Lucinda Sherborne’s take-outs from Cannes

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6 (1).jpgLucinda Sherborne is DDB New Zealand’s head of planning and attended the 2015 Cannes Lion Festival to judge in the Creative Effectiveness panel. Here are her take-outs from inside and outside the jury room.

And that’s a wrap!

2015 Cannes Lions. What a week. Advertising looks bloody good through the rosé tinted hue of the Cote D’Azur.  Man, have we feasted on the splendors of the creative world. All the greatest ideas, thinkers and egos on this planet come together to serve up one hell of an imagination-defying dish. It’s been dazzling, infectious, awe-inspiring, daunting and bombastic all at the same time.  

TAKE ONE: The noise around creativity for good is getting greater  

There is an increasing realisation that by creating a change or adding something to people’s lives, brands will add something to theirs. Unilever was one of the main proponents of this and believe the brands that will matter in the future will be the brands that have social and cultural substance. Summed up in sound bites such as “marketing for people not to people” and “turning purpose into purchase”.

The debate around pro-bono versus for-profit clients and creativity continues. And of course, with this comes the question what’s important to the world versus what’s important in the jury room.

TAKE TWO: There is a distinctive lack of women

It’s a startling fact that only 3% of the world’s creative are female, yet women buy 85% of consumer goods. Scary stuff when over the course of one awards night there were 75 creative’s counted that went up on stage, but only 10 of them were females.

It’s a well-discussed issue in the industry and it’s great to see the Lions Festival advancing in gender diversity with the introduction of the ‘Glass lion’ and the ‘See it Be it’ program.

TAKE THREE: Losing sight of why we’re here

But the theme that struck a real chord with me was the provocation that in a world of disruption, coupled with the fight for fame in the jury room, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important and what our purpose is as an industry. Our work has too many tricks that may look and sound great but it doesn’t mean it has any relevance to the man on the street. Too much focus on technology puts us at risk of turning into something we’re not. Yes we have to keep raising the creative standards and keep pushing for what’s possible when the tools of possibility are changing everyday, but we need to do it with respect for the human beings outside and remember we’re here to help solve problems.

DDB’s Amir Kassaei didn’t hold back any punches at his seminar when he stated that the industry needs to “Stop falling in love with phony ideas. We’re not the second Google or the second Facebook. We are the advertising business and we need to remind ourselves that our purpose is to find relevant truths and create influence for brands. If we are not focusing on true values, we will lose our soul”. Controversial but poignant stuff.

For this very reason the Creative Effectiveness category couldn’t be more critical for Cannes Lions and the industry in general. It spotlights our work and reminds us of what we do as an industry when we’re at our truest and most powerful. It seeks out and celebrates campaigns with the perfect mix of art and commerce. Creativity is the most powerful tool in business and it should never be separated.

TAKE FOUR: Inside the jurors room

As a member of this year’s Creative Effectiveness jury, I felt hugely privileged to hold the torch of responsibility in search of the work that held the highest intersection between creativity and effectiveness.  It’s a given we’re looking at great work seeing as we’re judging past Cannes Lions finalists and winners, but it’s a lot tougher looking for those that create real, meaningful, emotional and social change that transforms a client’s fortunes, the very reason we exist.

In addition to interrogating the results, we had one simple rule of thumb. What work would we have wanted to do ourselves; the work that makes us insanely jealous, the work that the world would have truly missed without it.

For this reason Volvo Trucks ‘Live test series’ campaign took out the Grand Prix. It was for trucks for God’s sake, but the work was a simple and brilliant way of turning a functional truth on its head. The qualitative and quantitative proof of sustained effect could have only been achieved with a campaign of such fame. What creative wouldn’t want to have done this work?  

The other two big winners further proved that creativity is far from cute. ‘The Bear and The Hare’ Christmas Campaign for John Lewis and Honey Maid’s ‘This is Wholesome’ were both awarded Gold Lions. Each of them in their different ways reaped significant business rewards for having the inventiveness and courage to shift the category paradigm with hugely emotional but ball-breaking work that captured the imagination, and the hearts, of the masses.

All three campaigns are such that that both creatives and strategists can celebrate. Not because they’re based on the latest technology, trends, platforms or pipelines, but because of the simple power of their ideas – good, old fashioned truths that connect to real life and people outside the jury room.  Lots of them.