A roundup of the most important news of the week in the advertising awards world.
Cannes Lions
The Cannes Lions announced this week a major change among its jury selection. The total number of judges will decrease by 92 people for the 2017 edition.
Traditionally, Cannes Lions boasts itself in being the most fair competition in the world as they bring in a diverse cast of juries members. Diversity in the judges selection is multiple: gender, country, network, holding, and agency. Many creative directors point to this diversity as the reason why the Cannes Lions is regarded as the most important awards competition in the world. In fact, a campaign that could seem “too American” would win at the Clios or at the One Show, but not at Cannes. Winning concepts need to be universal to be easily understood by juries from all over the world with different backgrounds.
In fairness, even though most categories at the Cannes Lions were being judged by often 20+ members from all over the world, the winner of the main category, the Titanium, was decided only by a handful of prestigious people. The organization seems to think that this “supercreatives” cast is better suited to deliver a better quality of winners and has thus changed the rules.
This decision marks the first change made by Jose Papa, the new Managing Director of the organization.
Shorty Social Good Awards
The Shorty Awards just announced the winners of their inaugural Social Good Awards.
This competition honors the social good initiatives brands, agencies & non-profits are taking on to make our world a better place.
Notable winners include the “Wholesome Button” for Honey Maid by Weber Shandwick, “Dream Adventures” for Expedia by 180LA or “Dear Media” for Dove by Razorfish.
In just a year, this awards competition showed that there was a strong need for a socially-sensitive scheme and is about to settle its position among the major ad shows.
And Also
- LA Reid has been announced as the keynote speaker of the Midem 2017
- Global Awards announced the winners for their 2017 edition
- The One Show announced the 1st and 2nd quarter shortlist for their 2017 edition
Big Winner of the Week
“Doors of Thrones” for Tourism Ireland by Publicis London won a Grand Prix at the Epica Awards 2017
Story of the Week: Epica Awards 2016
The Epica Awards held their 2016 edition this week in Amsterdam. The awards competition was celebrating its 30th anniversary. The Epica Awards are the only awards competition judged by journalists.
The marvellous “Kenzo World” film for Kenzo Fragrances won the Grand Prix in the Film category. It is safe to say that it won’t be the last top prize that this amazing campaign is going to collect. This short movie by genius director Spike Jonze strikes among the usual litany of commercial for fragrances.
At the same time, the judges of the Epica Awards awarded their Grand Prix in the Print category to a press ad. Remember press ads ? That was the medium of choice back in the days, on which lots of great creatives built their career. It is an understatement to say that press ads have been recently absent from awards winners list. Is it the comeback for print ? But to be honest, if you remember a print ad that you saw this year, it is probably this one for Norwegian Airlines by TRY/APT.
Quote of the Week
There must be a morgue worker somewhere that could set up an amazing mannequin challenge and just peak this whole thing.
Andrew Teman on Twitter
