Live from Cannes 2011

Amanda King, Tribal DDB Asia-Pacific president, writes from the Festival

Queued for an hour but have really good seat. Sitting in front of 2 very senior NY ad men. Topic of their conversation: “How do we leverage technology and where do we find creative technologists?

The discussion starts. Exciting times when the world of technical engineering embraces creativity. One informing the other. Technology is so maluable today. It enables creativity to be truly intuitive and human so there is no excuse not to touch the emotional button in all demographics

Communiting (will.I.am word) is about enabling communities. You show you care you help and facilitate. You don’t dictate, you act like a member of the community. You are sincere in your actions. Really important for a brand. Communities are the pulse of the market and its a global market. Brands have to inspire and provide them with food for thought for conversation.

Content is so important and music is critical as it truly inspires. Its very personal and technology today allows everyone to create but also join in — guitar hero a classic example of musical liberation through the creative use of technology

Technology allows the unexpected to happen. Making music on the internet is instantaneous today. Think about making and experiencing at the same time. It has disrupted the whole music industry! “I got a feelin” was created online. Imagine that in other aspects of our world.

Technology enables real time collaboration and the instant birth and experience of ideas. That’s innovation in a totally new light. Think about a phone instead of a microphone for an artist. Records your thoughts amplifies your thoughts and can change your voice

In the words of will.I.am: Why are we still rockin like its 1990!! The creative community has got to get with it

Technology is making us change the way we think about consumers. Technology enables consumers to be the amplifiers of a brand if the brand behaves in a way that resonates with the consumer and their community. Collective consciousness. Is now.

You can see how people react immediately! Look at twitter Instant feed back for a brand. Advice in using the power of technology to create….. Don’t wait for others to solve your problems. You have to take the first step take personal risks. Show your passion we need more risk takers

Response from NY ad men behind me: “Where do we find these people????” A sensed a little panic in their voices

Valerie Cheng, JWT/XM Singapore ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

All the judges were expecting a long day and we sure did get one. Lots of discussions as we started out pretty strict about awarding metals and fell way short of last year’s tally. We then went through again to see if there were more deserving metals. After much effort and deliberation, we ended the evening with a satisfactory of winners.

What came as a good surprise was deciding on the Grand Prix. It took a mere 5 mins for everyone in the room to agree on the 3 favourites because they were by far the pieces of work which have set the benchmark for next year’s Cannes.

This has been the toughest judging experience but what a learning experience.

Amanda King, Tribal DDB Asia-Pacific president, writes from the Festival

Robert Redford.

His point of view: Story tellers broaden our minds, engage and connect us. Great stories move us. Only thing that succeeds is change, but you have to embrace it positively. Devoted to story telling; devoted to those that can tell the story in a fresh and innovate way. But beware of success as it can change people make them greedy.

What makes a good story? Something you don’t know that hits your guts and emotions and teaches you something you didn’t know. Conventional formulas and the obvious have never appealed. What has always appealed is the space in between. Those that take the risks are those that discover opportunity.

You don’t go looking for a new idea, you discover it as a result of persistence and drive and passion in a belief that there has to be something better

Redford’s first Sundance risk was Sex, Lies and Videotape. Great risk; new genre of film. How do you keep it authentic and pure? Trust and integrity you can not sell out don’t gobble up whatever comes your way.

Today hard to tell what is real and not real so once you are known for real then you build your trust and integrity. Quality is then yours to deliver, but again do not sell out deliver to your belief. As Freud said: look in the other corner

When you have success but you feel you have become clouded, re what can and cannot be done, then stop. Do something different. Return to zero and start fresh, this will ignite your passion. Advice: create a place where people feel safe away from the money people and let them take risks.

Most amazing and inspiring talk I have ever listened to. Totally resonated with my passion for a life less ordinary. He revealed that Butch Cassidy was one of the most amazing films he has ever worked on, because it was different. Also, All the President’s Men because it was nearly not made because of the authorities, the men with money

Amanda King

Amanda King, Tribal DDB Asia-Pacific president, writes from the Festival.

Ok day one was a bit of jetlag and hot sun. Went out on a boat that cost US$15000(err, I was a guest!) and stopped in the ocean to look back at Cannes, all the people all the lights and all the talent coming together for one week. Amazing. Most of companies presenting are the same but the guest speakers are pretty cool. One thing that does really strike me. The festival changes its name to the Festival of Creativity yet the form and structure remains the same and the categories are more or less the same. Where is the recognition of change there? Where is the eye opening experimentation chamber?

Maybe next year

Off to listen to Robert Redford on content

Valerie Cheng, JWT/XM Singapore ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

Wow, what a mind-boggling day, but very fruitful and satisfying. Today we went through the preliminary shortlist and discussed in detail the works which we didn’t feel qualified to be shortlisted.

It was an extremely thorough process but everyone got to speak their mind. I believe we brought it down to 2/3 of the original list for tomorrow’s metal voting and now I can truly appreciate why it’s so tough to even get onto the final shortlist.

One more day of judging tomorrow and my jobs done. So far it’s been a wonderful learning experience and am looking forward to the finale.

Mark Ringer, TBWA Tequila Hong Kong ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

I write to you from my room in Cannes having just completed jury duties.

The last act was a press conference of the Direct Lions jury this morning. We started five days ago with 1800 entries of the best work in the world. That was culled to about 200 short-listings and from that, we selected about 60 Lions which will be awarded tonight.

It took us until 8.30pm last night to reach a decision on all the Lions and the Grand Prix, but the jury was unanimous. The work that will win the Grand Prix tonight is provocative, brave and importantly, hinges on its Direct component. So all that remains to do is press the smoking jacket and head off to the show tonight to make some people very happy.

The festival itself is now in full swing with most delegates having arrived. I look forward to getting stuck into the seminars, the other categories’ work and the Cotes de Provence.

But  there is no such thing as a free dejeuner, tomorrow morning at 8.30am I am presenting to global clients and VIPs at the TBWA villa.

Valerie Cheng, JWT/XM Singapore ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

I managed to finish my preliminary judging earlier on the 3rd day and for most like myself, we all needed a lighter day.

Still each day grows with much heaviness as the anticipation builds up of what the final list of work will be. Tomorrow we will be braving ourselves for a long day as we cull through a compiled list of 320+ probable shortlists.

To end the day in preparation for tomorrow, I decided to enjoy a quiet evening dinner with my husband at a Lebanese restaurant to curb my craving for spice.

Two and a half days of hard work, more to go, and I have to say it’s as exhausting as being in the office; but I’m thankful for this experience. There are some things about award shows you’ll never learn until you’ve been a judge.

Valerie Cheng, JWT/XM Singapore ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

Sat through another 200+ entries today and am beginning to see some better work; mainly from the US.

Looking at the work is also a very humbling experience as it’ll make you realise what one should and should not be doing in order to win at Cannes. There are some pieces of work which would probably have stood a better chance if their agency’s creative leaders knew how to package them better.

A lot of Asia’s work suffers from packaging; such as in keeping rationales short and making the idea more apparent. This is one thing many can learn from the works from the US — simple ideas, well articulated, executed brilliantly.

Well, I guess I didn’t come all the way here for nothing and hopefully I’ll remember to impart this knowledge to my team back in Singapore.

Mark Ringer, TBWA Tequila Hong Kong ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

Well, that was a big Saturday. We started at 8.30am and finished shaping the shortlist at 11pm last night. It is not a surprise that I saw fellow jury members staring into the middle distance at breakfast this morning.

Today we decide upon Lions, all 26 of us.

Direct Lions work is a complex debate, irrespective of the media involved.

Is it great? Is it strategically sound? Is the execution beautiful?

How are the results? And of course, is the direct component crucial?

These are the questions we ask of the work.

Time to get on with it.

Mark Ringer, TBWA Tequila Hong Kong ECD and Cannes judge, blogs from the Festival.

After three days of smaller, five person sub-juries working to determine the short-list,  tomorrow and Sunday the 25 Direct Lions jurors will work as one, to establish what work will be awarded Lions.

Today the quality was better still and I found myself pressing the buttons for ‘short-listing’ a little more frequently.

However, there was still a lot of entries that weren’t tailored for the category and worse still, others that seemed propelled to Cannes on a wave of blind optimism rather than being carefully considered. I reckon that some agencies have deeper pockets.

As far as our region is concerned the volume of entries in Direct came from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Hong Kong with a smattering from Singapore and India.

After a dinner of local seafood and local white wine I will now retire for the evening but not before leaving you with the wise and words of Picasso, who made this part of the world home – “You don’t make art, you find it”.

If you don’t make the short-list this year, just look a little bit harder.