It seems only yesterday that we found out we would be heading over to Cannes to compete in the 2012 Young Lions Competition for digital. Now after 22 or so high altitude hours of Family Guy, War Horse, chicken curries and miniature beverages, we’re finally on French soil taking it all in.
Given we have to compete in a 24 hour challenge on Monday, we arrived on Friday in an effort to avoid any jet-lag. It seems to have paid off, as right now we’re no longer feeling like we’ve gone five rounds with Danny Green.
Firstly, it’s clear we’re not in Kansas anymore. The people are beautiful, the cars are fast and the weather is flawless. And if wearing a lanyard doesn’t identify us enough as foreigners, our fashion sense and broken French does the rest.
Having said that, one should never underestimate broken French. Yesterday it was tested when a lady fell down in front of us and cut her head. If you’re over here and need a bandage from a pharmacy in a hurry – Sam’s your man.
Today was the first day of the festival and there’s no denying that there’s a buzz around the Palais. From the crowds at the front, to the seminars where the queues stretched up the stairs, everyone seems keen.
Finding your way around is made easy thanks to the Cannes Lions App. Not only does it have the full schedule, it allows you to download the presentation slides of the seminars. Also, it seems the old business card exchange will be less common. Just scan someone’s delegate pass and their details will be saved into your phone.
Today we checked out three seminars, our favourite being thenetworkone Independent Agency Showcase. We got a taste of the work coming out of China, Sweden and Spain. The highlight was Carlos Holemans, founder of Spain’s El Laboratorio. Each piece of work he presented generated more and more applause and it was hard not to be inspired. If you haven’t seen their BWIN campaign where you bet your Facebook status, we highly recommend you check it out.
With day one drawing to a close, pretty soon for us it’s down to business. We’re here to enjoy the festival, but like the other Young Lions, we’re also here to do a job. As I write this, the print team are in the depths of the Palais putting the finishing touches on their ad and the media team are working on their brief. Tomorrow at 5pm we get our brief for digital and I assure you we will be doing our very best to bring it home.
Freelance copywriter Garret Fitzgerald
Big Red digital art director Sam Dickson
Australia's Digital Young Lions