senckađ
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Thought Leaders in association withPartners in Crime
Group745

Cannes Predictions: Rob Belgiovane, Group CCO at BWM Dentsu

15/06/2018
Advertising Agency
Sydney, Australia
90
Share
Work from P&G, Apple, Cadbury and a fond farewell to Terry Savage

Squeezing an eight-day festival into five is going to be interesting.

My diary looks like a train wreck… lunches, dinners, breakfasts all booked/crammed in for the five days and award shows every night - and I haven’t even booked talks I’d like to hear yet.

But networking and catching up with the holding company global team isn’t really the key point of Cannes.

The point is to celebrate creativity, which is why I was surprised when Publicis announced, with great fanfare at last year’s festival, that their new CEO’s first big move was a 12 month ban on Publicis-owned agencies entering any award shows, including Cannes 2018. Really?

And I was even more amused to read in the last few days that they’ve entered the awards anyway.

Anyway, of the agencies that have been ‘allowed’ to enter this year, what I think we’ll see is a subtle shift away from ‘for good’ for good’s sake to for good for big brand’s sake. (And by “subtle” I mean I could be wrong.)

But I’ve heard so many conversations in judging rooms - and especially from planners - lamenting the days when award show winners were for product sales and that Cannes has turned into the Tambuli Awards of Europe, and I wonder if it will manifest into less Grands Prix for that type of work?

Instead we’ll see brands like Edeka, “the most German supermarket”, do well with their activation for good for their sales as well as a social issue.

And we’ll also see the triumphant return of good for sales type work - and if it’s fun, even better! (Its a Tide ad, Australian Tourism’s Dundee campaign, Pedigree Selfie stick and Alexa’s Lost Her Voice.)

We’ll probably need a separate category for clown ideas this year too, with Audi and Burger King bleeding the 'IT' inspiration dry.

We’ll see the continued re-emerging rise and rise of music video style films with Apple Home Pod leading the fray. Although I do wonder if last year’s Kenzo music video will get in the way of a big win for this style of work?

But the Egyptian Football team’s “do or die” deserves to win in the music clip genre just for its superb casting.

However for beautiful, back to basics work, Cadbury has picked a good year to return to a simple story about a little girl trying to buy her mum some chocolate for her birthday using trinkets and not quite enough coins. There’s no ‘movement’ or social issue or charity, just a little girl’s love for her mum expressed with honesty and charming understatement.

Finally, and sadly, I’m sad to see Terry Savage say farewell this year to the festival he turned into a global force.

For Australians in particular - but many other people globally - Terry is Cannes and Cannes Lions is Terry, so farewell Tez and sending my best to Phil and the team to keep the focus on creativity across every aspect of the festival.




Rob Belgiovane is Group CCO at BWM Dentsu
Credits
Work from Dentsu Creative Australia
First Date
Holey Moley
01/12/2023
15
0
Besties
Holey Moley
01/12/2023
9
0
Colleagues
Holey Moley
26/11/2023
10
0
ALL THEIR WORK