Cannes ad winners judged on results as well as creativity
CANNES, France -- Advertising going forward will be judged as much on big results as it is on big ideas at the world's biggest creativity competition, where, for the first time, winning entries are being based on business results.
Campaigns that won big Tuesday at the 56th Annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival: The Zimbabwean newspaper that used devalued currency in billboards, posters and flyers to help demonstrate economic hardships that have taken a toll on residents and newspaper circulation.
The campaign took a Grand Prix in the outdoor category and nearly won the Grand Prix in media. Instead it took a Gold Lion in the media competition. The Grand Prix for media went to a simple one-piece mailer for Kit Kat in Japan that built off a long-standing tradition to wish children well during final exams.
Media entries were scrutinized amid new criteria to demonstrate quantifiable results or get pulled out of the running. The new criteria also applied to direct and promotion competition but media is one of the most important categories at Cannes. It represents the strategy behind where ads appear and how they are used.
"The ones that got tossed out had not demonstrated or demonstrated little effectiveness," says Nick Brien, global president, CEO, Mediabrands, N.Y. "They were pure creative ideas that lacked media innovation."
Ads need to spur consumer action or reaction — whether it's buying a product, participating in the campaign by making it viral or being part of the audience or clicking through an ad.
The Kit Kat mailer was distributed in 22,000 Japanese post offices to reach the friends and families that send good, old-fashioned, hand-written notes through the mail at exam time. Kit Kat translated means Kitto Katsu — or surely win — and Nestle and agency JWT, Tokyo, saw the candy bar as an opportunity to wish children well or to "win" on exams.
The plan included Kit Kat displays in post offices and a one-piece mailer complete with postage, candy bar and a card on which to write a note. The campaign generated more than $11 million in free publicity and other business results that were undisclosed.
