be held in Melbourne this week.

Please join the MADC at 6:30 this Friday evening at the McCulloch Gallery, 8 Rankins Lane in the City mccullochgallery.com.au for this important photographic auction to raise money for the orphans of the Victorian Bushfires.

IN CANNES? If you are an Aussie or Kiwi (including expats), the gang (including most of the judges) will be meeting up for a few welcome drinks at the Grand Hotel from 6.30pm tonight (Monday). No sponsors so buy your own drinks. A fair few Aussies and Kiwis are expected so should be fun, despite the recession.

Australian ad agencies have once again outperformed the media agencies in the Media Lions, grabbing nine of the 14 shortlisted nominations in the category.

Ad agencies Leo Burnett, Lowe, Clemenger BBDO, Lavender and CumminsNitro were all on the shortlist, while media agencies OMD, Starcom, ZenithOptimedia and Media Contacts are also finalists. OMD, Lavender and Leo Burnett grabbed a couple of nominations each.

The total of fourteen nominations is an improvement on last year's total of nine on the shortlist, while New Zealand has dropped one nomination, down to five this year - four from ad agencies.

CumminsNitro's 'The Best Job in the World' is among the shortlisted finalists once again.

New Zealand has outshone Australia at the shortlist stage of the Radio Lions, with 11 shortlisted compared to Australia's five.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand have seven of the 11, while Whybin\TBWA Sydney has 3 of the 6 for Australia, all for the controversial ASCA radio spots that won at the recent Siren Awards in Sydney.

Australia has picked up seven shortlists in the Press Lions, Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney picking up the lion's share with six, three for Sony Walkman's 'Map London', 'Maps Sydney' and 'Maps New York' and three for the Pedestrian Council of Australia's 'The Smith Family', 'The White Family' and 'The Ross Family'.

George Patterson Y&R Melbourne picked up one shortlist for Laminex 'Spring'. Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland picked up three shortlists in press for Vespa's 'Police Gap', 'Tram Gap' and 'Chef Gap'.

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia leads the Australian tally of 15 at the shortlist stage of the Outdoor Lions, snaring an impressive seven on the shortlist, followed by JWT Sydney with three and Leo Burnett Sydney with two.
Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand leads the Kiwi tally of eight, with four on the shortlist.

Peter Wilson and Lara Sinclair report in the Media section of The Australian today that speculation the acrimonious court case between WPP's Young & Rubicam Brands, and executives from Pacific Equity Partners and the agency it sold to WPP, George Patterson Partners, could be settled in mediation, appears to have been scuttled.

James Mok, executive creative director of DraftFCB Auckland, is New Zealand's Radio Lions juror at Cannes this year. He and other Australian and New Zealand jurors will be writing diaries for Campaign Brief over the next week....

I've just popped my Cannes cherry so I have nothing to compare it to. However, from what I've seen so far, Cannes is the perfect location for an advertising festival - exotic and tacky at the same time.

Today is Day 3 for Radio judging. Around 1150 entries this year, only about a 100 less than last year but compared to 5000 press entries, we've got it sweet. The only downside was no fast-forwarding - every entry had to be listened in full before a score could be made. A little painful at times but when agencies pay a billion euro per entry it's the least we can do.

Mark Ashley-Wilson, digital director of Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney is Australia's Cyber juror at Cannes this year. He and other Australian and New Zealand jurors will be writing diaries for Campaign Brief over the next week....

PART THREE

We arrived this morning and received a long shortlist of 204 pieces of work to judge on. There is some fantastic work and some that makes you wonder how they managed to get this far! Overall it's looking like a good year for big creative ideas. I think everyone is completely bannered out. The next two days will involve mass group discussion across the shorter list of contenders. *cue the Rocky theme music*. Bring it on - it will be fun in the judging room.

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne picked up eight of Australia's 23 shortlisted entries for Promo, with Australia dominating the 143-strong shortlist. New Zealand notched 11 nominations, a slight drop on the 14 it grabbed last year. In last year's Promo's Australia got just four nominations, so the performance this year marks a massive improvement. Clem's shortlisted work includes two for its 'Magic Salad Plate' and four for its work with Foster's Group, including 'Team Dry' and 'Drop the Bomb'.

Other agencies with more than one finalist include Sydney agencies Leo Burnett, Euro RSCG, BMF, Droga5 and The Hallway/Happy Soldiers.

Lowe's Snoop Dogg Australian citizenship work was the only Australian campaign to pick up a Promo Lion last year, while New Zealand walked away with eight. There was a marked uplift in Australian entries to the Promo category this year, with 56 entries compared to 31 in 2008. Entries from New Zealand decreased with 21 this year, down from 33 the previous year.

Australia was represented on the jury by BMF art director Shane Bradnick, while there was no juror from New Zealand. See below for the full list.

Australia picked up five of the 37 shortlists in the inaugural PR Lions with CumminsNitro Brisbane's 'Best Job in the World' for Tourism Qld picking up three shortlists and Leo Burnett Sydney's 'Earth Hour' for WWF two. Both campaigns are contenders for the best international PR campaign, which bodes well for one of them picking up the Grand Prix. New Zealand failed to score any shortlists in this category. See below for the full list. 

Australia has picked up 20 shortlists in direct, the category dominated by CumminsNitro Brisbane's Tourism Queensland 'Best Job in the World' campaign with three shortlists. BMF Sydney's Tooheys Extra Dry 'TED696 Project' also picked up three shortlists, as did Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, which had three across three different campaigns: Four 'n Twenty Pies 'Magic Salad Plate', Starburst 'Leftover Sugar' and Foster's Carlton Dry 'Team Dry'. See below for the full list.

Gavin McLeod, creative director of Mark. Sydney is Australia's Direct Lions juror at Cannes this year. He and other Australian and New Zealand jurors will be writing diaries for Campaign Brief over the next week....

PART TWO

Today it feels good to be an Aussie and it takes a lot for a Japie to say that.

The jury has been very impressed by the quality of Australian work and it could well be a great year for us in Direct. Having said that, the real debate starts tomorrow and I've had a small taste of what the outcome of 30 different opinions can be.

Campaign Brief is off to Cannes soon so keep checking the blog every few hours from Sunday for all the latest news, photos and interviews. And of course Lynchy will be doing his daily CB Cannes Videoblog which will also be posted on the blog.

TWITTER: Follow lynchy and Heather Jacobs plus many of the Australian and Kiwi judges and other OZ/NZ delegates on this stream: #ozcannes09. If you are twittering from Cannes, add #ozcannes09 to your tweets so we're all together.

This year, Campaign Brief's Lynchy and Heather Jacobs is teaming up with B&T's James Livesley to bring you the most comprehensive coverage of Cannes ever. We are the only Australian trade press in Cannes this year so stick with the CB Blog and B&T next week.

GOING TO CANNES? If you are an Aussie or Kiwi (including expats), the gang (including most of the judges) will be meeting up for a few welcome drinks at the Carlton Hotel Terrace from 6.30pm on Monday. No sponsors to pay for this soiree but no doubt we'll be be able to con someone into paying for the first drinks to get the party started. Around 150 Aussies and Kiwis are expected this year so should be fun, despite the recession. RSVP: michael@campaignbrief.com or text the mobile: +61 412 960 753.

Mark Ashley-Wilson, digital director of Three Drunk Monkeys, Sydney is Australia's Cyber juror at Cannes this year. He and other Australian and New Zealand jurors will be writing diaries for Campaign Brief over the next nine days....

PART TWO

Today was all about blowing into microphones and adding yourself into the scene via webcams - all good but no real ideas, just technology use. See a selection of tweets below from 5 different jury members which gives an insight into what we are thinking.

Raw Advertising, Sydney just finished the latest commercial for Dilmah Tea. They have recently launched a new addition to their range of tea aimed at a younger demographic. The Dilmah Exceptional range come in a number of new flavours including Rose and French Vanilla, Arabian Mint Tea with Honey, Berry Sensation and more.

It's not often that one gets to put the words T.W.A.T on a police-style van and hurtle around the streets of Western Sydney, but that's exactly the situation that Carat and MTV's creative team found themselves in when they teamed up to deliver a web film or Bayer, and their product Canesoral Duo, from the trusted makers of Canesten.

She may come to regret this, but Campaign Brief's Heather Jacobs is writing a daily blog about the social side of Cannes 2009. Champagne, sparkling mineral water or Rose in hand, she'll take you behind-the-scenes of the world's biggest advertising festival. There will be vox pops with delegates, news snippets and her observations as she wanders along the glitzy La Croisette from the Carlton Terrace to the Palais. And back again. You can also follow her on Twitter,  HeatherinCannes and other Aussies including lynchy on this Twitter stream: #ozcannes09

 

Unfortunately the guys from 303 have had to pull out of their trip to Cannes, and they have three completely transferable full delegate registrations (worth $4500 each), plus a 3 bedroom apartment in the centre of Cannes, close to the Palais des Festivals, from the 20th - 28th June.  If you're interested or still looking for a great deal, contact Nick Cleaver: Nick@303.com.au

B&T magazine reports that US-based digital marketing group Sapient has acquired Nitro, owner of the CumminsNitro agency in Australia, for a reported $US50m ($62m)...

Nigel Marsh, CEO of Y&R Brands has announced the appointment of Russel Howcroft as National CEO of George Patterson Y&R.

The move is part of a restructuring of the senior management of the four GPY&R offices which will see Howcroft lead a new national management board and follows the decision by Sydney md Julie Porter to return to her corporate advisory practice at the end of the year. 

"No one has a greater knowledge of, and passion for, the Patts brand than Russel", says Marsh. "He has done a spectacular job in rebuilding the Melbourne office so promoting him to run all four offices was the natural next step.

Chief executive of Belgiovane Williams Mackay, Paul Williams, has announced the appointment of Hugh Nairn (pictured) as managing director of their Melbourne office.  BWM Melbourne opened in April 2008, following the agency's appointment on Simplot brands Birds Eye, Edgell and I&J.

Nairn's previous roles have included MD of Belong, Director at Clemenger BBDO and business head at AC Nielsen, Southern Africa and Asia Pacific.  He was also a former general manager at DDB/Rapp Collins. He has 20 years experience in FMCG, Financial Services, pharmacy, liquor, travel and Government services.

Fresh from the recent launch of Nando's 'Portugasm' campaign, The Sphere Agency has picked up a sizeable chunk of new business with café franchise Hudsons Coffee.
 
Set to roll out over the next few weeks, Sphere's work includes a rebrand of Hudsons Coffee that will see the brand adopt a more fun and colourful feel in the lead up to the franchise's crucial winter period.

The service for Wally Allen will be held at St Thomas Church, North Sydney (across the road from the Union Hotel), at 1.30 today (Tuesday 16th June). The wake will be at his home in Longueville.

The Australian ad industry will be saddened to hear of the passing of Wally Allen, aged 73, who tragically died yesterday morning after playing golf.

Allen was one of the five creative directors of the mighty George Patterson, Sydney in its heyday in the 80s and early 90s, along with John Fawcett, John Finkelsen, Marty Kellard and Peter Heathwood.

Wally's early years were spent in agencies in Brisbane. His first Sydney agency was McClelland's, followed by Clemenger, Brown and Bruce, and Pritchard Wood. He then was creative director of Coudrey's for four years. He joined Ted Bates in Malaysia as creative director then joined Patts as a senior writer, eventually rising to creative director.

The remarkable human and social cost of child molestation and rape in Australia has urged Child Wise, Australia's leading international child protection charity to launch a national campaign entitled 'WISE UP' today.
 
A CSA commercial created by Melbourne based agency Venus Advertising which will air this week, features Christine and Anthony Foster who had 3 daughters, 2 of whom were repeatedly sexually abused as primary school children by a trusted person over a number of years.  As a result of the abuse, the Fosters lost one daughter to suicide last year, and the other requires care 24/7 due to head injuries suffered in an alcohol related accident.

The 2009 Caxton Awards today opened its call for entries for creative excellence in
newspaper advertising and also announced changes to the judging process.
 
Entries will be open from June 15 until July 29 and winners will be announced at the
Caxton Seminar and Awards which will be held on October 23-25, 2009.
 
An entry kit can be downloaded from www.thecaxtonawards.com.au.

An ad for RAA Insurance reminding us to 'Take Regular Breaks Over Easter' is the April/May winner of the Could Be a Caxton competition, established by the Caxton Committee and supported by The Newspaper Works to recognise and showcase great creativity on a bi-monthly basis.

Client: RAA Insurance
Agency: kwp! Advertising
Copywriter: David Ormston
Art Director: Dale McGuinnes
Creative Director: James Rickard

Simon Canning reports in today's Media section of The Australian that Australia's bid for the 2018 FIFA Football World Cup will be the first bid for a major event driven almost entirely by social media. The $45million campaign to win the world's biggest sporting event was launched yesterday in Canberra, with the strategy devised by Neil Lawrence, the man who created the Australian Labor Party's Kevin07 advertising campaign that brought the party to power.

View the commercial here.

Lara Sinclair reports in today's Media section of The Australian that billionaire adventurer Richard Branson has promised to call Sydney community radio station FBi today at 8am.

Will Branson save the station by chipping in $1 million? Was Branson in on the lark from the start? And if he does, who will win the $50k prize? Find out today in what should be the culmination of a campaign created by Naked, which was widely promoted, including the CB BLog.

Lara Sinclair reports in today's Media section of The Australian that YouTube is at the centre of a debate on whether advertisers need to be upfront about online advertising intentions, or if they can advertise "by stealth" without being penalised by consumers.

Simon Canning reports in today's Media section of The Australian that the ALP has launched a review of its advertising account ahead of the next federal election after creative director Neil Lawrence, the mastermind of the Kevin 07 ad campaign, announced he was stepping down from the role, saying he would not be able to work with Kevin Rudd and the ALP team again, after launching his own agency, Lawrence Creative Strategy.

Lawrence made his creative rep as CD of Y&R Adelaide and later Y&R Sydney in the 90s, culminating in two Campaign Brief Agency of the Year titles. In 1997, he teamed up with Scott Whybin to form Whybin Lawrence\TBWA, Sydney. That relationship ended acrimoniously in 2004 and in recent years he has been in charge of creative output at the STW group.

The annual Campaign Brief Creative Rankings for Australia and New Zealand has just been published. 40 pages listing the top Agencies and Creative Directors (overall, by country and by city), top Networks and Top 500+ Creatives. The Creative Rankings tabulate all Australian and New Zealand winners from the 7 most important international and regional creative awards shows over the last two years.

For the first time, New Zealand agencies take the top three spots on the Australasian chart, and there are massive changes in agency, network, CD and creative charts from last year - so one issue not to miss.

Subscribe Now. To get the full details of this year's Creative Rankings make sure you are a subscriber to Campaign Brief. If not, download the subscription form.
CB_2009_subscription_form.pdf

As part of an occasional series, CB brings you up to date on Aussies doing interesting things overseas. Young TVC director Gregg Casson left Adelaide in 2006 and has already made quite an impression in Los Angeles...

"I had the opportunity and great fortune of directing a PSA for the United Nations. The extent of the brief was "something on climate change". It's often tough to get started with such an open brief, so you have to impose a few parameters on yourself in order to narrow your focus. I decided not to go the educational route, as we're already living in the age of climate change awareness. Instead, I hit upon the idea of a far-fetched scenario anchored by one helpless character we could (hopefully) relate to.

In the lead up to the Cannes International Advertising Festival in late June, Campaign Brief asked agency creative directors to nominate their best chances to win Lions this year. Here are ten more....

CLIENT: QUIT
TITLE: SEPARATION
AGENCY: THE CAMPAIGN PALACE, MELBOURNE

Fairfax Media today announced the launch of a new online site to showcase the company's political and national affairs journalism.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Brian McCarthy said nationaltimes.com.au will be unveiled in August and represented a significant expansion of journalism by the company.

Australian owned agency Droga5 New York has pulled off a major coup, winning two of the four Black Pencils handed out at the D&AD Awards Ceremony in London tonight.

'Million', the programme that 'turned academic achievement into a brand' won in Integrated, and 'The Great Schlep', the film in which comedian Sarah Silverman championed Obama to Jewish voters before the US election, won for Writing in Viral.

Australia had a brilliant night tonight at the D&AD Awards in London, converting its record 10 Nominations into four prized Yellow Pencils. It equals Australia's performance in 2006, when Virgin Mobile (two), VB 'Boony' and Tooheys 'Stolen Glasses' won Yellow Pencils.

Yellow Pencils went to BMF Sydney for their TED 696 Project campaign for Lion Nathan Australia in the Branding category: Printed Material category, UN Voices Project from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney in the Mobile Marketing category, Sydney Dogs & Cats Home 'Throw us a bone' from M&C Saatchi, Sydney in the Mobile Marketing category and a self promo for Christopher Doyle in the Writing for Design category.

PIC - CB caught Saatchi Sydney ECD Steve Back and CD Dave Bowman at the D&AD Awards tonight

Campaign Brief is now in London for the D&AD Awards presentation tonight (June 11th). So make sure you check out the CB Blog this morning (Friday) to find out what Australian work, if any, managed to convert into Yellow and Black Pencils.

Or get up early and WATCH D&AD LIVE from 5.45am to 7.30am TODAY Sydney time.

The D&AD Awards website will go live today, where you can look at all the nominated work. Registered users can bookmark work to create a library of their favourite work from this year's awards and to comment on the work.  To coincide with the launch of the Annual in September, the site will incorporate all in-book work and all in-book work since 2005 - creating a cross-referenceable library of the best work in the world. D&AD will continue to add content from past Annuals to this site from now on. Soon, D&AD members and journalists will be able to download work directly from the site.

In the lead up to the Cannes International Advertising Festival in late June, Campaign Brief asked agency creative directors to nominate their best chances to win Lions this year. Here are eight more....

CLIENT: SEGA
CAMPAIGN: OFFSET THE EVIL
AGENCY: CLEMENGER BBDO, SYDNEY

KesselsKramer Says Hello is a whirlwind tour of the diverse projects that the agency is known for - including campaigns for Diesel, Absolut and Hans Brinker Budget Hotel. A must for anyone looking for insight and inspiration from untraditional communications.
DATE 16 June, 10am - 12pm
ADMISSION Adult $95
VENUE CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh
BOOKINGS Buy tickets at Ticketmaster 1300 723 038

Supported by Campaign Brief

Wednesday June 17 will see VIC AFA Youngbloods descend on Honey in South Melbourne for an exclusive Q&A session with industry luminary Sean Cummins of CumminsNitro.
The first in the 'Transplant' series for 2009, some of Australia's best thinkers will share valuable insights and tips to help give everyone's advertising destiny a nudge in the right direction.
"No question is too personal. Nothing is off limits." - Cummins.
Starts 7pm, tickets strictly limited.
$10 Member presale.
$15 Non-members.
For bookings visit www.afa.org.au

Australian digital agency Circul8 travelled to New York this week to accept what the New York Times hailed as 'the internet's highest honor' at the 13th annual Webby Awards.
Circul8 directors, Alana Stocks and Jamie Madden's five word speech 'there is nothing good on TV' was popular with the crowd but not with host Seth Myers who feigned offence.
Circul8 won the Best RICH MEDIA (Non-Profit Educational category) of the year for their Greenpeace Save-A-Whale campaign.
For more Webby gossip or to watch the awards log onto www.webbyawards.com or to view Circul8 and other recipient's five word speeches visit www.youtube.com/webby

Director Adrian Hayward appears on the Fox 8 show Australia's Next Top Model on Tuesday night, directing the aspiring models in their first TVC, for Telstra Next G through Ogilvy House. The TV show also features Telstra Marketing Director Chantal Walker and Ogilvy CD Boris Garelja.

The models were cast at Ogilvy's offices where the top floor was converted into a TV studio for the day. The models arrive to be given their 'challenge' for the day - casting for a national TV spot for Telstra, Hayward joins Chantal and Boris as they are seen making the final selection and casting the lucky winner for the ad.

The AWARD brand and awardonline.com have been given a major overhaul, with a new look that better reflects the individuals that form its membership.

Says Richard Maddocks, Chairman of AWARD: "It had been a while since the identity had been refreshed and the committee was keen to find something that was a truer reflection of AWARD and it's members. The idea was to find something that reflected the community aspect of who we are and to allude to the fact that AWARD has, and will continue to evolve as the industry itself changes."

Jason Burrows, owner & Executive Producer of the production company Jungleboys, has acquired the Emerald City digital and design business.

Says Burrows: "I think you're meant to use the word synergy in these situations, but using it makes me feel a bit ill... Simple fact is that Emerald City is a great brand and a great facility, with a showreel which is second to none. We're going to keep the client focus and just allow some very creative people to get on with it - all we're bringing is stronger financial management."

EXCLUSIVE - Publicis Mojo Melbourne art director Christy Peacock will be following Darren Spiller to Fallon in Minneapolis as head of art for North America.

Spiller told Campaign Brief: "As chief creative officer of Fallon North America one of my first tasks was to ensure that the execution of our work would be of the highest standard. It was apparent to me that we would need a world class head of art. Christy has a great eye for detail and a wonderful nose for sniffing out the latest and greatest. His past work and reputation in this market speaks for itself. He will be a fantastic asset to the team and will join Fallon North America in early August."

Peacock told CB: "Darren and I have worked together for many years now and have forged a terrific bond, the chance to continue that relationship overseas in the US with a brand that we respect as much as Fallon was just too much to resist. Leaving the Melbourne industry is not a decision I make lightly. The work we produce here is truly world class. As well as this I am also currently the president of Melbourne's Advertising and Design Club, it's a position I hold close to my heart. And I feel that this year, together with the committee, we've really made some progressive decisions that will firmly cement the club's future. I've made the decision to stay on as president until after our Award show which is on August 28th when the committee will then re-elect a new leader."

This year, World Blood Donor Day is being hosted by Australia and to launch this major event, Naked has created a communications campaign that pays homage to one of the greatest gifts a person can ever give - the gift of blood.

Melbourne based director Ben Saunders, also known as Nice Trees, has joined new production company The Otto Empire teamed with producer Jo de Fina.

Saunders has had a stellar, and steady career, building a stunning reel of diverse work.
With recent large-scale projects such as Lipton Ice Tea 'Switch' shot in Buenos Aries through DDB Sydney and Publicis Mojo's 'Drumstick Summer Parade' VFX feast, Saunders has an impressive base of versatile work behind him. With a strong background in music videos, Ben has an ARIA Award, and several nominations under his belt.

In the lead up to the Cannes International Advertising Festival in late June, Campaign Brief asked agency creative directors to nominate their best chances to win Lions this year. Here are six more....


CLIENT: SONY
TITLE: QUANTUM CODE
AGENCY: EURO RSCG PARTNERSHIP, SYDNEY

With The D&AD Awards presentation on this week and the Cannes International Advertising Festival getting underway June 21st remember that there are another two important awards shows that have announced their Call for Entries. Each have upcoming entry deadlines to note.

LONDON INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
This is the first time LIA is included in the Campaign Brief Creative Rankings. Entry deadline to LIA is June 19th. This year LIA has added the Bronze Statue to their line-up of metal. This year's Jury Presidents include Jeremy Craigen, Executive Creative Director of DDB London (pictured) and Tham Khai Meng, Ogilvy & Mather - Worldwide Creative Director and Chairman of its Worldwide Creative Council. View LIA website.

AWARD AWARDS
Entry deadline for AWARD this year is June 30th. Craig Davis, former chief creative officer worldwide JWT (pictured) has been appointed the Chairman of Judges of this year's AWARD Awards. AWARD Judging will be held in Sydney, September 8th until September 18th. Finalists will be released in October, and the winners will be heralded at the AWARD Awards on Thursday November 12th at The Overseas Passenger Terminal, Sydney. View the AWARD website.

In today's Media section of The Australian, penned by Lara Sinclair, media agencies are destined to replace creative agencies as the "spine" that co-ordinates essential marketing services for advertisers, according to Mindshare global head of planning Marco Rimini. Read the article HERE

In today's Media section of The Australian, Ben Welsh, ECD of M&C Saatchi, Sydney, outlines to marketers what awards mean to the advertising industry and what we can all expect at Cannes in two week's time. Read the article HERE

It could be a big year for Australia - and to a lesser extent New Zealand - at Cannes this year. Over the next two weeks in the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we believe will impress the judges...


CLIENT: TOURISM QUEENSLAND
CAMPAIGN: BEST JOB IN THE WORLD
AGENCY: CUMMINS NITRO BRISBANE

James Burchill, joint creative director of Cummins Nitro Brisbane says Tourism Queensland approached the agency to create global awareness of The Great Barrier Reef. 
With a budget of just $1.7m they created 'the best job in the world', offering the successful candidate a gig as caretaker of the islands, based in Hamilton Island. The job offered a salary of $150,000 for six months and accommodation - money that came out of the advertising budget. The yearlong campaign started in January 2009 with classifieds ads in newspapers across their key markets of the UK, Asia, and North America.
Burchill says that as soon as the ad appeared on seek.com it spread like wildfire. Candidates submitted a one-minute video on why they should get the job - 35,000 applications came through.
From the 50 top contenders Tourism Qld selected 10 to go through to the final round. There was also a wild card selection of the person with the most votes by the general public. These 11 people will be flown to the island in May to go through the final elimination with the job starting in July.

With the International Advertising Festival just two weeks away, Leo Burnett has raised the interest and speculation over the best work with the release of its 23nd Cannes Predictions reel. The reel brings together 50 contenders likely to earn a coveted Lion at this year's Festival.

A team led by Leo Burnett Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Mark Tutssel viewed thousands of campaigns, monitored global and local award shows and followed the general industry buzz to select the work for this year's collection. Besides including the most honored work, the reel is designed to reflect an international mix and a balance across multiple product categories.

This year's reel features work from more than 14 countries including Tourism Queensland "The Best Job In the World" via CumminsNitro, Brisbane, Carlton Mid 'Woman Whisperer' via Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, James Boag's "Pure Waters" via Publicis Mojo, Sydney and Adidas/All Blacks "thread - this is not a jersey" via TBWA\Whybin Auckland.

So what can we expect at this year's festival? For Tutssel the question on everyone's mind is: Has creativity suffered in the face of the global recession? "With only a cursory glance, one could argue it has," said Tutssel.

Whybin TBWA\ Tequila Sydney has snared Hristos Varouhas as its new strategic planning director - effective August - just six months after moving to The Campaign Palace as national planning director.

At The Palace Varouhas worked across clients such as Westpac, Target, Dominoes, Bonds and Panasonic. Before the Palace, Hristos was planning director at Belgiovane Williams Mackay, where he spent 4 years working across Telstra, GIO, Virgin Money and Sanitarium. At BWM, Hristos won the APG Grand Prix and the Gold Asia Pacific EFFIE for his work on Telstra Big Pond 'Rabbits'. Before BWM, Hristos also did stints at DDB Sydney and London.

Melbourne, Wednesday 10th June
AWARD has secured Jeff Goodby as a guest for next week in Melbourne and this year's AWARD School students, tutors, lecturers and AWARD members are all welcome to hear Goodby talk about his career and show some recent work from the agency.
The talk will be held at the Federation Hall at VCA on St Kilda Road. Drinks will follow at Feddish Cafe Bar & Restaurant, River Terrace Yarra Building, Federation Square.
Jeff Goodby is co-founder and co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, an agency widely acclaimed for most successfully integrating the traditional and digital media arts. Goodby has been President of every major award jury including Cannes Film, Print and Titanium and in 2006, he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Saatchi and Saatchi, Sydney has taken out top honors at the inaugural 2009 Outdoor Awards held in Sydney tonight, receiving $10,000 worth of instant scratchies and the coveted Best of Show golden pigeon trophy.

The winning team was chosen by a panel of six leading international creative directors for their Toyota Yaris campaign in which the client donated two-thirds of its billboards to a range of charities under the tag line "Uses less, gives more."

Five creative agencies were in contention for the major award, all of whom received gold pigeon trophies. In addition to the main prizewinner they were Publicis Mojo Sydney with two Golds (plus a Bronze), and one Gold apiece to DDB Sydney (plus a Silver and Bronze), Publicis Mojo Melbourne and Marketforce Perth (plus two Bronze).

As well as Best of Show and a Gold, Saatchi's also won three Silvers. CumminsNitro, Brisbane won a Silver and a Bronze.

What : ADVERTISING & MARKETING SUMMIT 09 
28th & 29th - July - Luna Park - Sydney
 
Why: The CEOs of Tourism Queensland and Jetstar will showcase their award winning campaigns at the Advertising & Marketing Summit in July. Recently hailed by The One Show and the Japanese Best Advertisers Awards respectively these two dynamic Australian brands will tell you the insights you need to know in order to replicate their success - and you will hear it all from the CEOs.
 
In addition the stellar lineup of internationals, fresh to his role, the new Facebook VP Paul Borrud will show you hot to get to get grips with social media in the current climate.

This Sunday night June 7, a new Allen's lollies TV commercial, created by JWT Sydney, will make its network TV premiere.
 
Titled 'Smiles', a 9m tall blonde doll walks through a colourfully crowded street showering the crowd with lollies to the enormous delight of children and adults beneath her. 
 
Believed to be the largest walking doll in the world, she was created by Australian Academy Award winner John Cox in his Gold Coast studio.

View the commercial

View how they made it

The Cannes Lions seem to be recession proof from an Asia Pacific perspective given the breakdowns of entry levels to the festival this year. While overall entries to Cannes are down 19.9% entries from Asia-Pacific are only down 10.4%, something that is no doubt pleasing to the Festival organisers. A fall of just over 10% is an amazing result given the depressed economic position of the industry in our region and all the negative talk of cutbacks amongst networks. Asia-Pacific entries this year totaled 5157 compared to 5757 last year.

Entry figures for this month's Cannes International Advertising Festival are nearly 20% down on last year. 22,652 entries from 86 countries will be competing at this year's event, a 19.9% drop on the record breaking year in 2008.
"Although there are naturally fewer entries across the categories, the Lions remain the ultimate global awards to win. We are particularly happy about the launch of the PR Lions, which have been so well supported by our colleagues in the PR industry. With 431 entries from 239 companies in 48 countries participating, it's a great welcome to Cannes for this new category," said Philip Thomas, Festival CEO.
As the figures show the biggest fall this year is in the Press category with a 32.2% decline. The Film category is down 25.4%, Outdoor is down 23%, Cyber is down 20% and Direct down 19.6%.
This year the Cannes Lions runs from June 21st to June 27th.

Bestads Top 6 Commercials of the week in the world is now ready to view, reviewed by Frazer Jelleyman, executive creative director of David & Goliath, London: http://tr.im/fopw

Get the Bestads Podcast CLICK HERE


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Portfolio Night will happen in Melbourne on Thursday June 11. Following the announcement that Ogilvy will sponsor this event worldwide, BADJAR Ogilvy put their hand up to host the night at 120 Studios in Port Melbourne.
Portfolio Night, now in its 7th year, is a great way for students to get their books in front of creative directors and obtain helpful advice on how to get into the industry. For details and tickets visit portfolionight.com

Tim Knight is stepping down from his position as Managing Director of all divisions of Tequila\Australia to pursue other opportunities within the industry, to be replaced by Charles Clapshaw (pictured), currently National Head of Digital at The Furnace - effective early August.

"It's been a whirlwind 3.5 years with great memories" said Knight. "Both Tequila\ and Whybin\TBWA as a whole have gone from strength to strength during this time. And, the industry has changed dramatically, creating opportunities that I'm now keen to pursue"
        
Says Des Speakman the Chief Executive Officer of Whybin\TBWA\Tequila , "Tim has done a great job and he leaves us with a strong, well integrated Tequila\ that benefits from an enhanced reputation in the market place. I take this opportunity to thank him for his commitment and to wish him every success in the future."

JWT Sydney group account director Peter Bosilkovski is set to reunite with U.S. born joint ECDs Andy DiLallo and Jay Benjamin at Leo Burnett, Sydney, effective June 8.

The three last worked together at JWT from mid 2007 to mid 2008, a highly creative period that resulted in a swag of awards around the world.

Leo Burnett Australia CEO Todd Sampson told CB he has spent the last 3 months recruiting for a number of positions throughout the company: "We have looked at dozens of applicants for a Client Services Director role over the last couple of months and the search ended with Peter Bosilkovski.

"Peter is regarded as one of the most talented and ambitions GADs in Australia. He was one of 30 leaders across the globe to be selected on the WPP JWT Global Leadership Program run by Worldwide JWT CEO Bob Jeffery and sponosored  by Sir Martin Sorrell. After 9.5 years at JWT, he can actually say he played a critical role in improving the creative quality and overall growth of the agency. Peter is regarded as one of their star performers both locally and internationally. Of the 40 pieces of work submitted into awards around the world in the last two years, 32 of them were from his clients, which included 3 Cannes Lions, 4 AWARD Pencils, D&AD merit, Clio Statue, 2 EFFIE 2009 Finalists etc. He has also been a key leader in new business growth and with nearly doubling the size of his portfolio."

JUNE 2, 2009 UPDATE: Creditors have voted to liquidate The One Centre.
The company owed $4 million and had $7K in the bank.

EXCLUSIVE (April 28, 2009): Another sad victim of the recession: The One Centre, Sydney, founded by John Ford ten years ago, which called itself "The world's first cross discipline branding agency", has gone into voluntary administration, with up to 25 staffers losing their jobs.
One source says staff were informed by three men in suits who walked in yesterday afternoon, who told them to pack up their belongings.
The business was mainly based on corporate design and retail space design projects which started drying up when the recession started biting in October last year (when the shop had around 50 employees).

Thanks to a diverse group of creatives, educators and business leaders, the 2009 One Show Creative unConference recently in New York tackled topics as varied as the challenges in running a small or independent agency, the future of branded entertainment, the politics of agency/client collaborations and even creative solutions for political problems in Afghanistan.
One of the goals of an unConference is to keep the conversation going long after the conference closes. To do this The One Club has collected notes from 31 of the unConference sessions and posted them to the unConference site.

The forty-four judges that made up the first round panel for the first-ever Australian EFFIE Awards have determined that 81 entries out of the total of 131 will go through to the finals. Those finalists will now progress to stage two with entries being judged by a panel of 20 judges.

BMF Sydney leads the agency pack with eight finalists, followed by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne with seven and Clemenger BBDO Sydney, M&C Saatchi, Sydney and CumminsNitro Brisbane with six apiece. Interestingly, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco has three entries on the shortlist for their Australian client, the Commonwealth Bank.
 
View the full list of finalists: Effie Finalists.pdf  
 

A ground swell of Australian support has rocketed Australian web developers on to the stage at this year's coveted Webby Awards, to be held Monday June 8 in New York.
 
Circul8 directors Alana Stocks and Jamie Madden are in New York this week to accept what the New York Times hailed as 'the internet's highest honor' and will be one of only 20 winners to make a five word acceptance speech and the only Australian company on stage.
 

Julian Lee in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald reports that two of adland's best known identities - Hamish McLennan and Alex Hamill - are to be joined in the long-running court case of who knew what about secret payments made to executives during the sale of the ad agency George Patterson in 2005.

In a startling development the private equity company that is fighting an action by the London-based marketing services company WPP, is turning the tables on its pursuer.

READ THE ARTICLE

Following concerns raised earlier this year by Campaign Brief, there have been ranking changes (based on 2009 awards) at The Big Won as a result of the decision of network bosses at Promoseven to return all FP7 Doha's awards won at the Dubai Lynxes.
As a result, FP7's Creative Director Fadi Yaish has slipped from being the No.2 creative director in the world back in April to No. 40.
Top CD's now are:
1. Les Six, Y&R Paris.
2. Dave King, AIM Proximity New Zealand
3. Tony Clewett, DraftFCB New Zealand
Top agencies are:
1. AIM Proximity New Zealand
2. AMV BBDO London
3. DDB London

Only three weeks to go before Campaign Brief and a handful of Aussies (as opposed to over 400 last year) defy the recession and lob up to Cannes for the 2009 International Advertising Festival.
This year's Cannes promises to be a big one for Australia (just like the last big recession year, 1991, when Oz was placed #3in the world) with the strong possibility of a massive haul of Lions and even the odd Grand Prix or two.
As a reminder of what fun it was at Cannes in 2008, a few months before the GFC hit the fan, watch the CB Videoblog of the last day of the Festival.

Watch the 2008 CB Legendary Colombe d'Or Lunch videoblog
Watch the 2008 CB Villa Pool Party

GOING TO CANNES? Contact Lynchy so you are kept in the loop re: functions during the week. Also, apart from the CB Blog, follow Lynchy on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and pics during Cannes week.

PS: If there are any companies with any sponsorship budget left (laughs), CB is looking for up to three to sponsor this year's CB Videoblog (which includes a full page ad in Campaign Brief magazine after the Festival). Daily coverage will include exclusive reports from all the key Aussie and Kiwi judges. If you are interested, contact Lynchy.

Lara Sinclair from The Australian reports that Qantas is filming a fourth television commercial starring child choristers via agency Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, Sydney.
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