303Lowe's Liam Riddler (far left) and Alex Bolderoff (near left) have won the Silver medal at the International Young Lions Cyber competition in Cannes.
 
The win is Australia's first ever in the Cyber category, and the second Young Lions award this year, meaning 2013 is already the most successful year for Aussies in the Young Lions competition, with two categories still to come.

Each day Simon Veksner, head of ideas at Naked Communications Australia, is posting a photo diary depicting 'the other side of Cannes'. Guaranteed no coverage of jury rooms, seminars, or award shows, exclusive to CB

One of the highlights of attending Cannes is that everyone gets a goodie bag, just like at the Oscars. 

At the Cannes film festival last month, attendees were provided with a swag bag containing handcrafted jewelry, spa and bath products, fine art photography and more, in a package valued at $1,180.

So it was with some excitement that I opened the Cannes advertising festival gift bag.

The Brand Agency's Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Cannes blog for the last seven years. He's at it again this year.

This is the busiest Cannes I can remember. With a reported 12,000 delegates and at least as many again just here for the ride, you're never short of company. Even when you don't want it.

But moving a lot of the seminars from the Debussy Theatre to the much larger Grand Auditorium means I haven't had to miss a session this year due to capacity problems.

The auditorium was packed for the visit of fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood, on stage with Sapient Nitro Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Gaston Legoburu.

The theme of the day was storytelling and while this has been a well-worn path at Cannes over the years I found that this session did at least provide some fresh insights and practical ideas. Not to mention some inspirational words from Dame Vivienne.

Australian Young Lions Paul Den (right) and Kristine Ballensky (left) have been won Silver in the International Young Lions Media competition announced in Cannes last night for their 'Notes on Notes' idea.
 
Den and Ballensky, both from UM Sydney, were given 24 hours to respond to a media brief for Médecins Sans Frontières to help drive donations.

Following Martin Whittle's decision to step down from the business, Noel Quick has been appointed as Southern Cross Austereo Perth's Director of Sales.

Quick (pictured) has worked for Austereo - now SCA - for 25 years and has also been Direct Sales Manager for Austereo. He has vast experience in all sales areas of the business.

Whittle has been Quick's mentor for most of those 25 years and with the announcement of his retirement, is thrilled he is passing the mantle to someone of Quick's experience and calibre. Southern Cross Austereo's General Manager, Linda Wayman said Quick will put his own indelible stamp on the role.

Matt Williams, content editor at The Engine Group, London offers his take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week.

I always tend to be quite scepitcal when a Cannes Lions seminar features a big name from outside of the industry, especially when the celebrity has just been part of a recent ad campaign, and is being brought on stage (paid for) by the agency of said campaign.

Australia has won four Gold Lions, two Silver Lions and five Bronze Lions at the Cannes Media Lions presented tonight in Cannes.

To celebrate its Open Days this year, Edith Cowan University (ECU) is calling on the public to tell it 'how university should be' via Twitter, with the tweets to be turned into a giant mural by ECU graduate and local artist Woah Jonny (pictured).
 
A selection of the best tweets using the hash tag #ECUopenday will be transformed by Woah Jonny and incorporated into an artwork in the Perth underground station.
 
The public will be able to see their tweets come to life over the course of the weekend of June 29 & 30 as Woah Jonny creates the mural in the station between 7am and 7pm. For those who can't make it in person, they can stay updated through the Facebook event page.
 
A time lapse video will also be available after the mural has been completed on ECU's YouTube page.

Woah Jonny said he was looking forward to the challenge of drawing as many tweets as possible within the 24 hour period.

Each week Bestads picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium - which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.

This week's guest judge is Dave Buonaguidi, founder and chief creative officer at Karmarama, London.

READ HIS REVIEW

The Communications Council has officially launched the new Graduate Program with participating council agencies, 303Lowe, Gatecrasher, Longtail, Marketforce, Meerkats, The Brand Agency and Trilogy, supported by Curtin University and Getty Images.

Run successfully in Sydney and Melbourne for over 25 years, TCC WA has redesigned the program to meet the needs of the Perth market.

Rottofest, Western Australia's only 'overseas' festival that you don't need a passport for, is calling for comedians, funny people and filmmakers from across Australia to submit comedy short film and filmed sketch entries for this year's Festival, to be held on Rottnest Island from Friday 6 September to Sunday 8 September 2013.

The funniest selected short films (up to 8 minutes) and filmed sketches (up to 3 minutes) will be screened on the island at Rottofest 2013 and judged by a panel of leading industry experts, with two major prizes awarded:
•     Funniest Short Film - $1000 cash prize
•     Funniest Filmed Sketch - $500 cash prize

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition.

And we're done. The reason we spent 20+ hours on a plane, took more time than that trip but felt much quicker. Tonight we feel pretty happy with our work. We'll see how we're feeling back in the Young Lions Briefing room at 10am tomorrow for the results.

Southern Cross Austereo invited a number of agency guests to their annual southwest getaway which has become one of the most sought after invitations on the media calendar.
 
On what was a stunning winter's day at the beautiful Wise Winery in Eagle Bay, guests were treated to a long lunch where they sampled the delicious wines while enjoying great company and exquisite views of Geographe Bay.
 
During the lunch Southern Cross Austereo Agency Sales Manager, Noel Quick, paid tribute to Martin Whittle's 22 years at Austereo/SCA and 40 years in the advertising and media industry.

Each week Campaign Brief posts available positions within the industry (free for direct hires). Email any jobs you have going to martin@campaignbrief.com (please place "Employment Opportunities" in the email subject area) by 5.00pm Tuesday for listing on Wednesday morning.


BRAND MANAGERS (2) & PRODUCT MANAGERS (2) - LOTTERYWEST
Lotterywest currently has 2 x Brand Manager and 2 x Product Manager positions available in their marketing department.   We are looking for enthusiastic marketers with experience in brand and product development to work across our portfolio of Lotto and Scratch'n'Win games.

See all the details for the Brand Manager positions here.
 
See all the details for the Product Manager positions here.
________________________________________________________________________________

Omnicom Group Inc, a leading marketing and advertising holding company, demonstrated its long-time support for China by hosting a panel discussion at the first "China Day" event held at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

Says Serge Dumont, Omnicom group vice chairman, and chairman Asia Pacific (pictured): "As the Festival celebrates its 60^th anniversary, its organizers have wisely chosen to spotlight one of the world's most important countries. The support of the Group and its agencies at this year's Festival reflects our long-term commitment to China, the world's number-two advertising market worldwide in terms of market scale. Because understanding China has become crucial to any company with global aspirations, Omnicom assembled a panel of senior executives from our agencies to discuss the key trends affecting China's families, individuals, and institutions."

Each day Simon Veksner, head of ideas at Naked Communications Australia, is posting a photo diary depicting 'the other side of Cannes'. Guaranteed no coverage of jury rooms, seminars, or award shows, exclusive to CB

As Advertising Creatives, we are permanently searching for the new and innovative - our job is a neverending quest to do something that no one else has done before.

And that's why we refuse to follow trends. 

Sorry Google Beach. Sorry Grand Audi Room. Sorry Spotify Garden. Sorry all the other brands that are trying to gain currency with creatives in Cannes. Ray-Ban owns this town, with near 100% top-of-shirt awareness. 

All pictures from last night's Campaign Brief cocktail party.

As Cannes International Festival of Creativity celebrates its 60th anniversary, Leo Burnett Worldwide and Contagious will look 60 months into the future to offer a head-start on the most significant technological innovations that will redefine how brands connect with people.

On Tuesday, June 18, from 5:00 - 5:45 p.m.in Cannes (10:00 - 10:45 a.m. CST) James Kirkham, Leo Burnett's newly appointed global head of social and mobile and Paul Kemp-Robertson, co-founder and editorial director for Contagious Communications will explore how technology can be applied to the natural cadence of our daily lives in order to make routine activities and behaviors more streamlined, meaningful or entertaining. 

Voted the "Seminar of the Day" by the first-ever Lions Live, Full of Tomorrow will be live streamed on Cannes' Lions Live page for viewers at home. 

Says Kirkham: "Working on this already feels like a career highlight; I get to work with Contagious on exploring incredible technologies which brands will be able to humanise in the very near future. It is like being a part of your favourite book and getting to talk about it to the world live on YouTube. What's not to like?"

Campaign Brief - together with sponsors Robber's Dog and Cirkus - hosted a Welcome Cocktail soirée last night for several hundred Aussie and Kiwi delegates at the Grand Hotel in Cannes.

Matt Williams, content editor at The Engine Group, London offers his take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week.

When it comes to selecting Cannes' 'Creative Marketer of the Year', we've all heard the rumours about the judging process.
 
That it's not really about the work at all - that instead it's down to a brand campaigning for months to get chosen, promising that if they win they'll spend lots of money at the festival, bring hundreds of delegates and enter more awards than ever before.

Ben Polkinghorne, creative at Colenso BDDO NZ and co-winner of the Axis Emerging Talent Award (with Anna Stickley) has been picked as one of 35 creatives under the age of 28 to attend the 2013 Young Creative Academy in Cannes. Here he gives a rundown of his first day in Cannes.

Gidday all. I suppose the reason you're reading this is because you want to know why I have a crab on my head. Or perhaps you want to know more about the Young Creative Academy.
 
Either way, I can't help you. At least, I couldn't when I wrote this intro on the plane.

The Brand Agency has three radio ads from their Perth Zoo campaign through to the metal round of the Cannes Lions Radio category.

Squirrel Monkey, Water Rat and Echidna are finalists in the Entertainment & Leisure category. The Radio awards presentation is on tomorrow night at the Palais.

The campaign was created by copywriter James Wills and ECD Garry Horner.

Kath O'Shea, founding partner of O'Shea & O'Brian, Sydney offers her take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week.

Day 2 in Cannes at the respectable time of 1.00pm, I decided to see how the advertising community could change the world for the good of mankind. Big call given my colleagues would have been well into pre-lunch drinks on one of the most stunning days ever. However, a choice with no regrets.

The 'cry for help' - as delivered by Tom Scott, Director of Global Brand and Innovation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - was for our community of extraordinary thinkers help solve the world's most urgent global health and development problems. The goal of the Gates Foundation is to eradicate extreme world poverty by 2030 (as defined by living on US$1.25 per day or less). A short video highlighting some of the work conducted by the Gates Foundation ended with a very powerful statement: "The work we do is complicated, the reason we do it is not". Therein lies the challenge for the creative community... how on earth to start solving such complicated world problems, with all the barriers associated with doing so in developing countries? No small feat.

It's only day two in Cannes and already McCann Melbourne has picked up two Grand Prix awards for the agency's Metro Trains 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign.

First up was the PR Grand Prix and a Gold Lion in the category. Then it was the Direct Grand Prix, plus two Direct Gold Lions.

The campaign "missed out" in the Promo & Activation Lions - only winning two Gold Lions.

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition. Here they give a rundown of their second day in Cannes.

Today was our Young Lions Cyber briefing day. The diverse range of countries and accents made us imagine we were part of Eurovision contestant inductions.

We can't go into too much detail about the brief yet, except it's about drugs and the room showed its appreciation by applauding when it was revealed.

The Brand Agency's Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Cannes blog for the last seven years. He's at it again this year.

The first session of the 2013 Cannes Lions was crap.

Or to be more accurate, it was about crap. Bob Garfield introduced the GE Focus Forward project. The project, which is subtitled Short Films, Big Ideas is an award-winning series of 30 three-minute stories about innovators--people who are reshaping the world through act or invention--directed by the world's most celebrated documentary filmmakers.

Some of you may have seen the story of the invisible bicycle helmet that is part of the series.