Cannes – the story so far

It’s day three of the 57th Cannes Lions Festival and it’s only just started to get going. The first award ceremony took place last night, with four UK agencies picking up Silver Lions but it’s sad to see that so many advertising agencies are still kicking the PR world’s collective butt when it comes to this category, The PR  Grand Prix was taken for the second year of it’s existence by an advertising agency, this time TBWA. My colleague Joel Johnson, provides a brief description of the winning entry Gatorade Replay.

Winning the Grand Prix in PR and Promo & Activation, the Gatorade campaign by TBWA LA, “Replay” rekindled and completed an unfinished decades-old high-school football rivalry. Essentially, Gatorade sponsored a “do-over” campaign that grabbed the attention of the nation. TBWA told the story of middle-aged men going back to finish their rivalry, getting in shape, and then produced a sold-out high-school football game through social media Facebook campaign, PR, a documentary film, television series (and now soon to be made motion picture). Notable about the entry was the downplay of the Manning brothers (Gatorade talent who acted as assistant coaches for each team) and instead focusing on the human drama of real people. TBWA created a story worth telling, watching, following, and sharing.

The “New Big Idea” at Cannes, Creating Something Worth Advertising

We’re here to provide some insight into the online conversation around the festival including what’s hot and what’s working. With over 6,000 delegates, 350 client brands and countless media agencies, achieving cut through is difficult but one brand, well one man, has achieved just that. David Perez from USA agency Leo Burnett , is basically a human subservient chicken (Hat tip George Nimeh) who is at the mercy of his Twitter fans demands and all is  live streamed . So far he’s been tattooed with the Fail Whale and two twitter admirer’s’ handles. As the Festival hots up, the requests can only get better.

The opening gala is tonight and the next big thing to look forward too is Mark Zuckerberg’s seminar session tomorrow.