ANA Announces Multicultural Excellence Award Winners

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Today the Association of National Advertisers announced the winners of the 2013 Multicultural Excellence Awards. The Awards recognize ANA member companies and other marketers who produced outstanding multicultural advertising campaigns between June 2012 and June 2013.

The 2013 grand prize winner in each category will be announced at a ceremony during the ANA’s 15th Annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference. The event will take place November 3-5 in Los Angeles, CA at the JW Marriott Los Angeles.

The brand and agency winners in each of the nine categories are:

African-American
Chrysler 300 (Chrysler, LLC), GlobalHue
Miller Lite (MillerCoors), commonground
Walmart, Liquid Soul

Asian
AT&T Mobility, interTrend Communications
Marine Corps Recruiting Command, Uniworld Group
Wells Fargo, DAE Advertising

Digital Media
Lucky Charms (General Mills), Inc., McCann New York
Marine Corps Recruiting Command, Uniworld Group
Tide (Procter & Gamble), Burrell Communications Group

General Market
Jeep OSR (Chrysler, LLC), GlobalHue
Cheerios (General Mills), Inc., Saatchi & Saatchi
Wells Fargo, Acento Advertising, Muse, UM/MRM, DDB

Hispanic
Got Milk (California Milk Processor Board), Grupo Gallegos
Got Milk (California Milk Processor Board), Grupo Gallegos
PAMPERS (Procter & Gamble), Conill Advertising

LGBT
Allstate Insurance Company, Leo Burnett
American Express Company, Grand Central Marketing
Lucky Charms (General Mills), Inc., McCann New York

Print
City Year, Inc., Allen & Gerritsen
Indio Beer (Heineken USA), iNSPIRE!
U.S. Bank, Globalworks

Radio
Tecate (Heineken USA), iNSPIRE!
Obama for America, DOVE Marketing

Significant Results
Lucky Charms (General Mills), Inc., McCann New York
Miller Lite (MillerCoors), commonground
Toyota Avalon (Toyota), Burrell Communications

Sponsored by the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Committee, the awards were created to help raise awareness and recognition for the outstanding work being done in the areas of African-American, Asian, Hispanic and LGBT advertising. A portion of the proceeds collected will help fund scholarships for high-potential multicultural students who plan to pursue careers in advertising and/or marketing.

Advertising Week As Seen By A Bunch of Twenty-Somethings on X

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Next week is Advertising Week. Are you excited? Can you wait until Monday when it all begins? Do you need a promotional video to get you in the mood? San Francisco-based Mekanism is here to help with a hipster-ific take on the advertising business that celebrates the event’s 10th anniversary. If we didn’t know better, we’d think the entire industry was staffed by a bunch of 20-somethings who like to twirl around in a circle while enjoying X. Oh, wait.

Here’s Your Discount Code For 20% Off ad:tech New York

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If you work in marketing or advertising then you’re already aware ad:tech is the largest conference out there covering online marketing and advertising technology. Perhaps you’ve been. Perhaps you haven’t. If you have, then you know how beneficial it can be both from a networking and educational perspective. If you haven’t bee, see the previous sentence. The bottom line is you should go.

We’re not saying this because this promotion is part of media sponsor deal we have with ad:tech (to be clear, it is), rather it is because we have been to every ad:tech for the past ten years and can personally vouch for the benefits you will realize if you choose to attend. To make that decision a bit easier, we can offer you 20% off the registration fee if you use the discount code: NY13ADR20.

Seriously, register now. You’ll thank us later.

Havana Brown Does Affiliate Marketing

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Do you like Australian DJ, singer and dancer Havana Brown? Will you will be attending Affiliate Summit in Philadelphia August 18-20? Then you might be interested in knowing Brown, whose hit, We Run the Night, topped the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and hit number 26 on the U.S Billboard 100, will perform at the Clickbooth/MaxBounty/CPAWay Affiliate Nation party Monday, August 19.

The party will take place from 9PM to 1AM at Lit which is located at 460 North 2nd Street. Along with Brown, there will be dancers, performers and, of course, the all important open bar. We will be there taking picture of all the pretty people so don’t be shy. Find the guy with the camera and give him your best duck face!

Wanna go? RSVP here.

IAB Unleashes Best-Ever Description of Awards Show

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It’s out. Are you on the list? Yes, IAB is out with its list of 2013 MIXX Awards finalists. But before we get to the list, we simply have to share with you this marble-mouthed, buzzword bingo-laden description of the awards from IAB EVP and CMO David Doty who said, “IAB MIXX Awards are a vibrant compass and a revealing canvas for illustrating the expansion of the present boundaries of interactive marketing as they push into new creative and technological territory.”

WTF? And that’s not the end of it. He went on to say, “The ‘white heat’ generated by the nexus of campaign strategies, creative innovations, and consumer engagement makes this year’s awards shine brighter than ever. And while the 2013 IAB MIXX Awards celebrate outstanding achievement in digital marketing and advertising from the past year, they are really about pivoting to the future and unveiling the next iteration of creative online excellence.”

Holy shit! Are we recognizing ads or are we honoring the development of a disease-free, Elysium-like world on which everyone, including the losers left below on Earth, are forever saved?

Christ, we are so self-important sometimes. Anyway…

IAB MIXX AWARDS – 2013 FINALISTS

Tools, Tactics and Technologies Categories:

Augmented Reality (NEW)

BMW North America’s BMW i and kbs+ for “A Window Into the Near Future”

Cadillac and Fallon Worldwide for “Cadillac ATS vs The World 3D: Chalk Mural”

L’Oreal Maybelline, Brand Direct and Blippar for “Maybelline Colorshow Virtual Try-on”

Wonderbra and DigitasLBi France for “Wonderbra Decoder”

Brand Destination Site

BMW North America’s BMW ActiveE and kbs+ for “The Electronaut Effect”

Google Australia, M&C Saatchi’s Mark and North Kingdom for “Build With Chrome”

The Lincoln Motor Company and Hudson Rouge for “Hello Again: Beck 360° Experience”

Toyota Tundra and Saatchi & Saatchi LA for “Tundra Endeavour Campaign”

Branded Content

Bank of America’s Merrill Edge and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Face Retirement”

FIAT 500e and SapientNitro for “Environmentally Sexy”

Intel, Toshiba and Pereira & O’Dell for “The Beauty Inside”

Papermate and PHD for “World’s Most Stolen Pen”

PepsiCo and OMD for “Pepsi Max Test Drive”

Branded Mobile Application

Defence Force Recruiting, GPY&R Melbourne and VML for “Mobile Medic”

JetBlue Airways and ROKKAN for “The New JetBlue”

The CW Television Network and OMD for “Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine”

Wonderbra and DigitasLBi France for “Wonderbra Decoder”

Custom Mobile Rich Media Display (NEW)

BMW and Amobee for “BMW Accelerates Engagement with Immersive 3D Mobile Ads”

Hotels.com and Fetch for “Xtreme Booking”

Land Rover’s Range Rover and Wunderman for “Elements of a Modern Legend iAd”

Paramount Pictures’s Paranormal Activity 4, Joule, MEC, mNet, and Yahoo! for “PA4 – Fake Video Phone Call”

Custom Rich Media Display

Bank of America’s Merrill Edge and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Face Retirement”

HBO and PHD for “Cinemax Banshee Launch”

Homecenter Sodimac, Mayo and Draft FCB Chile for “5 Seconds”

Tourism New Zealand and Razorfish for “100% Middle-Earth, 100% Pure New Zealand”

Digital Out-of-Home

BMW North America’s BMW i and kbs+ for “A Window Into the Near Future”

The Coca-Cola Company and Leo Burnett Sydney and Chicago for “Small World Machines”

Samsung Telecommunications America and Razorfish for “Samsung Share To Go”

Save Our Sons, Reactive, Finch, Havas and Red Agency for “The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented”

Games

Discovery and OMD for “Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush Season 3”

Ford Motor Company, Team Detroit and Electronic Arts for “2013 FUSION – IT’S IN THE GAME”

Lowe’s and OMD for “MyLowe’s Sims Social”

Mondel?z International’s OREO, Carnival Labs and PikPok for “OREO: Twist, Lick, Dunk”

IAB Standard Mobile Rich Media Display (NEW)

Chevrolet, Zumobi, Commonwealth and Motor Trend for “Chevrolet Drives Unprecedented Mobile Engagement with Zumobi Rich Media Campaign”

FOX, Media Storm and Crisp Media for “Fox’s ‘The Following'”

Mercedes Benz and OgilvyOne Worldwide for “The Mercedes Benz A Class”

Renault and OMD for  “New Renault Clio”

IAB Standard Rich Media Display

Hyundai Santa Fe, TNT and INNOCEAN USA for “Hyundai x NBA – Beat The Pro”

J3/J&J and J3/AOL for “J&J Global Motherhood + Catapult Portrait Unit”

Miller Lite and DigitasLBi for “Fantasy Football Smack Talk”

realtor.com and Pereira & O’Dell for “Find it First online advertising”

Interactive Video

Hyundai Santa Fe and INNOCEAN USA for “Santa Fe Find Your 7”

Intel. Toshiba and Pereira & O’Dell for “The Beauty Inside”

Publicis Groupe and DigitasLBi France for “The Human YouTube Player”

REI and OMD for “REI Multisport Camping”

The Lincoln Motor Company and Hudson Rouge for “Hello Again: Beck 360° Experience”

Location-Based Advertising

American Express and DigitasLBi for “Welcome to Small Business Saturday”

Jarritos and GSD&M for “Jarritos SoCal Mobile Campaign”

Procter & Gamble Nordic’s Gillette Venus and Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm for “Tag the Weather”

Samsung’s Smart TV and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Smart-Fencing”

Mobile Brand Destination Site

Abercrombie & Fitch and R/GA for “The A&F Forecast”

American Honda Motor Co. and RPA for “Honda Mobile Site”

Gucci and Huge for “Gucci Mobile Website”

Hyundai Santa Fe and INNOCEAN USA for “Santa Fe Find Your 7”

Online Commercial

eBay and DigitasLBi for “eBay Thanks You”

Miller Lite and DigitasLBi for “Fantasy Football Smack Talk”

realtor.com and Pereira & O’Dell for “Find it First Online Advertising”

REI and OMD  for “REI Multisport Camping”

Search Marketing

Chevrolet and iProspect for “The 2014 Corvette Stingray Launch: An Omni-Channel Approach Accelerates Awareness”

Hilton Worldwide and iProspect for “Big Vision & Flawless Execution on Centralized and Collaborative Search”

Swedish Chamber of Commerce and R/GA Stockholm for “Get A Life!”

Volkswagen and MediaCom for “Get Happy, Get Views”

Tablet Marketing

Avis and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Avis — It’s Your Space”

Bose and Mullen for “Bose AE2w Bluetooth Headphones”

Discovery and OMD for “Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush Season 3”

Easy Way Language Center and Loducca for “Easy Way Subtitles”

Viral / Word-of-Mouth

Beats by Dr. Dre and R/GA London for “Beats by Dr. Dre #showyourcolor”

Kmart and Draftfcb Chicago for “Ship My Pants”

Frito-Lay and OMD for “Do Us a Flavor”

Mondel?z International’s OREO and 360i for “The OREO Blackout Tweet”

Prometheus and Ignition Interactive for “Prometheus Integrated Campaign”

Strategies and Objectives Categories:

Brand Awareness and Positioning

Big Boss Brewing Company and McKinney for “The Last Barfighter”

Clinique and Ignited, iProspect, and Gluttony for “Chubby Stick Moisturizing Lip Colour Balm”

PepsiCo and The Barbarian Group for “Pepsi NEXT: The Extra Hour”

Unilever’s Dove and Ryan Partnership for “Show Us Your Skin”

Branded Utility (NEW)

BMW North America’s BMW ActiveE and kbs+ for “The Electronaut Effect”

McCormick and R/GA for “McCormick FlavorPrint”

The Home Depot and SapientNitro for “The Home Depot Appliance Experience”

VicRoads and Visual Jazz Isobar for “Unlock The Grid”

Business-to-Business

American Express and DigitasLBi for “Welcome to Small Business Saturday”

Cisco Systems and Engauge, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Mindshare, and The First Movement    for “Cisco and the Internet of Everything”

Google Advertising Arts and 72andSunny for “Art, Copy & Code Film”

The UPS Store and Doner for “Small Business Gateway”

Clicks-to-Bricks (NEW)

American Express and DigitasLBi for “Welcome to Small Business Saturday”

David Jones and Visual Jazz Isobar for “Denim Seeks Soulmate”

Land Rover and Mindshare for “Driving Viewers to Dealers”

Taco Bell and DigitasLBi for “Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos”

Content Marketing (NEW)

The Coca-Cola Company and MRY for “Coca-Cola Move to the Beat of London 2012″”

HBO for “Game of Thrones Enhanced Digital Experience”

Nintendo of America and A Squared Group for “Wii U Video Challenge”

Samsung’s Galaxy Camera and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Life’s A Photo. Take It.”

Cross-Media Integration

American Express and DigitasLBi for “Welcome to Small Business Saturday”

GREENPEACE MEXICO and Circus DF for “TOXIC TOURS”

Sprint and Team Sprint for “Cinema”

Unilever’s Axe and BBH New York for “Susan Glenn”

Cross-Platform Digital

American Express and DigitasLBi for “Welcome to Small Business Saturday”

American Honda Motor Co. and RPA for “Surprising Monsters Calling Home”

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Universal Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Ignited and Amazon Media Group for “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax Theatrical and Home Entertainment Lifecycle Campaign””

Kia Motors and Initiative for “2013 Kia Motors Super Bowl Sorento Campaign ‘Space Babies'”

Direct Response and Lead Generation

BMW North America’s BMW M and kbs+ for “The Making of an M Print”

San Francisco Giants and MLB Advanced Media for “GIANT Strides in Online Ticket Sales”

Save Our Sons, Reactive, Finch, Havas, Red Agency for “The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented”

SEEK Volunteer and Leo Burnett Melbourne for “Volunteer to Promote Volunteering”

Mobile Advertising

Best Buy, CP+B and Razorfish for “Tap Tap Revenge, Back to Campus and Holiday Mobile Campaign”

Defence Force Recruiting, GPY&R Melbourne and VML for “Mobile Medic”

Discovery and OMD for “Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush Season 3”

Gatorade and OMD for “Gatorade Bolt! Mobile Gaming Integration”

Multicultural

GM’s Chevrolet, Verizon and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Mia Mundo (Season 1)”

Heineken USA, Dieste Inc and Cultur8 for “UEFA Champions League Epic Party”

Procter & Gamble’s Secret and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Secreteando”

Unilever’s Lifebuoy and SapientNitro for “Global Handwashing Day 2012”

Not for Profit / Public Service

Movember, Made Man and Break Media for “Movember 2012 Campaign”

SEEK Volunteer and Leo Burnett Melbourne for “Volunteer to promote volunteering”

Unilever’s Lifebuoy and SapientNitro for “Global Handwashing Day 2012”

United States Olympic Committee and VML and Y&R NY for “Raise Our Flag”

Product Launch

Activision and OMD for “Activision Call of Duty Black Ops II”

Adobe  and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for “Marketing Myths”

FIAT 500e and SapientNitro for “Environmentally Sexy”

Samsung’s Galaxy Camera and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Life’s A Photo. Take It.”

Social Marketing

Cole Haan and BBH New York for “#DontGoHome”

Kmart and Draftfcb Chicago for “Ship My Pants”

Microsoft’sBing and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Most Shareworthy”

Mondel?z International’s OREO and 360i for “OREO Daily Twist”

Special Innovation Category – Can’t Be Contained! (NEW)

Big Boss Brewing Company and McKinney for “The Last Barfighter”

The Coca-Cola Company and Leo Burnett Sydney and Chicago for “Small World Machines”

ESPN’s X Games and SapientNitro for “The HypeMeter”

Newsweek and Hill Holliday for “Mad Men”

Procter & Gamble’s Duracell and Starcom MediaVest Group for “Do You Want Duracell With That?”

Prometheus and Ignition Interactive for “Prometheus Integrated Campaign”

The CW Television Network and OMD for “The CW Network Live Twitter Feed in a Magazine”

Lowe’s, Vicks, Scottrade, Snickers, Visa and OMD and BBDO (Lowe’s); SMG United and Possible Media (Vicks); Markit on Demand (Scottrade); Digitas and BBDO (Snickers);and OMD and Proximity (Visa) for “Yahoo! Smart Ads for Fantasy Football”

Walt Disney Pictures, Crackle,Innovid and 4D for “cRoll Oz The Great and Powerful Interactive Video Campaign”

Havana Brown to Perform at Affiliate Summit in Philadelphia

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If you will be attending Affiliate Summit in Philadelphia August 18-20 (we will be), you might be interested in knowing Australian DJ, singer and dancer Havana Brown, whose hit, We Run the Night, topped the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart and hit number 26 on the U.S Billboard 100, will perform at the Clickbooth/MaxBounty/CPAWay Affiliate Nation party Monday, August 19.

The party will take place from 9PM to 1AM at Lit which is located at 460 North 2nd Street. Along with Brown, there will be dancers, performers and, of course, the all important open bar.

Wanna go? RSVP here.

Effies Promotion Weeds Out Bullshit With Polygraph Tests

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To hammer home the point The Effies are all about results and not Festival of Creativity-style Cannes Lions which honor work just because its creative, New Zealand agency Whybin\TBWA created a series of videos in which three New Zealand creative directors undergo polygraph tests. The work is part of the Results Don’t Lie campaign for the New Zealand Effies.

Participating in the videos are Y&R ECD Josh Moore, Colenso BBDO ECD Steve Cochran and M&C Saatchi ECD Dave King among others. In each video, the participants are asked several routine life questions and then questions about their work and the Effies specifically.

Of the genesis behind the campaign, Whybib\TBWA CCO Toby Talbot said,”Blame it on the increased importance of the two minute awards video. Blame it on scam ads. Blame it on the myriad categories at Cannes. Whatever the reason, hype and puffery has crept into so many creative award entries that the truth can become a little, how can I put it, distorted at times. The Effies, in contrast, is impervious to hyperbole because it relies so much on hard facts, data and concrete results. And results, as they say, don’t lie.”

There will be eight videos in all with an initial three released today. All the videos will be housed at ResultsDontLie.co.nz.

As part of the campaign, which will release videos leading up to the night of the awards, the polygraph examiner who conducted the video interviews, Gavin Wilson, will appear onstage during the awards and tests some of New Zealand’s biggest names in advertising live.

Intro:

Josh Moore:

Steve Cochran:

Dave King:

Omnicom, WPP Host This Years’ Post-Cannes Pissing Match

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As is always the case each year following the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, a “scandal” has erupted. This year it’s between Omnicom and WPP with the former claiming the latter is breaking rules by upping — sans Cannes certification — GroupM award claims from 16 on June 20 to 45 on June 27.

While all involved agencies to need to be listed at the time the work is submitted, GroupM says Cannes Lions rules also allow for agencies to be added to winning entries after the fact allowing for the occasional oversight. GroupM claims the math will makes sense when the official revised winners list is released later this month.

But Omnicom CEO Mainardo de Nardis won’t have any of it claiming GroupM “decided to rewrite history after the event making a mockery of the whole thing.”

de Nardis has reached out to Cannes Lions CEO Philip Thomas and Chairman Terry Savage for clarification and for them to decide who’s right.

‘Dumb Ways to Die’ Wins Cannes Lion Integrated Grand Prix

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Well it was pretty clear this was going to happen and it did. “Dumb Ways to Die,” created by McCann for Melbourne Metro Trains Melbourne has won the Canes Lion Integrated Grand Prix, its fifth Grand Prix this week. The work is said to have been the most shared PSA in history and is attributed to reducing train accidents and deaths by 21%.

The integrated campaign included the famed video, radio, print, outdoor and a top ten song on iTunes. Hell, my daughter’s friends are singing it. Now that’s a serious cultural achievement let along an advertising achievement.

In other news out of Cannes tonight, Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches from Ogilvy Sao Paulo won a Titanium Grand Prix, Nike’s Find Your Greatness from W+K Portland and AKQA London won a Titanium, Samsung Life Insurance’s Bridge of Life from Che Worldwide Seoul won a Titanium, Christians + Muslims for Government of Republic of Macedonia from Y&R won a Titanium, Prudential’s Challenge Lab from Droga5 New York won a Titanium, P&G’s Proud Sponsors of Moms from W+K Portland won Integrated Gold, Intel and Toshiba’s The Beauty Inside from Pereira & O’Dell won Branded Content Grand Prix.

AdWeek has a full list of Titanium and Integrated, Film, Film Craft and Branded Content winners here.

Women Make Up Just 22% of Cannes Lions Jurers

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Hollie Rapello who pens the Why Moms Rule blog took it upon herself to examine female representation on Cannes Lions Juries. Overall, there are just 70 women serving on juries as compared to 248 men, a 22% representation.

Only one jury, Creative Effectiveness, has equal representation with 8 men and 8 woman.

The juries with the least number of women include Mobile with just one women to 12 and both Innovation and Film Craft with just one woman to nine men each.

While women have certainly made inroads in the marketing and advertising space, it would seem this is not fairly represented in jury make up. When upwards of 70% of household spending in controlled by women, according to The Boston Consulting Group, it would seem all that more important to have women included in the judging of work that is developed to reach them.

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AKQA Announces Future Lions Winners

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AKQA has announced the winners of its annual Future Lions competition at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France today. Winners of the Future Lions, which celebrates forward-thinking ideas for brands without media, technology or audience constraints, can be seen below. Stellar work.

Hosting this year’s Future Lions ceremony was by James Hilton, co-founder and CCO, and Ajaz Ahmed, AKQA’s founder and CEO.

Of the awards, Hilton said: “Future Lions, in its eighth year, has yet again showcased five incredible ideas that inspire and impress. Throughout all the entries submitted, we saw a clear desire to provide tangible benefit to the audience. By applying technology and creative thinking to a range of problems, Future Lions 2013 winners have demonstrated the power and impact brands can have when they make people’s lives better.”

AKQA Art Director Andrew Diprose, who took to the stage to present the School of the Year trophy, added, “I’ve been blown away by standard of the finalists for this year’s Future Lions. WIRED celebrates fresh ideas and disruptive thinking, and it’s so great to see this coming through with the next generation of creatives.”

This year’s entries were judged by AKQA’s Creative Council: Brendan DiBona, Duan Evans, James Hilton, Johan Vakidis, Nick Turner, and Rei Inamoto – and other guest judges.

Awaken by Amazon by Konomi Tashiro: Tokyo Institute of Technology; Tatsuki Tatara,
Kenji Shimo and Taichi Nihei: Keio University; Tomoki Hayashida: Waseda University, Japan

Editorialist by Alexander Norling and Sara Uhelski: Miami Ad School San Francisco, USA

IBM Project Accel by Jarrett Jamison and Verenice Lopez: The Creative Circus, USA

Keepit by Alejandro Ladeveze and Caroline Escobar: Miami Ad School Hamburg, Germany

The Pebble: Sense Danger by Thomas Bender and Thomas Corcoran: School of Communication Arts 2.0, UK

Red Trousers the New Trend at Cannes

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Sapient Nitro is out with its second Cannes-themed inforgraphic, each of which highlights a decade of advertising memes and themes. What we have today, is a look at the sixties and, well, the fact that lots of guys now where red pants. Oh and the fact that Paula Green was a rockstar creative in the 1960’s.

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How Do Cannes and SXSW Compare and Contrast?

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Written in March following SXSW in Austin

While we knew this was the case for several years now, SXSW Interactive has become a huge event generating conversation the world over. This year’s event generated 1.1 million tweets in 5 five days across 200 countries and 19 languages.

Social media monitoring company Synthesio created an infographic summarizing global social media conversation about the Austin, Texas event. Without surprise, the U.S generated the most (71%) conversation followed by the UK (4.6%) and Canada (4.4%).

Some say SXSW is the new Cannes. In some respects, it is. As the advertising industry moves more towards technology and content solutions versus Super Bowl-style creative solutions, this shift in mentality may make sense. But it will be a very long while before the advertising industry gives up its Rose-filled afternoons on the Carlton Terrace or the massive beach parties that occur every night which, by the way, put even the best parties at SXSW to shame.

But parties are not the primary reason to attend a conference or festival. It’s to connect with people, ideas and technologies that fuel a different sort of creativity. A creativity that results in conception of technologies and content that are of use to consumers who have certain needs and have gone looking for solutions to address those needs.

Of course, that’s not to say “regular” advertising doesn’t attempt to address people’s needs. It does. It’s just far less efficient than technology or content-based solutions.

Everyone has heard of Nike Fuelband. It’s the classic example of technology put to use to create a product that serves the specific needs of a certain set of people. But it’s not an ad. It’s a product. It’s also a product that does a pretty good job advertising the Nike brand name without beating one over the head with an interruptive-style commercial.

Everyone has heard of content marketing. Ever since the original Yahoo! was born (and probably before), people have been able to turn to the internet when they have a need. If a brand has well-SEO’d content available to that information seeker, that brand is far more likely to draw that person into its acquisition funnel than a brand that doesn’t.

That, of course, is one of the pillars of inbound marketing; the creation of content that educates, informs and satiates the needs and wants of consumers. It also includes SEO, social media, lead management, lead nurturing, email marketing, marketing automation and more.

The days of Cannes-style industry celebration may be limited. While some slam SXSW for getting too big and promise they won’t be back next year, we think they will. Other wise, they may be stuck alone on the Carlton Terrace drinking Rose and watching the tumbleweeds roll down the Croisette.

However, for SXSW to become the new Cannes, it simply must improve programming. With hundreds of over overlapping panels chosen, mostly, by popular vote resulting in a very high percentage of lame ass flops, the event comes nowhere near the high quality, highly curated content of Cannes. At Cannes, there are far fewer panels but they are of the highest quality and well worth attending either to educate or to inspire.

And inspiration is a powerful thing. Inspiration can lead to the creation of amazing things. And amazing things have a far better chance of influencing people than a better way to get a Highlight of where your friends are.

That said, Cannes places a lot of emphasis on creativity for creativity’s sake. In one sense, that’s not bad. After all, creativity fuels the development of wonderful things that can result in the development of killer products and services. On the other hand, winning a Gold Cannes Lion, in some respects, just means your work was prettier and more “creative” than everyone else’s.

But as we said before, Cannes has killer content that can truly inspire. It’s not just about the awards. In a nutshell, Cannes is a well-oiled machine with a highly specific agenda. SXSW, conversely, is looser, more egalitarian and frenetic. Both styles have their advantages. And disadvantages.

What are your thoughts? How are SXSW similar? How are they different?

Adrants is Back. Does Anyone Care? #CannesLions

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So yesterday — actually Sunday night — some witty soul (and I use that phrase ever so graciously) decided it would be fun to hack Adrants on the eve of Cannes Lions making it impossible for us to share with you all the event’s goodness. Well. we’re back.

But does it really matter? Does anyone really care? When we have AdWeek’s Tim Nudd and Gabriel Beltrone killing it in Cannes, an entire army of reporters from Ad Age, stellar tweets from Ogilvy, a One Question video series from Advertising Week, live coverage from Campaign and PR Week and the #canneslions Twitter hashtag which — if you allowed yourself — you could stare at 24/7…do we really need Adrants?

Two years ago, I was in Cannes on Yahoo’s dime to cover the event for the brand’s Scene publication. I’d like to think we (myself along with former Adrants Editor Angela Natividad and Adland’s Ask Wappling) did a great job encapsulating the week’s activity. Last year, I couch-surfed Cannes using Storify to compile all manner of content to share with those not fortunate enough to enjoy La Croisette for a week. This year, I was game for the same. But this hack — combined with the increasing proliferation of event coverage — has sort of taken the wind out of my sails.

In two weeks, I’ll be sitting on the beach on Cape Cod hopefully without a care in the world. But, honestly, I have a sneaking suspicion I won’t yet have recovered from the regret I now feel for both not having been in Cannes this year and, as well, realizing, it’s not as easy as it once was for Adrants to wield the weight it once had in this industry.

As it should be, everyone (brand and individual) now has their own soapbox. Who really needs the media when everyone with a blog or a Twitter account can report and comment on anything en mass? Yes, analysis and reflection are still important but when most never read what they retweet, what’s the point? Why bother? Why go to all the effort of attempting to create valuable content when all today’s metrics care about are likes, retweets, pins, plusses, shares, etc.?

While Adrants has gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers, it has also seen a decline in site visits. Part of this, of course, is due to Google fuckery but I’d venture to say a significant portion of this decline is due to the fact people simply never visit the site. They just see the headline on Twitter, retweet it and move on. Or, of course, our content could just suck.

I’m certainly not saying everyone has turned into a mindless social media savant but it’s a little difficult to remain motivated in a world where Mashable rewrites the same story five times a day with a different headline just to garner love and traffic from Google. Or when Business Insider writes wildly overblow/impossible to ignore headlines that have little to do with the actual story. Or when every brand and agency realizes (correctly) that they should be creating their own content rather than rely on the media to do it for them. Is it any wonder people just retweet stuff without reading? There’s simply too much to consume.

Now I’m not bitter. Well…maybe just a little. I’m sure I’ll continue to share my voice with those who care. Even with those who just want to retweet the headlines. No, really, that’s OK. But in the ten plus years of Adrants’ existence, we’ve gone from “Adrants can make or break your campaign” (yes, someone actually said that) to a has-been, also-ran entity afloat in a sea of similar content fueled with financial muscle with which we simply can not compete.

We think Bob Garfield got out of this rat race just in time.

Sapient Nitro to Capture Cannes With Daily Infographics

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Following its efforts last year, Sapient Nitro has again teamed with Cannes Lions to bring us a daily inforgraphic summarizing events and trends during the week-long event in Cannes, France which kicks off this weekend. There will be six inforgraphics in total and each will be in celebration of the event’s 60th anniversary.

The first infographic is already out and takes a look at past year’s highlights including the fact just 130 delegates attended the event in 1954. How quaint.

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Future Lion Winners Need Your Help Getting to Cannes

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Several young creatives at the Creative Circus just won the Cannes Future Lion award. Unfortunately, the team cannot afford to go to Cannes and accept their award in person. The creatives are willing to wear the logos of sponsors all over the Cannes festival. Total amount of funds that need to be raised is $20,000 for all 5 team members to get to attend.

Remember the first time you went to Cannes? Come on, you know you do. And you know you were starry eyed and all gaga prancing up and down Le Croisette. Give these budding young creatives a chance to experience all that. So who’s in? Anyone want to sponsor these budding creatives? If so, head over here and hook them up.

Busta Rhymes Will Perform At Affiliate Summit

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It’s that time again. Well, it will be come August when the The Affiliate Ball returns to Affiliate Summit which will take place in Philadelphia. 11 time Grammy nominated, hip hop artist, Busta Rhymes will be the headliner. Fresh off his recent signing with Cash Money Records, and smash hit ” Look At Me Now,” Busta Rhymes will share his classic hits as well as his new hits with attendees of this year’s Affiliate Summit.

As always, The Affiliate Ball will have surprise guests as well as they will be presenting more “AFFY Awards”.

The AFFY Awards are presented to a handful of affiliate industry peers in recognition for their outstanding internet achievement. Last year’s Affiliate Ball had Ice-T & Coco hosting the awards. This year’s venue has the capacity for invited 1000 guests, which makes this it’s smallest venue yet. So RSVP soon if you want to go.

Past artists of the Affiliate Ball include: Nelly, Big Boi of Outkast, Three 6 Mafia, Doug E Fresh, MixMaster Mike of the Beastie Boys, Ice-T and Coco, Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Coolio and many more.

For current sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@affiliateball.com

Headlining sponsors are SocietyInvite.com and OasisAds.com.

Maurice Levy Wants Your Cannes Lions Vote

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Following the Cannes Lions announcement the organization would live stream one sessions per day, it didn’t take long for agencies to begin begging for votes so that their session would be the chosen one to stream.

Publicis Groupe head honcho Maurice Levy will be sitting down with Heineken CEO and Chairman of the Board Jean-Francois Van Boxmeer (damn, does that sound pretentious!) to discuss, well, beer and other fun stuff. The pair will be joined by Heineken Global CMO Alexis Nasard.

Today, we received am email urging us to VOTE NOW for the panel. If you are so inclined, you can do that here.

Personal Assistent Offers to Save Your Ass During Cannes

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As Cannes Lions approaches, you may begin feeling a bit of stress over how you’re going to drink all that rose and juggle all your oficial responsibilities with aplomb. What you need is a personal assistent to make sure you covered when you’re too drunk to explain how you lost your hotel room key or that things are handled with discretion when you roll over in the morning and have no idea who is laying next to you in bed.

In return for a Cannes Young Lions pass and accommodation, this eager creative student promises to keep you out of trouble and focused. Watch the video below and head over to the Assistant De Cannes Lion Facebook page to find out more.

Cannes Lions to Live Stream Sessions

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What the? A livestream from Cannes? What’s up with that? Isn’t the entire point to waste shitloads of money traveling to Cannes, France for a week to bask in the sunshine and drink Rose on the Carlton Terrace (and shitty beer at the Gutter Bar) on the company dime? How the hell are brands and agencies going to waste all this boondoggle money if we don’t even have to go?

Well now don’t be stupid. Cannes Lions will not be livestreaming the entire thing and even if they did the experience would never come close to actually attending — which we can say from experience.

As part of a deal with YouTube and Mindshare, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced it will livestream one session per day on a specially branded YouTube channel. Beginning May 24, people will have the chance to vote on which sessions they would like to see livestreamed.

Of the move, Lions Festival CEO Philip Thomas said, “Every year Cannes Lions brings global speakers to its stage and showcases outstanding content that is thought provoking, inspirational and forward-thinking. We’re excited to be taking this live, offering a taste of the Cannes experience to those that are unable to make it to the South of France.”

If you work in marketing or advertising, you should attend Cannes Lions at least once in your career. It is a one-of-a-kind experience that you will never forget.