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 middle)
Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising, India
Toby Talbot, Executive Creative Director, DDB New Zealand (pictured top right)
Mark Molloy, Director, Exit Films Melbourne
Romanca Jasinski, Head of TV, George Patterson Y&R Melbourne
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

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 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.

New Zealand has turned 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.

Y&R Auckland won New Zealand's only Lion at the Film Lions, snaring Gold for their 'Dying Old' spot for Breast Cancer Research Trust.

The Grand Prix went to an interactive long form piece of work by Tribal DDB Amsterdam for Philips called 'Carousel'.

New Zealand has two shots at picking up a coveted Titanium/Integrated Lion with TBWA\Whybin\Tequila Auckland's Adidas/New Zealand Rugby 'This in not a Jersey/Adithread' campaign and Colenso BBDO Auckland for Yellow 'Treehouse Restaurant'.

There were only 23 campaigns shortlisted in Titanium/Integrated. The USA dominated the shortlist with 14 entries followed by Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with two each, while Canada, Germany and the UK had one apiece. New Zealand submitted six entries of the 403 campaigns submitted for the category.

Chairman of the Jury is Australia's David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, while New Zealand is represented by Andy Blood, group executive creative director of TBWA\Whybin\Tequila.

New Zealand scored 4 Golds and 2 Bronze medals at this year's awards, with three of the four Golds going to Clemenger BBDO for their work for the New Zealand Transport Agency. The other Gold was awarded to Colenso BBDO for the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, and one Bronze was given to Aim Proximity for the Yellow Pages work, and the other to Repulik Communications for Atrari New Zealand.

Publicis Mojo Auckland picked up a Gold Lion at the Cyber Lions last night for Coca-Cola Schweppes 'Signs', a short film based around a love story in an office.

CumminsNitro, Brisbane's 'Best Job in the World' picked up its third Grand Prix of the festival. 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.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand won New Zealand's only Press Lion last night, a Bronze Lion for the 'Police Gap' ad for Vespa.

The Grand Prix went to a campaign for Wrangler from Fred & Farid Paris, for entries 'Dakota 1', 'Dakota 2', 'Dakota on Road', Coco White Flare' and 'Coco Crouching'.

Jury president David Lubars, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO North America, said: "The thing that pushed Wrangler was that it set in DNA where the company will be going forward."

Jay Benjamin, executive creative director for Leo Burnett was on the jury for Australia. He said: "We had to cut the shortlist down big time because there were insights that weren't real, ads that probably weren't real, so those were all taken out and I think what we were actually left with was brilliant. It's definitely a hard year for print, but that was why we were so brutal to make sure that print is seen as a medium that you can do great work in, and hopefully we did that."

New Zealand picked up a Silver and a Bronze at the Design Lions lat night. ALT Group Auckland won a Silver Lion for its 'Hudson Gavin Martin Identity' and a Bronze Lion was awarded to Colenso BBDO Auckland for its work for Papakura & Franklin District Council 'Bleeding Billboard'.

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.

New Zealand won one Silver Lion and two Bronze Lions at the Outdoor Lions awarded tonight.

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'.

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.

New Zealand advertising agencies outperformed their media counterparts at the Cannes Media Lions tonight, with Colenso BBDO and TBWA\Whybin winning one Bronze Media Lion each and OMD taking a Bronze Lion.

Colenso BBDO Auckland won for Yellow 'Treehouse, TBWA\Whybin Auckland won for Adidas New Zealand/New Zealand Rugby 'This is not a jersey' and OMD Auckland won for Bridgestone 'The Driving Force'.

New Zealand's 16 entries has resulted in just one finalist from Publicis Mojo Auckland and its campaign 'Signs' for Coca-Cola Eurasia in this year's Cyber Lions.

New Zealand has secured only three shortlisted nominations in the Design Lions with Colenso BBDO shortlisted twice, 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.

New Zealand won three Lions at the Direct Lions presented tonight in Cannes - one Silver for AIM Proximity/Colenso BBDO Auckland Yellow Pages 'Yellow Treehouse' and two Bronze Lions, one to DDB Auckland for Pascall's 'When will the fruit burst' and Rapp Auckland for ANZ Bank's 'GettinguThru'.

CumminsNitro Brisbane won the Direct Grand Prix for Tourism Queensland's 'Best Job in the world' which topped off a stellar performance for Australia in the 2009 Direct Lions. Australia 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 out of the ten Gold Promo Lions handed out in Cannes tonight. In total, 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.
 

DDB Auckland won two Gold Lions for Pascall's 'When will the fruit burst?' (DDB executive CD Toby Talbot pictured left, snapped in Cannes) while Colenso BBDO Auckland/AIM Proximity Auckland won a Bronze Lion for Yellow Pages 'Yellow Treehouse Restaurant'.

New Zealand ad agencies have outperformed the media agencies in the Media Lions, grabbing four of the five shortlisted nominations in the category.

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 has seven of the 11, while Whybin\TBWA Sydney has 3 of the 6 for Australia.

Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland picked up all three of New Zealand's shortlists in the Press Lions, for Vespa's 'Police Gap', 'Tram Gap' and 'Chef Gap'.

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand leads the Kiwi tally of  8 at the shortlist stage of the Outdoor Lions, snaring four on the shortlist.

In contrast, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia leads the Australian tally of 15, snaring an impressive seven on the shortlist, followed by JWT Sydney with three and Leo Burnett Sydney with two.

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.

New Zealand has picked up 11 of the 143 shortlisted entries for the 2009 Promo Lions, a slight drop on the 14 shortlists it scored last year. TBWA\Whybin\Tequila picked up four shortlists, two for Adidas New Zealand Rugby Union, 'Adiduck' and 'Adithread', one for Flossie Media Group, 'Man Vending Machine' and one for Preventing Violence New Zealand, 'Barcode'. Colenso BBDO (one with AIM Proximity) and DDB picked up two shortlists each while the remaining went to Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland, Rapp New Zealand and Clemenger BBDO Wellington.

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.

New Zealand picked up nine shortlists in direct with Rapp Auckland, Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland and DDB Auckland picking up two shortlists each, and Y&R Auckland picking up one. Rapp's shortlists were for Telecom New Zealand's 'No one will know you are gone' and ANZ Bank's 'GettinguThru'. Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland's shortlists were both for Rodney District Council's 'Grenade' while AIM Proximity Auckland's were for Yellow Pages 'iPhone Jonny' and 'Yellow Treehouse', the latter jointly entered with Colenso BBDO. Y&R Auckland's shortlisted entry was for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 'Virus'.

Meanwhile, Australia has picked up 19 shortlists in direct, the category dominated by Cummins Nitro Brisbane's Tourism Qld 'Best Job in the World' with three shortlists and BMF Sydney's Tooheys Extra Dry 'TED696 Project' also picking up three shortlists. Clemenger BBDO Melbourne also scored three shortlists 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.

Campaign Brief is off to Cannes soon so keep checking the CB blog and CB NZ 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 Australasian 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.

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 your interested or still looking for a great deal, contact Nick Cleaver at Nick@303.com.au

Entries for The Newspaper Ad of the Year close today Tuesday 16th June at 5pm - no extensions.
To be eligible these ads must have appeared in a New Zealand newspaper between 1st June 2008 and 31st May 2009. Simply email a hi-resolution pdf of the ad to ideas@nabs.co.nz, include publication name and date in the email body.
Judges will choose a winner from a selection of finalists made up of the Ad of the Month winners and new entries received.
The winner will announced (and $10,000 cash prize presented) at The Newspaper Ad of Year night to be held in Auckland on Thursday 9th July, 6pm at Hopetoun Alpha.
Entry criteria and full terms and conditions can be found at www.nabs.co.nz

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

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand CEO Andrew Stone today confirmed Livia Esterhazy as the successor to Cameron Harland to lead the Wellington agency. Harland, who leaves the agency in late June, has a new role heading up Peter Jackson's Park Road Post Production in Mirimar.
 
Esterhazy has both client side and agency expertise as well as digital experience, from roles with Kiwibank in New Zealand and Commonwealth Bank in Australia to agency roles with Ogilvy and Y&R Wellington.
 
Stone says Esterhazy has the perfect combination of skills to take Wellington forwards, building on the strong leadership team already in place which includes Tim Hall , Scott Henderson and Sarah Hodgetts.
 
"Livia understands both client and agency dynamics, plus she really gets digital. She has also worked with some of our key people such as associative creative director Scott Henderson, plus she loves Wellington. Cameron is leaving the agency in great shape with a number of recent business wins, so it's a very exciting time for us."  

New Zealand would be disappointed tonight at the D&AD Awards in London, failing to convert its two Nominations into Yellow Pencils. New Zealand had two Noms: Warehouse 'The Great Love Conspiracy' via AIM Proximity Auckland and New Zealand Book Council 'Read a book at work' via Colenso BBDO Auckland.

In contrast, Australia had a brilliant night, converting its record 10 Nominations into four prized 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.

Majority Australian owned agency Droga5 New York pulled off a major coup, winning two of only four Black Pencils awared 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.

54 Yellow Pencils were awarded on the night. View all the winning work HERE

PIC - CB caught Saatchi Sydney ECD Steve Back and CD Dave Bowman - both of whom worked at Saatchi's in Auckland - 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 New Zealand work, if any, managed to convert into Yellow and Black Pencils.

Or WATCH D&AD LIVE from 7.45am to 9.30am TODAY New Zealand time.

New Zealand has two Nominations: Warehouse 'The Great Love Conspiracy' via AIM Proximity Auckland and New Zealand Book Council 'Read a book at work' via Colenso BBDO Auckland.

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 three more....



CLIENT: SKY TV
TITLE: ALIENS Vs PREDATOR
AGENCY: DDB NEW ZEALAND



CLIENT: ALZHEIMER'S NEW ZEALAND
CAMPAIGN: TRICKS
AGENCY: COLENSO BBDO, AUCKLAND


CLIENT: TV3
CAMPAIGN: LAW AND ORDER
AGENCY: COLENSO BBDO, AUCKLAND

Following a six month pitch process, Spark PHD and PHDiQ have announced they have retained the Vodafone media and digital business. Spark PHD held the Vodafone media account for nine years prior to the pitch.

Over the next two weeks in the lead up to the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the NZ work we believe will impress the judges...


CLIENT: PASCALL'S FRUIT BURST
CAMPAIGN: BURST
AGENCIES: DDB NEW ZEALAND

This idea has more layers than a P&G brand onion, but thankfully it's not quite as boring.
On the surface, it's a billboard demonstrating the brand promise, but look closer and it's also a promo, a sampling campaign, an event, a direct response piece and a website.
First we made a giant inflatable strawberry and filled it with tens of thousands of Fruit Bursts, then placed it on a billboard next to a giant pin. Over the course of a month, the strawberry got bigger and bigger and inched closer and closer to the pin.
By going online to whenwillthefruitburst.co.nz people could view a live video feed to the billboard and guess when it would finally burst. The person who got closest to the exact time and date won $5000.
Hundreds of people turned up to see it burst on Halloween and thousands more watched it live online. Those who turned up were rewarded by being showered with thousands of Fruit Bursts. It was effectively one giant lolly scramble.
With just one billboard we managed to reach millions of people worldwide.


CLIENT: RODNEY DISTRICT COUNCIL
CAMPAIGN: GRENADE
AGENCIES: SAATCHI & SAATCHI, AUCKLAND

The Rodney District contains a highway that leads north of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. It's one of the most dangerous roads in New Zealand and has a rising death toll due specifically to speeders. The message: Slow down. Rodney District Council wanted to prove how violent the force in a crash was, so we had an engineer calculate what a head on collision would be equal to in grenades. At 125 kph it is equal to 10 grenades exploding. To demonstrate this we blew up a car, collected the debris, reconstructed it with 1000's of pieces of string and invited people to see it. Visitors included the Deputy Mayor, head of police, TV3 news (one of New Zealand's main news station) and, but most importantly, a surprising number of 18-25 year old males.

Advertising agencies and clients are already benefiting from the latest round of enhancements in Digipost's audio division.

Kylie Green - a Pirate City roller derby devotee and Digipost facilities whiz - joins as producer in the growing division and is now the main point of contact for quotes, talent and booking enquiries.

Digipost have also signed-off enhancements to their Dolby® certified studios. Major software and hardware upgrades completed recently provide more horsepower and headroom to meet ever-increasing demands of commercial production.

A premium judging panel for The Newspaper Ad of the Year has now been confirmed:
 

Paul Nagy, CD, Clemenger BBDO
Paul Catmur, Creative Partner, Barnes Catmur & Friends
Rob Jack, CD, Special
Guy Roberts, CD, TWBA/Whybins
James Mok, ECD, DraftFCB
Todd Waldren, ECD, M&C Saatchi
 

Michael Redwood, Colenso BBDO's highly respected Group Account Director on Air New Zealand, has resigned to take up a shareholding partnership role at Auckland creative shop Special.
 
"I've been hugely impressed by the work Special has produced so far" says Redwood. "They have ambitious plans, and it's a very exciting time to be joining".
 
Says Special Creative Partner Tony Bradbourne: "We have been looking carefully for a new partner for sometime. Seeing Michael on stage to collect the Grand Axis just confirmed our belief we'd found the right person for the job".
 
Adds Creative Partner Rob Jack: "We are working on an increasing number of clients both here and internationally and we need someone of Michael's calibre to help continue that growth".
 
Redwood has been at Colenso for over 6 years and at Saatchi & Saatchi for 5 years before that. He can be contacted at michael@specialgroup.co.nz
 

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.

Over the next two weeks in the lead up to the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the NZ work we believe will impress the judges...


CLIENT: YELLOW PAGES NEW ZEALAND
CAMPAIGN: YELLOW TREEHOUSE
AGENCIES: COLENSO BBDO / AIM PROXIMTY, AUCKLAND

Nick Worthington, ECD for Colenso, says globally Yellow Pages has a history of really cool advertising but it's been classically posters and a TV, leaving the product in need of an image update.
"They were losing their relevance in many ways, so there was a real need to engage people again and to make Yellow Pages seem extremely progressive. The key to that idea really was that basically they want people to pay money to be in their search engines or online," he says.
A competition was launched to find a person to manage the project and the winner, Tracey, was given a laptop, a mobile phone and a copy of the Yellow Pages to get the restaurant built within a limited time frame only using contacts found in Yellow Pages.
Regular updates were provided on her progress via TVCs, outdoor billboards and the project was covered by New Zealand's main news outlets - making the front page of the New Zealand Herald and the TV news as well as coverage online around the world. The restaurant was launched in January and was fully booked for lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.
Worthington says two things drove the exposure.
"First of all because it is nuts, and secondly it is so beautiful and a lot of people have eaten there. I said to the client that we'll only know three to six months after we have done it how successful it has been because basically that's when everyone will understand it," he says.
The campaign won the 360 AXIS Award.



CLIENT: PREVENTING VIOLENCE IN THE HOME
CAMPAIGN: BARCODE
AGENCY: TBWA\WHYBIN\TEQUILA, AUCKLAND

The key challenge for TBWA\Whybin\Tequila Auckland in a campaign for Preventing Violence was how to provide a helpline number to women who were in danger of being beaten if controlling partners found it.
The New Zealand charity, which offers counsellers and help centres for women who are the victims of domestic violence, opted for stickers that disguises the helpline number as a barcode that could be stuck onto any domestic object and go completely unnoticed.
Doctors and hospitals across New Zealand adopted the barcode device and international governmental and NGO agencies are following suit. Also, health professionals have reported an unprecedented acceptance of helpline details by victims since the circulation of the barcode.
The campaign won the AXIS of Innovation. Download the PDF:
00380-barcode.pdf

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.

Auckland based Digipost continues their 20 years of leadership in New Zealand film and television post production with the implementation of the fastest, most powerful and cost-effective RED camera post production solution available.

Digipost's new Baselight Transfer (BLT) system provides producers, directors and cinematographers access to a cutting edge digital telecine tool that allows rapid viewing, grading, and transferring of REDCODE™ RAW (.R3D) camera content, to editable dailies or online conforms.

Patrick Murphy and Sue Young of Rapp have beaten 138 other entries from 22 agencies to win Yellow's 'Win a trip to Cannes' competition for advertising creative teams.

Their winning idea focused on mobile tagging, an application which allows mobile phone users to scan an image containing a QR code in the phone book, causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL - in this case an advertiser's website.

Judge Nick Worthington of Colenso BBDO said the judging panel was won over by the various layers to the campaign and the depth of thought put into 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.

However, New Zealand has dropped in line with the rest of the world, entering 290 this year compared to 376 entries in 2008.

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.

Tony Clewett, Creative Director Direct & Interactive Draftfcb, has been invited to judge the Ad Star 2009 awards.
 
The awards are free to enter and there is US$20K worth of cash prizes up for grabs - Clewett likes to term them the "recession" awards: "In these tight times, agencies are limiting the entries they submit for international awards. With the Ad Star awards it's free to enter and that's what makes these awards pretty cool. I encourage agencies to submit their work to get recognition for the great campaigns they have produced, as they have nothing to lose by entering."

The president of the Ad Stars Public Service jury is Toby Talbot, ECD of DDB New Zealand.
 
This is the second year for the Ad Stars 2009 awards based in Korea, which sees judges from around the world take part in judging the entries online.
 
The Ad Stars 2009 award entries close June 15. For more information visit www.adstarsfestival.org
 
Clewett is currently ranked No.3 Top CD in the world in The Big Won, based on his award winning work in 2009.

There was no winner for May Newspaper Ad of Month, a decision made by judges Matt Simpkins of DraftFCB and Robyn Powell of G2.
May judging marks the end of the 08/09 round (competition round ran 1st June 08 - 31st May 09). 
The monthly winners are:

June 08 - My Lotto, DDB
July 08 - Vodafone Warriors Rubens 300th game, 99
August 08 - no winner
September 08 - no winner
October 08 - MS Society, TBWA/Whybin
November 08 - NZ Listener, DraftFCB
December 08 - no winner
January 09 - Veet, EuroRSCG
February 09 - Wellington Zoo, Saatchi
March 09 - Booksellers NZ, Saatchi
April 09 - d.vice, Colenso
May 09 - no winner

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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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.

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 Kiwis and Aussies defy the recession and lob up to Cannes for the 2009 International Advertising Festival.
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 Kiwi and Aussie judges. If you are interested, contact Lynchy.

The Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings has just been published. There is 32 pages of Rankings coverage in this edition of the magazine including: a comprehensive ranking of the Top Agencies in Asia (from No1 to No187); an exhaustive ranking of the Top Creatives in Asia (from No1 right down to No1533); A ranking of the Top 20 Agency Networks in Asia; a very interesting ranking of the Most Creative Countries in Asia; and country by country breakdowns of the Top Agencies and Top Creatives in each individual country. Plus lots more commentary. The Creative Rankings tabulate all Asian winners from the 8 most important international and regional creative awards shows.

Look out for the Campaign Brief Australia/NewZealand Rankings which will be published in mid June. To get the full details of this year's Creative Rankings make sure you are a subscriber to Campaign Brief and/or Campaign Brief Asia by downloading the subscription form.
CB_2009_subscription_form.pdf