On the Ground at Cannes: Earning Attention at the Festival

Cannes Lions is the most awe-inspiring show of creativity, and every year I am continually impressed by the astounding volume and quality of work. Looking through the Edelman earned lens, the categories seemed almost irrelevant this year, with so much of the shortlisted work being social by design and earned at the core.

In today’s noisy landscape of jumbled communications, we have to work even harder to get people’s attention and all of the work on display in the basement had to work extra hard to get noticed by the judges. The ones that stood out for me had two things in common, simplicity and originality. The Swedish Number, which won big, is a great
example of what an earned idea can achieve. Creating a number for a country to connect potential Swedish tourists with the best sales reps in town, Swedes. The Survival Billboard was a fun idea that invited public participation to put gaming fans to the ultimate test against the elements, for first access to the new Tomb Raider game for Xbox. Pocket Money for Equal Futures was a simple experiment that highlighted the gender pay gap by giving boys more money than girls for household chores. All simple earned ideas, some familiar tactics maybe, but all of them had an original twist that made them unique.

Echoing many colleagues, I think one thing is clear from this year’s festival; we will be reaching far beyond PR next year.

Melissa Ditson, senior vice president, group creative director, New York.

Originally published at www.edelman.com on June 25, 2016.