Welcome to the final edition of our Cannes Today newsletter. For real-time updates, follow our live blog. See all our coverage here and click here for a recap of Day 4. Thank you for reading and safe travels to all of you making your way home from the festival.
For the win
For agencies and their holding companies, it’s hard to stand out at Cannes. But Stagwell—the owner of agencies such as Anomaly, 72andSunny, Doner and Gale—found a winning formula this week with its Sport Beach. The activation featured 23 sports and drew a range of big-name athletes who acted as referees and participated in programming, including retired NBA player Carmelo Anthony and former tennis star Maria Sharapova. Stagwell also lured sponsors such as Wilson Sporting Goods and Gatorade to provide sports equipment, drinks and more.
Read more from Ad Age’s Brian Bonillia on how it all came together.
BBDO’s trophy haul
But when it comes to Grand Prix recognition, Omnicom’s BBDO was the winningest agency network this week. It got four of the big trophies via work from AlmapBBDO, Colenso BBDO, Impact BBDO and its ??CHEP Network. Gut, McCann and Apple’s in-house marketing team tied for second with three Grand Prix apiece.
But the biggest single win goes to The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song, which on Friday picked up the Grand Prix in the coveted Dan Wieden Titanium Lions category for its work to help Tuvalu legally create a fully digital version of itself. It is aimed at safeguarding Tuvalu’s culture and sovereignty in the event of territory loss and displacement due to climate change. Ad Age’s Tim Nudd has more on the winning campaign.
Other Friday winners included:
See all Grand Prix winners here.
Apple’s agency plug
When he wasn’t collecting trophies, Apple’s Tor Myhren was sharing marketing tips and tricks. Myhren, who leads Apple’s advertising and marketing, shared advice during a Thursday presentation to a packed house. The former Grey Worldwide creative leader gave a shout-out to agencies, calling their outsider status a “secret weapon” for brands. That was surely welcome praise for agency people, who endured plenty of talk this week about non-humans—as in AI. Nudd sums up all of Myhren’s tips here.
Number of the day
2%: The percentage of domestic violence cases that get reported to police in South Korea. The stat is at the heart of the “Knock Knock” campaign for the Korean National Police Agency by Cheil Worldwide in Seoul that won the Glass Lion for Change today.
Quotable
“There have been times where the agency and the brand are trying to go right, but I’m trying to go left. That stuff has to be worked out the very first meeting before you get the job.”—Spike Lee, on fighting for his artistic power when working on a project.
“Think about all the time we spent talking about the metaverse at Cannes last year. Imagine if we spent that time trying to cure cancer. As an industry, we chase these shiny objects when these dull diseases are right in front of us.”—Doug Rozen, CEO of Dentsu Americas, during a private lunch panel at Microsoft Beach, aiming to destigmatize cancer in the workplace.
