Fresh new categories at Cannes?

Guest post by Tim Buesing - DCD at Publicis MOJO Sydney

Cannes has just wrapped, with the winners receiving well-deserved praise, commentary and analysis. Rather than adding onto that pile, I wanted to collect a very random mix of entries. I dug around the short lists in hope of finding the longest case study, an oddball entry, the most outrageous claim of results, something of a Tour de Monde of commercial creativity.

A double winner is “Fake it all” by Leo Burnett Beirut in the categories “Ridiculous Reach” and “Best use of an agency’s MD in a campaign”.

Despite the controversial claim of having reached 92% of all Lebanese, the facebook identity spoofing was a clever (if slightly freaky) way to contact influencers.

In “Feeding the online cat meme” Mother London made us all purr with pleasure via their “Happy Inside” work for IKEA. Given the web’s penchant for cute cats, it’s good to see someone give felines center stage.

Their online game was in the vein of Poke’s “Spot The Bull” and Gap’s “Reindeer Project” (predicting and tracking animals’ whereabouts) and their facebook page continues to buzz with cat owners sharing pictures of their loved ones.

Speaking of IKEA, a contender for next year’s Cannes festival will surely be IKEA 365, currently in its last installments. IKEA 365 uses fast turn around videos like “Old Spice - Responses”, a production style that make ordinary media planners’ and TV producers’ ears bleed.

In the category “Campaign mainly driven by a foreign accent” we have Renault’s “The Megane Experiment” by Publicis London

The videos proved hilarious and ‘The Megane Experiment’ was an ongoing social relationship between Claude, the people of Gisburn and facebook which ended only a week ago. Real time social media will keep on expanding documentary projects such as this one.

As “Video that feels more like a reading exercise” we have to hand it to Tribal DDB London with their (slightly dated) “Monopoly City Streets” for Hasbro (demo here). Monopoly’s work has nicely evolved with the times, as you can see by going back to earlier Adverblog posts from 2005 (SMS to get your rent paid) and 2007 (crowd sourcing new street names).

And lastly, after 2010’s Johnny Cash Project, this year’s “Best reference to a dead musician” goes to the “40 Day Bed In” by SRA Rushmore Madrid

I am a sucker for real-time, real-world interactions via online, even though they pose a huge challenge regarding talent, production and the mix of programmed and interactive content.

And if you have suggestions for additional categories for the 2012 Cannes Lions, Terry Savage would surely like to hear from you.