CANNES, FRANCE — Abi Aquino, Chief Creative Officer of MullenLowe TREYNA, is currently at Cannes for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the biggest Festival recognizing global creative excellence. In this exclusive story penned by Abi, she shared key insights from the Outdoor jury room as a member of this year’s judging body, handpicking a few of her favorite works, and what made them successfully stand out among all the entries.
Judging Outdoor was arduous and simple. The jury had to dive into hundreds of entries, give each entry the time and attention and thoughtfulness it so deserved; and ultimately pare it down to the few that truly excited and inspired us. Entries you could refer to years from now. Ideas that were instant classics. Work that celebrated the form of outdoor at its very best.
Creative commitment was a recurring theme in the jury room discussions. We knew we wanted to recognize the brands that were wise enough to not only identify the business problem, but to encourage their partner agencies to find creative solutions for it. To paraphrase Outdoor Jury President Marco Venturelli, “A great idea from a big brand with creative commitment, produces great results.”
Authenticity was also discussed. By this we mean, “is it integral to the brand and its business to create this kind of work? Does it evolve the narrative of the brand in new, refreshing, but still true ways?” This factored heavily in our conversations (along with many snacks and coffee).
This year’s entries celebrated a both classic and innovative ideas, seen with its two Grand Prix winners: Magnum‘s “Find Your Summer” is anchored on a delightful insight of searching for a spot of warmth and all of the sheer pleasure that comes with it (including a bite of Magnum). Art directed and shot beautifully, it is an instant classic.
Pedigree‘s “Adoptables” digs deep into the brand’s true north. Using machine learning and AI, it was able to quickly feature shelter dogs up for adoption on its ads. When a dog got adopted, it would simply replace the image of that dog with a new one.
Another of the jury favorites: “Meet Marina Prieto.” To prove to Spain’s marketers that outdoor media was relevant and effective, billboards around the city started to show photos of a charming 100-year old lola by the name of Marina Prieto. Soon, everyone was investigating who she was. As far as product demos go, this was absolutely brilliant.
Okay so hear me out. “Penguin Soap Opera,” a bronze winner, ran away with the judges’s hearts for its pure charm. You’ve got penguins, you’ve got relationship entanglements, what else could you ask for??
Finally, British Airways‘ latest campaign “Windows” was beautiful, simple, and perfect in every way. In this era of cheap, cramped, commoditized airfares, capturing the split second of anticipation of passengers looking out of a BA window somehow reminded (and convinced) all of us that it was still fun to fly.
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