With the Cannes International Festival of Creativity 2024 approaching, Mediaweek heard from representatives at Special Melbourne, Icon Agency, Innocean, Icon, DDB Group Melbourne, and Dentsu Creative about their favourite work and predicted frontrunners – from other agencies.
In a previous piece, Gillian Dalla Pozza (associate CD, Dentsu Creative), Ryan Fitzgerald (ECD, Special Melbourne), Wez Hawes (ECD, Innocean Australia), and Psembi Kinstan (group ECD, DDB Melbourne) all discussed the promising entries from their own offices, which they believe are their strongest contenders for a coveted Lion.
See also: Shift 20, The Daily Issue, and a mo DNA kit: Agencies’ Cannes contenders
Here, the group, plus Michael Knox (ECD, Icon Agency), share their thoughts on standout external work, locally and across the globe.
“Jon Evans of Uncensored CMO recently chatted with LIONS CEO, Simon Cook, and I heard that Jon, a proud owner of a couple of Lions himself, was also impressed to discover there are now 30 different types of Lion awarded in Cannes,” Knox explains.
According to Knox, CHEP and M&C Saatchi are the local Cannes standouts, the former for its Climate Dr. Certificate.
“Taking a sickie for the planet seems like a great idea,” he says,“and the visual feast that is The Plastic Forecast will be amongst them there too,” referring to M&C Saatchi’s work with the Minderoo Foundation.
Knox’s other “obvious winners” include:
WoMen’s football for Orange by Marcel
“Easily one of the standout pieces of work this year is Marcel’s campaign for Orange and WoMen’s Football. It’s brilliant. It was everywhere. Surprising ending, with a strong point of view. Simple and bloody difficult all at the same time. A genius (and appropriate) use of AI. Nothing fake about its impact – wins many.”
Everyday for Avios by Uncommon Creative Studio, London
“Cool, calm and in-camera, it almost feels old school. Craft does that. Perfect track. Buying flowers, eating an apple, sipping coffee. Earning points. Someone falls off. Reminds me of the slip in Nike’s Tag.”
Yellow Canteen for Dulux by Innocean Indonesia
“Innocean Indonesia’s ‘Yellow Canteen’ for Dulux is a story of discovery. Despite featuring a group of high-fiving scientists, it’s work like this that makes brands matter and keeps us relevant.”
UN Women Pink Chip for Degiro by AKQA Amsterdam
“I like to imagine the number of times it was considered too hard and how many people left the room during its explanation. Thankfully, enough stayed and saw it through.”
All The Ads for DoorDash by Wieden+Kennedy
“Wieden+Kennedy’s massive idea for DoorDash-All-The-Ads is another easy call. No-one enjoys paying for a spot in the Super Bowl. Everyone wants to hijack the big game, DoorDash did, in a big way.”
The Sound of Violence for Save The Children Hong Kong by Cheil
“A surprising approach using the Dolby Surround Sound Demo dropped cinema-goers in moments of child abuse. Chilling and unmissable.”
Special Melbourne’s Fitzgerald seconds Marcel’s WoMen’s Football as a Lions favourite. “It’s not exactly a dark horse, but it’s pretty hard to go past this one,” he says.
“There is tremendous power in the simplicity of this idea: take the remarkable highlights of the Les Bleus women’s football team and seamlessly superimpose the likenesses of their male counterparts over the top. The result? An unquestionable argument for the quality of women’s sport and a flawless demonstration of the gender-biassed nature of sporting support. More than anything, this idea transcended its medium and genuinely set the world on fire, achieving numbers for reach that are truly mind boggling.”
Innocean Australia’s Hawes believes Special Australia’s Shift 20 Initiative for the Dylan Alcott Foundation “is more than deserving.”
Shift 20 Initiative for the Dylan Alcott Foundation by Special Australia
“We worked with Dylan for our Kia Tasman campaign and put into practice the initiatives set out by his foundation during production,” he says.
“It was a milestone moment to see the actors and actresses chatting to Dylan and our partners at Kia between takes; you could see how much it meant to them personally and what this representation will do once more brands start adopting the initiative.”
See also: The Shift 20 Initiative: Setting the standard for representation in advertising
Dalla Pozza says this year she’s “jealous of” Virtual Pro by VMLY&R (now part of VML following the October merger last year).
“As a direct and digital creative at heart, this one managed to turn some meaningless personal data dot points into a world-wide talking point,” she says.
“By wrapping it up in a surprise competition, it also found a way to get surfers boasting about their watch and the functions of it. With a very, very low budget, people were talking about Rip Curl and wearable tech again.”
While DDB Melbourne’s Kinstan notes, “You can look to the D&AD winners for a few picks that have Cannes written all over them.”
He echoes the vote for Shift20 and the Plastic Forecast as “two obvious standouts,” but adds, “I’d like to make a case for The Monkeys‘ Telstra Christmas campaign.”
“The campaign created an experience magical enough to get a huge population of Australian kids to engage and use payphones that have otherwise been forgotten,” he says.
“I saw it on the news. I heard about it from friends outside of advertising. I’ve seen children pester their parents about it whilst walking past payphones – in May. I haven’t seen the case study tying it all together, but I hope it’s a belter.
“And whilst I also think the same conversation about ‘purpose’ will be had, I think we’ll see juries continue the trend from last year and try to reward campaigns for bigger brands and legitimate charities.”