R/GA New York has taken the top prize in the Media category at this year’s Cannes Lions for its “Innovating saving” campaign for e-commerce brand Jet.com.
ManvsMachine London and Nike won a gold Design Lion for “Go lighter go longer” a “metaphorical exploration of air and the negative space it occupies” to promote Nike Air Max 2017.
Oh hey. Remember last January when Amir Kassaei announced, in a Campaign op-ed, that the world would be seeing a little less of DDB at the 2016 awards shows?
He made sure to note that his employer has “won more Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity than any other network on the planet” while throwing a whole lot of shade at everyone else: “Too many of us in the industry have bought into the idea that winning awards is proof of creative effectiveness, so much so that we’re willing to sacrifice our integrity to get them. And in turn that has lessened the integrity of the awards themselves.”
As we knew then and still know now, his promise was a whole bunch of bullshit.
But it’s worth noting in light of Arthur Sadoun’s announcement yesterday that Publicis Groupe would ban all of its agencies from participating in awards shows, trade shows or any other sort of paid promotional effort until the holding company has finished developing its AI-based global platform Marcel.
He claimed that means Publicis will be completely absent from next year’s Cannes, CES, the Clios, the Effies and every other awards event big or small.
Will he keep his promise? Was this all just a big PR stunt, especially given the fact that Publicis currently lags behind all the other major holding companies in its 2017 Cannes total? What if both things are simultaneously true?
Anyway, now that our anonymous comments have gone to that great troll home in the sky (R.I.P.), we would like to ask everyone reading—especially Publicis employees—to tell us what you really think about Marcel.
The topic has already gone somewhat “viral” on Fishbowl, the app that aspires to be a gossip magnet for people in various industries including advertising.
Some takes that are mildly hot:
“Marcel, please tap into your network and give high fives to all former Publicis employees who are so grateful to have left at this moment.”
“Am I the only one relieved we are going to stop wasting time and money over awards and schmooze fests? Thanks Marcel.”
“Marcel is just vaporware that will never live up to its billing.”
“Bonjour, Marcel! Can you connect me with a recruiter.”
So far, the only reader to weigh in via our tip box (which is still 100% anonymous, by the way) had a very succinct response: “FUCK YOU.”
Feel free to use your Facebook thing or the tip box on the right.
For GS&P’s “Daughters of the Evolution” Cannes Panel, the agency enlisted the world’s toughest critics. Not awards show judges panels or, uh, AgencySpy, but the daughters of female industry leaders.
Directed by Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles, Always’ “Like A Girl”), the video segment features the daughters of GS&P CCO Margaret Johnson, Army co-founder and CCO Pum Lefubure, Leo Burnett Canada CEO and North America CCO Judy John, Prettybird president Kerstin Lemhoff and R/GA U.S. CCO Chloe Gottlieb.
So what do they really think of mom? They all seem to agree that their moms “travel a lot,” and variously describe their mothers as “very bossy at home and at work” and “very intimidating” to friends. That said, they all seem to have a good deal of respect for their moms and the work they do. When asked about their favorite campaigns their moms have worked on, the girls mention Beyonce‘s “Formation” music video, anti-bullying PSA “I Am A Witness,” Always’ “Like A Girl” and H&M’s “She’s A Lady.”
It’s a cute segment, shining a light on female industry leaders who serve as strong role models for their daughters and advertising creatives alike, as well as the positive effects such campaigns as “Like A Girl” and “Love Has No Labels” are having on the younger generation. The segment also allows the kids to opine the negative side of having moms who work so much. (They tend to get “a little cranky” at times and are “always stressed out.”)
Perhaps as a result, only one of the daughters says she wants to be “a boss” like her mom, while the others are more interested in art, soccer, directing and becoming “a novelist that changes the world through education.”
Two emerging marketsThailand and Colombiawon their first Grand Prix awards at the main Cannes Lions festival, the first for an unusually-shaped soccer field and the second for repurposing old-fashioned public telephones to bring financial services to the poorest Colombians.
WHAT IT IS: Property development company AP Thailand won the Design Grand Prix by finding a creative use for vacant space to benefit the local community with the insight that a soccer field doesn’t have to be the traditional rectangle shape. Instead, an oddly-shaped soccer pitch was dropped into the middle of a city between tall buildings, giving kids a place to play and stay out of trouble.
Jet.com and R/GA’s New York office won the Grand Prix for Media for the e-commerce startup’s audacious “Innovating Saving” campaign.
WHAT IT IS: One highlight of the campaign was hijacking the Super Bowl, without paying Super Bowl TV ad prices, by doing an online commercial for Jet.com’s own “super bowls”. Key words and tagging made that spot more relevant than real Super Bowl ads. Other ads showed cost-saving ideas that didn’t work, like having a robot wrap things. And Jet.com, which was bought by Walmart last year for $3.3 billion, even told people to rethink what they shell out for the holidays, suggesting that they peg spending on friends and family to the social-media “likes” they gave. Jet.com has more than seven million registered users.
WHAT IT IS: The Adidas Originals “Original Is Never Finished” campaign, which featured a re-mixed, modernized version of the Frank Sinatra classic “My Way,” earned the Entertainment for Music Grand Prix. Created out of Johannes Leonardo and directed by RSA’s Terence Neale, the anthem spot illustrated the idea of originality as a work in progress. It juxtaposed creative and cultural legends with up-and-comers: it paired skateboard legend Gonz with French pro-skater Lucas Puig, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with young Lakers pro Brandon Ingram. The effort also features artist Petra Collins’ spin on Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and Snoop Dogg’s reinvention of his classic “Doggystyle” album cover. The wild “My Way” remix helps to dramatize and unify the dazzling array of imagery. The campaign also included three music videos that debuted online alongside the spot’s appearance during the Grammys, as well as social media takeovers.
Music company Human created the remix, with sound design via Q Department and sound mix from Sonic Union.
WHAT IT IS: A branded content campaign, “Beyond Money” from Santander Bank and created out of MRM/McCann Spain, earned the Entertainment Lions Grand Prix. The centerpiece of the effort is a sci-fi short film, “Cuanto, Mas All Del Dinero” (“How Much, Beyond Money”), directed by Kike Maillo. It tells the story of a woman named Lucia, played by Adriana Ugarte, who sells her most precious experiences. The film debuted in Spain with a Hollywood-style premier and sparked national conversation about the true value of money. The campaign targeted millennials and promoted the bank’s new offering to that generation. It led to Santander’s fastest sign-up rate in 160 years, and helped the company achieve 35% of its annual business goals in two weeks.
WHY IT WON: In a young category that’s going through rapid evolution, “The work that got picked as the Grand Prix is the most perfect example of a how a brand could make a statement about itself but also earn the precious time consumers are going to invest in it,” said Jury President P.J. Pereira, co-founder and chief creative officer of Pereira & O’Dell.
“What led us to ‘Beyond Money’ is that it was a great piece of film that integrated the brand in a truly seamless and meaningful way, but it didn’t just move the positioning of the brand forward. It actually moved the whole category of financial services forward by taking a brave step in getting people to really start questioning whether or not money was more important than experiences,” said juror Jason Xenopoulos, CEO & chief creative officer VML South Africa. “We felt It was an incredibly well-dramatized not just brand idea, but philosophical idea.”
Ivan Pollard is joining General Mills after more than a year of change in the marketing and media organization. The maker of Cheerios and Yoplait selected a new U.S. media agency, WPP’s Mindshare, in the fall of 2015. In 2016, it picked MDC Partners’ 72andSunny and Redscout as its primary U.S. creative agency, with Joan Creative, Erich & Kallman and The Community working on projects across its portfolio.
Chief Marketing Officer Ann Simonds and Chief Creative Officer Michael Fanuele left in recent months. But the marketing organization isn’t the only part of the company seeing major changes. General Mills elevated Jeff Harmening to the CEO role as of June 1, months after overhauling its global structure and cutting hundreds of positions. And later this month, the company will report fiscal 2017 results. It previously said it expected sales to drop 4% in the year, which ended in late May.
Pollard, who hails from England, holds a bachelor of science in physics from the University of Nottingham, and was an Ad Age Media Maven in 2013, officially joins General Mills as global chief marketing officer on July 10. He already lives in the Minneapolis area and had been traveling for work during his tenure at Coca-Cola.
Moves
ICYMI, General Mills named former Coca-Cola marketer Ivan Pollard as its global chief marketing officer. He spoke with Ad Age by phone about the new role.
Contributing: Jessica Wohl, Adrianne Pasquarelli, Jack Neff, Bradley Johnson
Campaign’s daily round-up of the key things to know from the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
Yesterday, Publicis Groupe told the world at large that it would be skipping all awards shows and other promotional campaigns for at least a year in the interest of focusing those resources on its upcoming “professional assistant” platform, Marcel (named for founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet).
The news came as a surprise to many, including pretty much every creative employee across the Publicis organization.
Some at Leo Burnett Chicago responded in a way that would almost certainly amuse their agency’s namesake: by replacing his name beside the door of its Windy City headquarters with a piece of paper reading “Marcel.”
To refresh your memory, here’s Burnett himself announcing his retirement in 1967 while explaining exactly when his successors should take his name off the door. You’ve almost certainly seen this one before, but it’s worth watching again.
See, that was a well-spoken man.
His conditions include: “When your main interest becomes a matter of size just to be big, rather than good, hard, wonderful work…When you lose your humility and become big shot Weisenheimers a little too big for your boots.”
According to the employees involved, an all-staff email from new CEO Arthur Sadoun arrived yesterday right before noon, leading to “total confusion” as they texted bosses and ultimately relied on press reports like our own to figure out what was going on.
“It blindsided everyone,” said a Leo Burnett staffer regarding the email in question, which included a link to the “very unfortunate” video in which Sadoun, Mark Tutssel and others announced the pending launch of Marcel.
“Creatives are confused and concerned,” the employee told us. “Why cut costs by cutting one of the industry’s biggest incentives to deliver great work? Is AI really going to help solve our clients’ problems? Do I really want to work on a Chinese brief from my desk in Chicago? The whole project is tone deaf and de-humanizing.”
According to this report, Leo Burnett management has yet to respond to staff concerns, because they’re all in Cannes trying to win awards.
No word on whether the “Marcel” sign still obscures the founder’s name as of this afternoon.
Written from reports by Ad Age’s correspondents in Cannes: Brian Braiker, Lindsay Stein, Ann-Christine Diaz, Laurel Wentz, Jack Neff and E.J. Schultz.
It’s only three weeks since Arthur Sadoun took over as president-CEO of Publicis Groupe, but he’s already made an impact — to the solar plexus of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. From his table at the Majestic, Sadoun said that the holding company would sit out the industry’s biggest creative event next year, as well as other awards programs and SXSW and CES for good measure. It was a statement that shook many in Cannes, including many Publicis staffers who had not been informed, or had just learned the news while at Cannes.
“Arthur likes to make things explode,” said one high-level Publicis executive who said he was shocked. After learning about the edict, he said he left his dinner table to make calls to his home country to break the news.
Fox Networks Group is following YouTube’s lead in rolling out six-second ads.
The media giant, whose TV channels include FX and the Fox broadcast network, announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that six-second ads will roll out across its digital and on-demand properties, where they will be unskippable, as they are on YouTube.
Fox plans to bring the short ads to linear TV as well, Fox said.
Facebook wants users to “lean back.” No, that’s not the sequel to Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In”; it’s how people watch TV, unlike the way they scroll through the News Feed.
For months, Facebook has been talking to its biggest media and publishing partners to introduce TV-worthy programming to the social network. Last week, names of new reality and scripted shows were reported in The Hollywood Reporter — the competition series “Last State Standing” and the comedy “Loosely Exactly Nicole,” late of MTV.
Now, Facebook is talking to brands about how video will evolve on the network, from low-quality, user-generated clips to TV-quality offerings that viewers sit back to watch, according to advertisers and media partners. Facebook hopes people will tune in to shows and watch for longer periods of time, rather than just stumble upon videos in the News Feed and quickly swipe away.
Written from reports by Ad Age’s correspondents in Cannes: Brian Braiker, Lindsay Stein, Ann-Christine Diaz, Laurel Wentz, Jack Neff and E.J. Schultz.
It’s only three weeks since Arthur Sadoun took over as president-CEO of Publicis Groupe, but he’s already made an impact — to the solar plexus of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. From his table at the Majestic, Sadoun said that the holding company would sit out the industry’s biggest creative event next year, as well as other awards programs and SXSW and CES for good measure. It was a statement that shook many in Cannes, including many Publicis staffers who had not been informed, or had just learned the news while at Cannes.
“Arthur likes to make things explode,” said one high-level Publicis executive who said he was shocked. After learning about the edict, he said he left his dinner table to make calls to his home country to break the news.
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