Cannes jury reveals the impossible truth about winning a lion.
Many people come to Cannes for the superstar keynote speakers. Sarah Jessica Parker and Kanye West made appearances this year while, crushingly, Aaron Sorkin cancelled at the last minute. Quite a few come to drink pink wine and trade gossip. And then there is a dedicated contingent who come for the awards, which is the reason Cannes exists in the first place.
This year, the organisers have provided a real treat specifically for people interested in trophies: a series of talks called “Jury Insights”. Each day, the jury from the previous night’s ceremony open up and talk about how they chose the work they did and (crucially) why some very, very good work that teams spent months working very, very hard to bring to life, simply didn’t make the cut.
First cab off the awards rank was the Promo and Activation Jury, who revealed probably more than they should have about the grueling (at 3200 entries this year, you better believe it was grueling), task of sorting the storytelling wheat from the in-store sampling chaff.
Here’s their advice on the all-important case study video:
- You’ve got 30, maybe 40 seconds to capture interest or you’re out.
- Put the insight and idea in the first half, demonstrate craft and results in the second (or you’re out)
- Don’t let your VO say: “And it worked!” (or you’re out)
- Don’t let your VO say: “Our brilliantly creative idea was…” (or you’re out) That’s for the jury to decide, not you.
- Spend more time refining the clarity of the case study narrative before you worry about making it pretty.
- But then spend plenty of time making it pretty (or you’re out)
The other thing that emerged from the session was the feeling that the thing that is really being judged are the judges themselves. They talked a lot about the scrutiny they felt their choices were under and even talked about the task as one of ‘curation’.
Judging the judges
The results for one category tend to get looked at as a whole and, because people are so interested in trends and patterns (shortcuts to meaning). As a result, the make-up of the group of awards can tend to skew individual decisions. If there are too many gongs going to tech-led ideas, for example, the judges felt it was important to balance it out with some decidedly analogue executions. Similarly with the mix of charity clients to big, corporate brands. And regions (can’t have too much from Brazil, for example). Not to mention holding companies or individual agency networks. And if your idea is an absolute screamer but happens to be very similar to another, completely unrelated piece of work from somewhere else on the globe (happens more than we care to admit), then both pieces cancel each other out and neither of you get a shiny statue.
For the agencies and creatives that expend sweat and cash to enter, this information is fascinating, but ultimately of no use. It’s tempting to try to plot a contrarian approach (make your work deliberately analogue, for example), to improve your chances of standing out, but you can’t possibly know in advance if the top-flight entries in a category are heavy on digital or analogue.
A Cannes Lion has always been a hard thing to win. With the scrutiny of the jury and the swelling number of entries every year, it’s not going to get any easier. Except if you’re the genii behind something as jaw-droppingly good as the #lookup work for British Airways. Six lions and a Grand Prix for the team at Ogilvy London, led on the suit side by a good mate of mine, Chris Slough, shows that it’s not impossible, just really, really hard.
Barrie Seppings covered the CannesLions Festival of Creativity for Ogilvydo.com where you can catch all of the #OgilvyCannes coverage
______________________________________________________________
About the Author: Barrie Seppings blogs about making things better – for clients, brands, agencies and humans. He is currently Regional Creative Director at Ogilvy Singapore and he likes boards surf, skate and snow. Follow him on the Twitter, connect on LinkedIn, or add him on Google+
(w2fm) what's in it for me? 