In 48 hours it will all be over.  For some, it will be a celebration, for others it will be  the sad realization that they didn’t win at Cannes. 

This fancy table will be one of the many places that agency CEOs and clients will discuss why they did (or didn’t) win.  I’m sure some of us judges may be questioned or congratulated about a decision to two.  While our responsibility was very demanding, I’m very proud of the decisions we all made. 

As you know, the media competition here has gotten very competitive.  After viewing much of the 2,600 submissions, I can say that great work is being done in large and small markets all over the world.  Big advertisers like P&G, Coke, Samsung and Target are keeping their reputations up while other, smaller marketers are using their agility to design and implement things that are just wonderful. 

What’s my tip for succeeding at Cannes?  Here it goes: make sure you develop your media ideas together with your creative partner, make sure your idea comes our of the brand’s positioning and strategy, make the idea big (or seem important), make sure the idea is new (first time is best), make the idea unusual and most importatnly, make sure you have real results that demonstrate the idea worked. 

Watch for the annoucement of our winners. 

Steve

Our table on the last day of culling down the submissions

Yesterday was the last day of our “culling down” process.  We saw another 110 submissions.

So now that that process is over I do have some observations.  Some agencies are very smart about submitting.  Once they’ve created their case, they seem to submit it to several categories.  We’ve seen cases sometimes as much as three times.

This could either be brilliant or a waste of money.  Only the outcome will prove either way.

There are several ‘jurys’.  Mine took the longest to finish.  While some people weren’t happy about that, I was quite proud.  If agencies around the world submitted their best work, the least we can do is give it strong consideration.

I know that each of my juries gave each submission its proper time.

Ok, I’ve got to go.  Today is the first day of group debate.

They say this is the hard one!

Steve

Day two of judging. Wow, we’re all tired.

Today my group viewed submissions in the Corporate Category and the Integrated Media Category.  Once again, close to 200 submissions with a short lunch break.  It was interesting to view and discuss work from Brazil, Argentina, India, France, Germany, the USA and more with other media and advertising professionals.

While it was sunny and hot outside, our group kept our cool as we pushed through all of our submissions.  Everything was judged on 1. Strategy/Idea, 2. Creativity and 3. Results.  Even though (I’m sure) everyone read the rules for submitting work, it was amazing to us that some entries didn’t have convincing results.  What we and clients look for is straight business results.  Lacking that, it’s nice to see brand health metrics rise.  Finally, if none of that’s available, give us something….anything.

At the end of the day, we felt really good about our decisions and closed the book on another day of judging.

On a softer side, I was able to enjoy fine French dining at a fabulous restaurant called “Restaurant De Bacon”.  No it didn’t specialize in bacon.  It served some of the best seafood in the area with great wine all topped of with a Napoleon…of course.

Day three tomorrow….more notes to follow.

Steve

The Yachts at Cannes: Not for us but nice to look at

So, they take us to this beautiful place, Cannes, France.  Introduce us to top media professionals from around the world. Show us the beach, the yachts and treat us to delicious food.  Then the work starts.

Today we spent 9 hours judging submissions for the best creative media work globally.  My team judged almost 200 submissions.  I hear that there are over 2,000 total submissions.  Wow!

It’s really nice to see how media work from many countries looks.  It’s a big world but, the media practice is fairly consistent.

200 more tomorrow.  We’re all getting ready.

Yesterday Google revealed a new product that entices users through convenience: Google Wallet.

Wallet combines the phone and the credit card–two necessities that few, if any, leave the house without–into one tidy package.

The idea is to link credit cards virtually to phones, so that the phone becomes the only thing you need to grab before heading out of the house. To make purchases, the user simply taps the phone against a machine to pay. Google’s goal is not to eradicate credit cards but to eliminate their physical presence, making it more convenient for the user who has one less item to carry around. (It is more eco-friendly, too!) There is no transaction fee for now, so what does Google get out of this? Insight into consumer behavior and choices that can be used to inform other products like Google Offers.  Offers suggests relevant deals, coupons, and vouchers to users à la Groupon, the behemoth daily-deals site that Google failed to acquire last year.

To encourage greater participation and usage, Google stresses that Wallet is an open platform. A wise move considering Wallet is currently limited to one bank, one type of credit card, one mobile service provider, and one phone at launch this summer. If you do not meet all those requirements, you are stuck with carrying around your, well, wallet for now.

Once again Google is thinking big, but let’s see if it will widen its network enough for Wallet to truly take off.

Is the world obsessed with Facebook? Thank you to OnlineSchools for this infographic, check it out:

Via: Online Schools

Amazon Kindle has finally opened up its platform to advertisers. So now, there are two versions – ads, or no ads. However, as is the case with Pandora or with any “lite” version of an app where the ad supported version is free for download, the Kindle will still cost people money. Amazon is decreasing the price for the Kindle by $25, if the consumer is okay with seeing ads on a regular basis. I’m not impressed. $25 is a nice % discount, but it is not enough. As an advertiser, I love that there is another platform for me to reach my target market, however as an avid reader who has not gone Kindle yet, this will not convert me.

Back to me as an advertiser. While I commend Amazon for opening up an additional advertising touch point and another revenue stream, in order for an advertiser to get an ad into a Kindle, there are hoops to jump through. First, there is a minimum spend. This is partly due to the “hype” of advertising in the Kindle along side the operational cost of reformatting content to fit the platform and for measurability (impressions and clicks). While this may be common place, the minimum spend is not so minimum, and in most cases is equal to the maximum spend that most advertisers are willing to shell out for one publisher overall. The other issue is lead time. In a digital ad world where creative versioning based on learnings is happening in real time, Kindle advertising requires over a month to load. Not very progressive, and a huge deterrent for DR advertisers. Excuse me, Amazon, can you please address accountability. How can you segment my ad (demo, contextual, genre)? How many people will see it? What happens after the click? Can we use 3rd party validation?

While the platform is still new, take it as you will, I do have faith that these pain points will be fixed in due time – however, I am not sold just yet.

The results are in!  Hulu users chose their favorite Super Bowl ads in real time last night.  Volkswagen’s “The Force” took the number one spot.

Which one was your favorite?