Happy Friday, friends! I hope your work week is wrapping up nicely and that you’ll soon be able to enjoy some well-earned downtime, like a lot of people have been doing all week in Cannes (kidding, of course). Before ending this week, I wanted to share this video I’m embedding here from experience design agency Freestate, and a few more comments about the significance of winning a Cannes Lion award.
As you can hear first-hand from FreeState’s creative director Adam Scott in this video directed by Ilan Metev, FreeState won a Gold Design Lion at Cannes in 2013 after designing the world’s largest kinetic sculptures for Blackpool’s promenade. Under the heading of “Why Winning a Lion Matters – An Agency’s View,” Mr. Scott enlightens us while pedaling his bike around the city: “Sometimes it’s hard to find your way, and especially hard given it’s so darn crowded out here…. How do you stand out,” he asks.
And about the results of winning Cannes Lion Gold, he continues: “I would say people are far more interested in our approach, and that has to be a good thing. And well, if it can happen to us then it can certainly happen to you.”
Isn’t that lovely? Also, to me, it’s a perfect summation to what it means to win a Cannes Lion.
Meanwhile, the image I’m providing here offers a newer angle into this discussion. Taken hours ago, it shows (L-R) Leo Burnett VP creative director A.J. Hassan, Cutters Studios partner and editor Kathryn Hempel and Leo Burnett senior producer Adine Becker with one of the 2015 Gold Lions awarded to their and their colleagues’ work for P&G’s Always #LikeAGirl campaign. There are many discussions in the advertising industry about the ratio of men to women, and seeing these ladies and their partners continue to earn recognition for this extraordinary creative work seems to bode well for them, and hopefully for the industry at-large. These powers also joined forces for the timely new #EqualDreams Esurance campaign that seems likely to bring more attention their way at next year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
