A Sip of Kir Royal at Cannes

The International Advertising Film Festival is now well underway in Cannes France, its official home after its inception in 1954. Until 1984 the festival was held in Venice and Monte Carlo, before arriving at its now permanent home in Cannes and highlighted the works of TV and film. In 1992 print media was recognized followed by digital in 1998, radio in 2005, design in 2008, and 2009 welcomes PR to the stage.

On a day like today, sitting in sunny London with an hour for lunch seemed like a waste, when I could easily soar through the clouds faster than a speeding bullet to take in the sights of a Lunch hour at Cannes. So I ran from the office and took to the clouds and after a minute I had cleared a path for my super secret landing behind the Debussy Theatre, where Sir Martin Sorrell (the big wig of WPP, the holding company of agencies like JWT and Ogilvy among others) will be gathering tomorrow with other heavyweights to debate the impact of the recession on Adland.

Suddenly, a helicopter cut me off as it made its own approach, bringing in more directors and creatives from all over the globe. In Cannes, there is nothing like making your very own entrance. After my frazzled landing, I found a luxurious cafe and took in the sights. Lucky no one had noticed ADventure Lad's near collision with air traffic control. ::Phew::

A waiter came to my table and simply offered me a Kir Royal. From what I have heard, there is nothing like enjoying the combination of Champagne and creme de cassis as you look out over the busy centre. Within seconds, there was no avoiding the buzz of who had a Lion and who didn't.

Now I bet you're thinking, It is easy to want to rub shoulders with an Oscar, an Emmy and even a Tony, but with a Lion?! The Lion is the iconic symbol of the festival and they were inspired by the Lions in Piazza San Marco in Venice, where the first festival took place. Here are some of this year's highlights...

AKQA is the success story of this year's festival so far, winning a Grand Prix for Fiat 'eco:Drive' in the Cyber category (See the screen grab, but check out the actual site and have a poke around)



After picking up the Grand Prix in the PR Lions, 'the best job in the world' campaign for Tourism Queensland also scooped the honour in the Direct Marketing category. (Can you believe as a campaign they actually created a job to be the care taker of the Great Barrier Reef Islands! as a way of raising awareness of the reef and Australia! Now that's Seriously Smart Advertising ;-P)

Saatchi & Saatchi snapped up the UK’s only Gold Award in the Direct Lions category for T-Mobile ‘Dance,' no other UK agency won Gold in Direct. The Award is for Commercial Public Services.
'Dance' also won 3 Media Lions (2 silver and 1 bronze for Commercial Public Services, Best Use of Special Event and Best Use of Mixed Media, respectively) and 1 Cyber Lion.


Saatchis' has cast its net even further this year in its search for fresh directing talent. The New Directors' Showcase, sponsored by Saatchis for 19 years, premiered at 1.30 in the Grand Auditorium at Cannes. This is one of the hottest tickets at Cannes giving Adland and namely Saatchis, a first bite at the best new talent - the performer Bill Shannon and director Joey Garfield who shot the new Visa ad was found here. Jonathan Glazer, Tarsem, Michel Gondry and Danny Kleinman have all appeared on the New Directors Showcase in the past.

I won't give away the names of the directors but, I will give my top picks for Music Videos and Ads they presented. All in all, every selection was oozing creativity!

Music Videos:
Hands Free by Sonny J
Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie
Live Good by Naive New Beaters
Warrior's Dance by The Prodigy

Adverts:
Alto Palermo
Scrabble
Pain Without Borders
Adidas
Nike

**Once these films are made public I will do my best to post them!**

WHOA, look at the time. I best take to the sky and race back to 80 Charlotte Street! I will try and keep you all updated but just incase you fancy finding out more about Cannes, go to www.canneslions.com, and/or check out the winners here!

Up Up and AWAY!