The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has wrapped up for 2023, with the event having brought together those that work in creative communications and advertising from every corner of the planet.
Mediaweek has been on location in the South of France, and spoke to some of the most influential people in both Australian and global media. Today is Danny Bass, CEO of Dentsu Media ANZ.
Judging in Cannes
Reflecting on his time on the Cannes Media Lions judging panel, Bass says that “The experience was a career highlight.”
“I’ve worked in the industry for a long time, but to be able to witness so much brilliant work, things that you would normally never see because of geographic issues, was superb. The simple campaigns, which were based on two fundamentals – media and effectiveness – were highly enjoyable.
“We talked a lot about whether as an industry, are we an agent of change? Or are we merely a mirror reflecting back what’s happening in the world right now? There were a lot of campaigns around Ukraine, Qatar, the cost of living, homelessness, and environmental impact. Those are probably the most discussed and important topics in the world right now, so clearly, brands were reflecting that.”
Dentsu’s activation in Cannes
When sitting in the judging room itself, Bass says that there were both pros and cons to working across the Media Lions category.
“Judging the media section is hard, because of the sheer amount of entries. But it’s been, arguably, more straightforward because you can always take it back to what we’re judging and its medium. You could end up debating a piece of work, but ultimately, is it a use of media? Can it demonstrate effectiveness? Maybe in some of the other categories that’s a harder thing to judge.”
As well as taking into account all of the criteria that work needs to be judged against, Bass also says that the jury needed to take the sheer size of the task into consideration.
“When you’re going through that many entries, how do you keep fresh eyes after nine hours? We’re literally locked in a windowless room So we had to be aware of giving the right care and attention, and the right debate to each piece.
“Respect was high in the room, and people were always allowed to talk and have their views, but as a group, we would quickly make a call and then move on based on the majority, so that was great.”
With so many pieces of work to go through, Bass says that there were a number of themes that began showing time and time again – and not all of them were what he expected.
“I thought that there would be a lot more AI. From what we saw, next year is going to be all about AI, because a lot of the AI campaigns were submitted right up to the deadline. I think it’s certainly an indication of what’s coming. What it is that we should be aware of as, as media agencies and the media industry in general, are things like deep fakes and the brilliant, but also potentially terrifying role that AI is going to play.
“Interestingly, if you think about all the press that VR, AR, and the Metaverse were getting in the last few years, it was almost completely absent this year in terms of awards. Beware the flash in the pan, although I think AI is very different.
“Social causes still dominate. I saw some incredible work, but then you have to ask, ‘is this to win an award? Or is it genuinely impactful in what it’s doing?’”
Dentsu Down Under
If you’re making the trip to the other side of the world, you might as well bring home a souvenir or two. For Bass, some of those souvenirs come in the form of ideas he’ll be bringing back to the team in Australia.
“We saw a lot of what I would call media hacks – some brilliant campaigns that had hacked non-traditional media space to run a campaign. Out-of-home and audio were really strong, I’ll be taking some really good examples in both those mediums back to Australia.
“Even though there were a lot of Media Awards, it was very creative agency led – so it’s important that we as an industry, and our side of the industry, really lean into that. We need to think about what we want to be known for, and how we work with that.
“There was probably not as much data and analytically-driven work than maybe you would have expected. From what I’ve seen in Australia from Dentsu and other agencies, we were right up there with what the world’s doing in data analytics. Maybe we should start championing that on a global stage.”
Overall, Bass says that one of the main things he’ll be coming home with is a sense of pride for how well the region performs on the world stage.
“It’s wonderful that we’ve got an incredibly talented group of Australian and New Zealander people from the whole media and creative industry here, and championing the work that we do.”
See Also: Cannes Day 1 Recap: AB InBev, Louis Vuitton, Snapchat, Reddit, and Cheeto art
See Also: Cannes Day 2 Recap: WeAre8, Dentsu, Yahoo, WSJ, and a surprise drone show
See Also: Cannes Day 3 Recap: Havas, AI, GroupM, Sprite, and real humans
See Also: Cannes Day 4 Recap: Mindshare, Macca’s, Disney, and Deadmau5
See Also: Cannes 2023 wrap: The top sessions, brand activations, and award winners
–
Top Image: Dentsu’s Danny Bass