“…Our approach towards communications is that we don’t really talk about ourselves too much. Rather, we focus on what we do — the events we create and produce and the athletes we support — versus who we are. With this guiding principal, we do not submit for awards very often.” Patrice Radden Director of Corporate Communications Red Bull Before we start, it’s worth noting that Cannes could have been very different this year if Red Bull had entered. Stratos was an idea with great risk and a big payoff.
THE BEAUTY INSIDE Beauty Inside is perhaps the most perfect idea I’ve ever come across. When judging this year, we saw a lot of great advertising that was not inherently and absolutely linked back to a brand. You could change car brands or sports shoe brands and the campaign “still worked” because it was category speciﬁc and not speciﬁc to the brand. Beauty Inside stands out because the idea is absolutely perfect for Intel and could not be be owned by anyone else. It’s supported by the most amazing craft and incredibly engaging storytelling.
RISK THE IDEA OREO DAILY TWIST Oreo highlights a different kind of risk. In order to deliver breakthrough communication they changed the client/agency model so that they could deliver a perfectly executed real time and reactive campaign over 100 days. What’s great is that real time doesn’t mean “quick and dirty”. The craft is ﬂawless.
It seemed that there was a kick back on gadgets and high tech and some of the most interesting ideas were beautifully crafted low tech solutions. I love IBM’s Ads with a purpose which picked up the Grand Prix in outdoor. It’s great to see a hi-tech company not afraid to use low-tech means to get people talking about a very hi-tech solution (smart cities).
TXTBKS The mobile grand prix didn’t go to a whizzy new smart phone app. Instead, it went to an idea that transformed analogue phones into e-readers and old SIM cards into a new type of text book for school kids in the Philippines. How often does a Telecoms company leverage old analogue technology?
STORIES FOR EVERY JOURNEY Qantas treats it’s most privileged frequent ﬂyers with a special series of books purpose designed for the ﬂight times of key Qantas routes. Qantas took on a risk on books having high value for busy, tech-addicted clients.
MAKE THE POLITICIANS WORK This idea is very simple, but very effective. It really shows the importance of context. Potholes in Russia were hijacked and turned into chalk portraits of Russian Politicians. Beside each portrait there was a quote or failed promise from that particular politician concerning the state of the road. Politicians were quick to repair their image and reputation, and so accordingly also ﬁx the road. It’s risky to play with the public image of political ﬁgures in Russia.
HUMAN YOUTUBE PLAYER Maurice Levy hijacked the YouTube player functionality to produce a very human (and low- tech) experience. The speech was recorded over 30 times so that the Publicis Groupe CEO could personally interpret each Youtube player command on the ﬂy. The risk was to be ﬁred if it ﬂopped.
CLOUDS OVER CUBA RISK IDEAS THAT TELL STORIES GOLD Clouds Over Cuba shows us what “Cyber” can do at it’s best. It’s industry changing and has redeﬁned the potential of digital storytelling. Apart from taking a risk on the production in order to innovate a new type of storytelling they also risked mixing ﬁction and history to make the story more compelling.
Nike picked up a Titanium Lion for their brand campaign during the Olypics. By not being an ofﬁcial sponsor they risked fan disappointment and visibility. The risk paid off as they outperformed ofﬁcial Olympic sponsors +200%.