Steve Coll’s Cannes Diary: Cannes Wrap

Steve Coll, executive creative director of Havas Worldwide Sydney reflects on Cannes and the great work that is coming out of Australia, exclusively for CB.

What should we learn from Cannes 2013?

There are certain people who always do well at Cannes.

Like the makers of Rose. On the evidence of the past week, the best way to make money from advertising is to quit your agency job and buy a vineyard that produces gallons of girly pink wine. Then sit back and wait for the marketing and advertising world’s glitterati to pour millions into your bank account. The kids school fees would be covered by 1130 on the Monday morning.

Increasingly, the other people who do well out of Cannes are us.

We give each other heaps on this blog with great regularity. So this year’s Cannes result should make us stop to acknowledge that, right now, Australian creative work is probably as good as its ever been, if not better. And, logically, it follows that the people and agencies doing the work are some of the most talented to have worked in our local industry.

Like McCann Melbourne. Or as Lynchy has dubbed them, McCannes. There was some chat this week about how one campaign shouldn’t be able to dominate the Festival like that. But one campaign never has. And, most likely, never will again. It’s testament to the talents of John Mescal et al that every single jury president stood on stage and poured lavish praise on the Dumb ways to Die campaign. Dan Wieden said ‘I wish I’d done this myself’. Surely there is no higher praise. The usually cynical and jealous Palais crowd clapped along to Grand prix after Grand Prix like kids watching a school play. Watching the film playing over again, I was reminded just how incredibly well crafted it is, especially the writing. It is, quite simply, brilliant.

Leo Burnetts had a year that would ordinarily see them top the local results list. To my mind, there is real cleverness to this campaign. And the idea is so simple it can be explained in a sentence. So you can only say hats off to the Leo Burnett Sydney crew. Its impossible to produce a 12(?) Lion winning campaign without considerable smarts, relentless dedication and creative talent. Well done fellas.

We also featured in strategy. Two of a miserly six Lions from the Creative Effectiveness jury went to Australia. One for Ogilvy’s now global ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. And one for TBWA’s work on NRMA. While you need a great planning paper to win, a brilliant award-winning idea is a massive factor.

I could point to several other agencies, ourselves included, who enjoyed a good year at the festival. And others who just didn’t get the rub of the green for their work. There were at least three knockout campaigns from this country that didn’t, for some reason, feature as much as they should.

The fact that we compete with each other so fiercely in a relatively small market shouldn’t stop us from regularly acknowledging when people are doing great things. And that, more and more often, the work being done in Australia is world class.

Truly, there is amazing talent in this country. I think it’s proven by the fact that so many Lions are coming back to Australia.

We should be proud of it.