Steve Coll’s Cannes Diary: Day Three

Steve Coll, ECD at Euro RSCG Australia is Australia’s representative on the Cannes Lions Promo and Activation jury. Coll, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is of course reporting exclusively for CB.

Day 3 and I’m getting to realize just how smart my fellow jury members are.

The strategic expertise comes from Masaya and Hiroko, planners at Dentsu and ADK in Tokyo, and Rafaella Bertini, head of digital strategy at Legas Delaney in Milan.

Then there are the creative entrepreneurs too. Pablo from Madrid is founder of Bungalow 25, one of the Spain’s foremost independent agencies, Manuel runs a super smart shop called Human in Buenos Aires, and Rooney is one of the founders of VCCP, famous for their all-conquering Merkaht campaign. Jaysus! Even more impressively, Pablo tells me he sailed to Cannes from Minorca in the Balearics. Although he confesses the weather was a little rough, and his business partner spent the trip spewing over the side, Pablo still wins ‘most glamorous journey to the festival’ by a comfortable distance.

It’s a room full of intimidating talent, but there’s a friendly vibe, thanks in large part to the ever-smiling Gonzalo Figaro. And, despite all the different brains and backgrounds at the table, the jury has been remarkably united thus far. It’s clear that simply relying on technology isn’t going to cut it. QR codes and augmented reality feature heavily, and we’ve seen some clever uses of these technologies.

As you’d expect, there are a large number of campaigns with a user-generated idea at the centre. But again, you need to be come up with an original use of this approach in order to stand out. And simply demonstrating integration isn’t enough either. Original, attention-grabbing, idea-led work is dominating as the short-list slowly starts to come together.

We’ve seen some great stuff over the last few days, and day three is no exception. I said earlier in the week that making the short-list would be a good achievement. I reckon picking up metal is going to be pretty tough.

Day three finishes with a trip to the pub, where Euro 2012 is looking like a much less competitive competition than ours.