Hasta La Creative!

Tonight the final and arguably most coveted honors will be handed out at the Cannes ad festival, among them the Titanium/Integrated Lions. I’ve had the honor of serving on that jury — alongside luminaries like the jury president, Wieden & Kennedy Founder Dan Wieden and BBDO top creative David Lubars — with the responsibility for recognizing the industry’s best examples of breakthrough ideas, like last year’s Nike Fuelband.

I must admit I came into the judging process thinking we’d be looking for the piece that was going to mark a step up for advertising, something that really signified the progress the industry has made over the last year. A couple days spent watching case study after case study, however, made it clear that we need to think about how all this creative energy is being spent.

Somewhere along the way the case-study film, with its penchant for big, meaningless results, has gained too much influence. The need to create value for consumers is felt more acutely than ever, but still so much of our efforts are about spinning the fantasy that there are millions of people out there waiting idly to engage with brands. These case studies suggest that the public will follow a brand story with the same diligence a jury does a case study film.

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