Are we listening?

In his welcome address, creative circle chair, Carl Willoughby, pointed out that while South Africans have a reputation for ‘punching above our weight’ in so many areas, this year at Cannes we punched ‘below our weight’ going on to quote George Bryant CCO of Golin London that “It’s amazing what failure can teach you when you listen.”

In his presentation, Keith Manning, ECD TBWA Hunt Lascaris JHB and judge in the Cannes Direct Lions category, shared that something that you hear a lot from clients is that ‘agencies just want to win awards’. 

While this may not be entirely true, Manning went on to say that the truth is that ‘brands that win at Cannes Lions are the best performing businesses in the world’.

This was backed up by Ann Nurock, Africa partner of relationship audits, who has built a reputation around the world for trend insights, reiterating that the brands that win at Cannes are some of the world’s most valuable, loved and admired brands. 

Disregarding this inevitable ongoing debate around whether industry awards are even important, there is still much we can learn from the principles and approach to the award-winning thinking, imperative to business success and growth in our region.

Award-winning thinking not necessarily only award entering? 

For South Africans heading into a phase of economic recovery, nation building or nation rebuilding will involve deploying every tool we have at our disposal. Creativity is a powerful tool. According to Manning in this regard South Africans should be killing it at Cannes, people all over the world recognise that we have some of the world’s best and amazing creative talent. 

The world’s best practice case studies can teach us a lot about harnessing this excellence for reputation, growth and job creation.

An antidote to dull

Some of Ann Nurock’s insights seem the simplest –  such as consumers around the world expect marketing to be “anti-dull” and are looking to business to play a meaningful role in their lives. 

How do we unpack these truths? How to use our creative resources to ensure it is our SA brands that are among the world’s best loved, admired and most importantly valuable brands, was the general theme of the Full Circles sessions.

There are an infinite number of ways in which brands can play meaningful roles in consumers lives, from influencing societal problems or just changing the game in dull categories such as pharmaceutical, food and beverages, as we have seen repeatedly by award winning brands such as Heinz Coca-Cola, Dramamine, Coors and so on.

As a judge in the Cannes Direct Lions category, Manning and indeed all the speakers had hit home that in order to overcome consumer indifference creative solutions should make an emotional connection – this may be by being involving, breakthrough in a category, touching, humorous or unexpected.

Unexpected

Unexpected and involving in the extreme is the award winning Burger King Brazil, Bald Thru campaign. but Demonstrating so clearly how breakthrough thinking a category gets resulting breakthrough awareness. Sure the idea is ingenious – linking from male pattern baldness to drive through takeaway ( go-figure), but as Manning points out, what impresses most is the client’s commitment to fully support the idea – to ensure the necessary organisational buy-in that will give the idea full traction is when client support, commitment and yes love, for their brands, really shows. 

If it’s not balanced with support.. And there’s lots of places that people can support the campaign … and clients, if you feel like I’m challenging you, I am.

Keith Manning, ECD TBWA Hunt Lascaris JHB

Manning’s advice: “Find an agency that is obsessive over your brand,” adding how South Africa as a region should “be out there killing it, because we have the capability.”

“You’ve got to make people feel something”

Judging the outdoor OOH category, which according to Ogilvy ECD, Camilla Clerke, is defined as “everything that isn’t advertised indoors”, means there is no shortage of entries in this category, 2,053 in to be exact. Another long night’s judging at the Palais.

You’ve got to make people feel something. Make people angry. Make them sad. Make them happy. Just elicit a feeling, a reaction, something that becomes memorable. 

Camilla Clerke, ECD, Ogilvy South Africa and Cannes Outdoor judge

One of the ways of evaluating award winning entries, says Clerke, is whether the message connects emotionally with people. Another of course is whether it solves real business problems. Both and you’re in with a real chance.

Grab the attention economy 

Clerke backed this up with the stat that in the attention economy, we are exposed to something like 6,000 – 10,000 ads a day, meaning it has never been more imperative for brands to to make people really feel something – make them angry, make them sad, make them feel involved, interested, empowered and to find points of connection to do so, otherwise the ideas are worthless.

Public funding for pubs

A stand out case study comes from Heineken, solving the problem of historic Irish pubs that have survived for hundreds of years being forced to close due to financial difficulties, by turning them into museums, officially recognised as part of Ireland’s cultural heritage. AR was used to enable visitors to access historical information about each venue via their phones, ensuring public funding for pubs.

A great example of a brand taking full commitment to be relevant in culture and society.

Humour, creativity and craft connect us as humans and set us apart from AI

Ann Nurock had earlier shown a case study from a Cannes in a category known, believe it not, as Luxury and Lifestyle Lions, whereby Spanish fashion brand Loewe had collaborated with a Japanese ceramic company, Suna Fujita to create new range of apparel and accessories and in s doing a whole new way of interfacing with their brand. I had immediately thought of our own untapped creative resources, such as Ardmore ceramics and the myriad of purveyors of fine crafts at which we in South Africa excel, available for collaborations with brands for promotion, global acclaim and important new revenue streams – which at the end of the day is the real point of any and all advertising or marketing.

To be breakthrough, we might ask if we are looking for concepts such as humour, human truths, empathy and common causes – in all the wrong places. Historically great and memorable ad campaigns such as the BMW mouse and IBM’s elephants did not directly show the product but used metaphor to capture and convey concepts. 

Follow the funny

This is a big one for me because I think, like, South Africans are really funny. We don’t take shit seriously, right? We’re always laughing and having fun. But as soon as we get into the boardroom, we become hyper analytical and over analyse everything and we’re not having as much fun as we should. – 

Keith Manning, ECD TBWA Hunt Lascaris JHB

Use AI to be more human

Sharing her intel as a judge in the Digital Craft Lions category, Jacqui Mullany, ECD FCB Africa, shared another case study which may resonate with us as multilingual South Africans.

Amidst an array of amazing digital case studies, one worth noting in the South African or even African context is that of the German federal president’s Christmas address.

Germany, as the intro goes, is a diverse, multilingual country, home to 24,000,000 people with a migrant background, but for 100 years the president’s Christmas address has traditionally been broadcast in just one language.

To honor the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Day address, AI was engaged to deliver th president’s speech in the 12 most spoken languages of Germany at the same time via a real time simultaneous translation, making Frank Walter Steinmeier the first politician in the world to deliver a speech in several languages at the same time.

What brands could make use of this kind of thinking and technology to help a country of 13 official languages understand each other better?

The last word from Cannes

In the end the last word from Cannes comes from Willoughby. As South Africans we need to be doing different things. For example the insight that South Africa is very good at doing film, is actually a potential problem, causing us to do the same stuff year on year and which is potentially one of the biggest reasons for why we’re not converting at awards shows”. 

Culture shapes advertising and marketing. Culture shapes advertising. Advertising shapes culture. And the two coexist. We’re in a place now in South Africa where we are poised for change in a good way. It will be great if we can lean into our unique South Africanness, not the same old stuff, to help shape our identity as advertisers. 

Yes we can learn from Loewe, from other brands embedded and relevant in their culture, like Heineken and the German Federal President that we don’t have to feel the need to solve the world’s problems, we just need to use our talents to connect, to inspire, bring humanity and joy and to really be custodians of the brands we are entrusted with. 

With grateful thanks to all the speakers, Ster Kinekor, the Creative Circle and Carl Willoughby for upholding the immense talents, resources and potential of the SA creative community to punch back above our weight again. Game on!

Ogilvy’s Camilla Clerke on crafting awards entries 

Much has been said about the pros, cons and advantages of entering creative awards, but if you are going to, Camilla Clerke advises you to take down these six tips from the pits of judging thousands of Outdoor entries, getting shortlisted and in the running for an award.

You’ve got to be bloody brave. You’ve got to challenge the status quo. You’ve got to put diversity right at the center to connect with the jury, to make sure your prized piece, your little baby, makes it through to the shortlist and beyond, because it’s hard. –

 Camilla Clerke, ECD Ogilvy and Outdoor Lions  judge

“Take these down”

1. What are they judging?

Firstly, although this may sound obvious, remind the judges what they are judging, why this entry is relevant in this category. If you are using a case film across multiple entry categories, you can add some additional boards that steer the judges as to what element of your material they should be looking out for.

Clerke shares that her jury panel had seen some  phenomenal pieces of outdoor work and ideas, but which didn’t state exactly what needed to be judged, leaving attention exhausted judges to figure it out for themselves. Don’t let that happen.

2. Context is key

Absolutely profound advice. For example we think everyone knows about us here in South Africa, that they know what is going on here, but they don’t. You’ve got to tell people over and over and over again about the context, why the idea worked here, why it might not work anywhere else. Sometimes it feels like you’re harping on, going a bit overboard, but you’re not. When you’ve only got a matter of moments to see a piece in a jury room if the context is lost, the piece is gone. : (

3. Media matters

I had no idea that this was a thing, says Clerke, but believe me, jury members would tear through those tiny little bits of copy that says, where the billboard sites were. This is where they went. This is how many sites they had. When you’re moving something from a shortlist through to bronze, silver, or gold, this is exactly stuff to fill in correctly. Some agencies just left it blank and lost. 

4. The traveling image

Finding the one key image that sums your entire idea up and that is your headline image is key. I think many teams try to do it over a number of boards and it sort of dilutes it. It’s not going to win an Outdoor if it doesn’t have one hero visual that sells it. 

This could be specific for outdoor, but I think it works for every category, the traveling image. – Camilla Clerke, ECD Ogilvy and Outdoor Lions  judge

5. Connection

This is more of a comment on purpose, on showing commitment. It means making sure that when you do a piece of purpose work, it doesn’t feel like a little side project that you’ve just done for awards. Make sure it’s authentic to the brand, that the brand really believes in it and is going to activate it year on year. 

6. Brands matter

People in Cannes have an appetite to see big brands doing flippin’ great things! 

Camilla Clerke, ECD Ogilvy and Outdoor Lions judge

Lastly, brands matter! People in Cannes have an appetite to see big brands doing flippin’ great things!

Make sure you share how your brand got into culture for the win! – 

Camilla Clerke, ECD Ogilvy and Outdoor Lions  judge

Brands are influencers. So make sure that your brands are doing stuff that is meaningful. Don’t let a KPI be that you got above benchmark on a click through rate, rather make sure you share how your brand got into culture for the win!