Cannes Contenders: M&C Saatchi, Sydney

How will Australia perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we hope will impress the judges…

Optus: CleverBuoy

Eighty-five percent of Australia’s population lives near the coast and the beach is a national icon. At the same time, Australia has the most fatal shark attacks in the world. Four-times more than any other country. And methods to deter sharks haven’t changed in over 60 years. With that insight, M&C Saatchi asked itself could it use the Optus network to help protect Australia’s beach goers and sharks? The answer was Yes! It entered into a unique collaboration with Optus and tech company Shark Mitigation Services, which it sourced out of Perth, to develop Clever Buoy, a smart ocean buoy that detects sharks and sends instant alerts to lifeguards via the Optus Network.

CommBank: Where’s My Wallet

To make people feel comfortable withdrawing money without their card M&C Saatchi and its digital production hub MAKE created an interactive treasure hunt that hid 100 wallets in the largest photograph ever taken of Sydney (125 Gigapixels involving three rotating cameras taking 21,000 incremental shots of the Harbour City from atop the Centrepoint Tower) for people to find and redeem cash prizes. Winners received a code to their smartphone to claim $200 using the Cardless Cash technology. Of course, the prize was only redeemable by first downloading the CommBank app.

QUIT: Every 6 Seconds

QUIT needed an idea that could shock smokers, young and old, into giving up. The ideal insight presented itself in a simple, hard-hitting fact issued by the World Health Organisation: one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco. Vine, with its six-second looping videos, was the perfect medium for the message.

The Australian Cancer Research Foundation: The One Who Will End Cancer

The Australian Cancer Research Foundation exists to end cancer. And while most charities want your money. M&C Saatchi just want your face. Meet The One Who Will End Cancer the live, evolving face of everyone who supports the Foundation. M&C Saatchi’s digital production arm MAKE built the hub using complex webGL shaders and HTML5 technologies within the browser. Participation is made easy with streamlined navigation and intuitive design. In one action, your face is captured and morphed effortlessly into ‘The One’ face in real-time. To show support, a personalised face, message and unique URL can be shared with friends and on Facebook.

Lexus: Lexus NX Smart Outdoor

Lexus wanted to launch its new NX Luxury Crossover in Australia The problem was drivers of European luxury cars are nearly impossible to target because they all feel they have made the best choice with their Mercs, BMWs, Audis or Range Rovers. To attract these drivers and a new-to-brand audience, M&C Saatchi created breakthrough technology: interactive billboards to directly message individual drivers in real time.

Optus Netflix: Ricky Gervais

M&C Saatchi collaborated with Emotive and Fuel Communications for the series of video content pieces that have comic genius Ricky Gervais deliver the laziest brand lines of all time to ‘promote’ Optus’s streaming deal with Netflix. Gervais is in full contemptuous mode in the series of ironic anti-adverts designed to entertain and deliver the Optus and Netflix message. Gervais himself gave the campaign a considerable social boost by tweeting about it to his 7.31m followers while Global sites worldwide such as AdWeek, Fast Company and The Daily Mail went big on it.

Blue Ball Foundation: Play with yourself

Australian men are 21% more likely to get testicular cancer than the global average. The most affected are young men aged between 20-39, of which 70% watch adult movies online. A perfect time to reach them, when they already had their pants down… For April, world testicular cancer month, aptly named Australian charity The Blue Ball Foundation was paired with leading adult film studio Digital Playground. A message, titled ‘Play with Yourself’, was hidden in the middle of a real adult movie – ‘Game of Balls’, a parody scheduled for the season five release of Game of Thrones, Australia’s highest-rating pay TV show. Star ‘Eva Lovia’ stopped mid-action, turned to camera, and demonstrated how to check yourself on her co-star’s private parts. Then she pointed to an on-screen URL – playwithyourself.org – where men could find out more, get help, and spread the word.