This year's Cannes Grand Prix Winners have been announced. It's worth checking them out here.

As you view these, here's something to keep in mind: A few years ago, I posted an idea by Gideon Amichay who was the ECD at Y&R Tel Aviv at the time. You can read the post here. But the Cliffs Notes are that while creative is a good thing to strive for, brilliant is better, different better still, and innovative is the Holy Grail.

Volvo's "Epic Split," which won the Cyber Grand Prix and Film Grand Prix is creative, brilliant and different. But maybe not innovative. Same can be said about the Harvey Nichols "Sorry, I Spent It On Myself" campaign, which won the Promo/Activation, Press, Integrated, Film Grand Prix.

I'm not knocking either of these. They're both fantastic. But it shows how incredibly difficult it is to be innovative in advertising. Even the best pieces in the world have a hard time reaching that mark.

This year's Direct Grand Prix is from British Airways. And this year's Cyber Grand Prix is Pharrell Williams's "24 Hours of Happy."



Both of these, in my mind, hit the innovative bull's eye. Pharrell's video especially, because it reminds us that it's not just agencies like Goodby and Wieden and BBH and Jung von Matt that are competing for eyeballs. In the Attention Economy isn't driven by copywriters and art directors alone.

Are Award Shows for Losers?

This piece was penned by Prentice Mathew, a senior art director. In the current annual fervor of Cannes, he claims "advertising awards are now for losers." You might agree. You might find it heresy. Either way, it's an interesting read. Anyone agree? Disagree? (And is it easier to agree or disagree based on how many awards you won this year?)

What NOT To Put In Your Portfolio

In this article, Cannes jury members share what they're sick of seeing. If they're sick of seeing it at Cannes, they'll be sick of seeing it in your book.

The two biggest offenders? Vending machine work and case study videos. Just something to keep in mind as you're concepting.

Are You Part of the Talent Crisis?

I think the interviews coming out of Cannes are just as interesting as the winners. They might be more important, too.

Here's an interview with Ali Ali, the CD at Elephant Cairo. You've probably seen his "Never Say No to Panda" work.



He's got some interesting things to say on talent. Granted, it's an Egyptian view. Not everything he says will translate to job markets in Chicago or New York or LA. Or will it? Here's one of his more interesting quotes:


"Agencies need to downsize...You can't have a creative department of 40 people. I think that immediately means that 30 of them are not good."


What do you think of that?

Do good. Go to Cannes.

Here's an interesting competition that could get you to Cannes.

R/GA on the Future of Agencies

I saw these guys speak this year at Cannes. A great talk. Here's kind of a short version that I thought was appropriate on the tails of Nate's Traditional vs Digital article.



Barry Wacksman & Nick Law of R/GA

Cannes Young Directors Showcase

Yesterday I went to the Young Directors Showcase here in Cannes. Some very inspiring work. Here were a couple of my favorites.

Avoid This Pile

If you've got a subscription to creativity-online.com (and there's no reason you shouldn't), check out the Cannes Diary by Cannes Judge, Blake Ebel, ECD of EuroRSCG in Chicago.

He posted this picture of the print work that didn't make it to the shortlist:

I'm guessing there are a lot of pieces in that pile that will still be featured on the agency web site, and in the books of the ADs and CDs who created it. There are probably some really nice lines and cool art direction in there. But even though they paid the $350-per-piece entry fee, they still ended up in this pile.

If you're really trying to do amazing, Cannes-shortlist-caliber work, you've got to do more than a nice line and cool art direction. Even in print. It's becoming a platitude, but it's true: good enough simply isn't good enough.

Talk About the Work

If you want to get better at recognizing (and ultimately creating) great work, you need to talk about it. With your partners, with your CDs, with your planners and account team. You probably already do this, but let me tell you why it’s a good thing to do. By talking about the work…

• You internalize why it’s great (or why it sucks). Those values become a part of who you are as a creative.
• You open your taste to criticism. And education. (Someone at my office thought this was a great “commercial.” Obviously, we need to talk about great work with her more often.)
• You become more capable of articulating why something works or why it doesn’t. This is an invaluable skill if you want to be a creative director or judge an awards show. (“It just isn’t working for me,” is not helpful direction.)

Seeing the work Fred & Farid did for Wrangler is good.

Understanding why it won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year is better.

Having an opinion on whether or not it deserved such an honor - and being able to articulate it (see Lubars' comments) - is best.

And you get bonus points for knowing the opinions of your partner, creative director, agency president, and planner. Because that will let you know what kind of agency you work for. Not because they agree or disagree. But because you’ll know that they’re thinking about what’s great, and what it takes to get there.

Shamelessly Plug Your Agency Whenever You Cannes

Congrats to my coworkers for bringing home a couple statues from Cannes this year with their Reverse Graffiti work for Greenworks-in my opinion, the coolest thing my agency's done.

Know Your Award Shows

Here's a presentation I recently did for my agency. I hope you enjoy it.

Know Your Award Shows

View more presentations from happygrc.

A Year Without Award Shows?

It's hard to think of another industry, with the possible exception of film or music, that has so many awards and award shows. We love patting ourselves on the back.

For creatives, our value is often measured by what awards we've managed to win. They also help agencies attract top talent. They give creatives something to strive for. And the actual award show parties, well they can be fun too. But is this all worth it?

Agencies spend tens of thousands of dollars entering award shows every year. They spend more money to fly people to the shows. With the current economic climate, what does this say about our priorities?

Being selected to judge a top show is perceived as a big honor, and the judges list often reads like a who's who in the industry. But then there's all the behind-the-scenes politicking that takes place at the shows. You vote for my campaign, I'll vote for yours. Which kind of thing makes one wonder what a win is really worth.

A good friend and co-worker just wrote an interesting post proposing a year without award shows.

I'm interested to know what you think. On the one side, it's always good to strive to do better, more creative work. And there's nothing more inspirational than seeing all of the industry's best work in one place. On the other hand, I can think of a long list of reasons why award shows are not the best way to judge what's good, and why they're actually more harmful to our industry than they are helpful.

What's your take?