Cannes 2008 - my round-up

As you might have noticed through our blog, flickr and twitter-feeds, we were with quite a lot at the Cannes Lions festival last week. Vinne -as a member of the cyber jury- already gave his favourites last week, so now I guess it's my turn to give my overview of last week overload of creativity.

For starters, last year a high rank media executive told the memorable worlds : "2007 will become known as the year where digital has finally left the computer". This quote really struck a chord with me as it echoes the vision we had when we launched Boondoggle. Without giving the whole story away, 2008 confirmed the trend : most of the interesting work at this year's Cannes festival was digital, whether it was online or not.

For years Cannes was the place to see the latest creative work in film and print ads. In these traditional media, creatives use a number of techniques to convey emotion, mostly through the dramatisation of a consumer insight or product benefit. These techniques still work today but it becomes increasingly difficult to remain innovative (and win awards...) with "dramatisation" in mass media.

The last couple of years however, a step changed happened with the arrival of interactive media and subsequent "digital thinking" in new and old media. Although I'm not quite sure if I made my point, I'll try to illustrate the benefits of digital thinking through some of the best cases I saw last week in Cannes.

note : where possible, I will not link to canneslions.com as the winners list will be moved behind a pay-wall in a couple of months.

"Dramatisation" is still alive and kicking in advertising, albeit in a series of novel ways made possible through digital thinking, for example :

Through spectacle - with the ubiquity of digital camera's, blogs and video sharing sites, one off-stunts become real marketing channels. Interesting examples that I saw were :

- Deadline Courier's Exploding Billboard : to evidence the claim that they deliver on time, DC installed a billboard promising that it would explode in x days with an added digital countdown display.
- Mintshot - It pays to watch - to prove their brand promise, this commercial tv platform set off explosives in NZ's largest volcano and broadcasted their stunt live on Mintshot TV.

Through demonstration - action speaks louder than words, and that's why nothing beats the good old "demonstration"-technique with a "digital"-touch. Like theses cases making smart use of the postal system : Scottex, Citymail : does a log hut fit through a letter slot and Breeze Excel's "Torture Test". Or by bringing digital demonstrations back to the real world like this brilliant Leica campaign or this one from IKEA where the traditional IKEA cover becomes fully customisable and shot in the real world. Or another one, by leveraging a real fact for worth of mouth potential like Volkswagen did by issueing a product recall for the 1974 Golf.

But then again, "digital thinking" really comes to life through participation. Instead of demonstrating or dramatising a story, these campaign let people engage and thus experience the story first hand :

- Nikon Picturetown let ordinary people first hand experience how the Nikon D40 shoots extraordinary pictures.
- Not knowing : raising HIV-awareness in a very unexpected and engaging way.
- Migros Singles Underwear campaign - featuring underwear models that are single, in order to euh... stimulate interaction : the first underwear models you can contact.
- Volkswagen Night Driving - dramatising the product features of an ordinary car, and leaving the possibility for consumers to join in.
- and last but not least : Droga5's Million - encouraging public school kids to achieve through the medium they use to communicate with their peers. A deserved Titanium winner.