Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC), a leading marketing and advertising holding company, demonstrated its long-time support for China by hosting a panel discussion at the first “China Day” event held at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

“As the Festival celebrates its 60th anniversary, its organizers have wisely chosen to spotlight one of the world’s most important countries,” said Serge Dumont, Omnicom Group Vice Chairman, and Chairman Asia Pacific. “The support of the Group and its agencies at this year’s Festival reflects our long-term commitment to China, the world’s number-two advertising market worldwide in terms of market scale. Because understanding China has become crucial to any company with global aspirations, Omnicom assembled a panel of senior executives from our agencies to discuss the key trends affecting China’s families, individuals, and institutions.”

Entitled “Becoming Chinese – the only way to succeed in China,” the panel was moderated by Serge Dumont and included the following advertising industry leaders:

§Carol Potter – President & CEO, BBDO/Proximity Greater China

§Arthur Tsang –  Executive Creative Director, BBDO, Beijing.

§Tim Cheng – Chief Creative Officer, DDB Group Shanghai

§Doug Pearce – CEO, Omnicom Media Group, Greater China

§Ian Thubron – Group President, Greater China, TBWA Asia Pacific

On Monday 17 June, Omnicom also hosted a private lunch to welcome Mr. Li Dong Sheng President of the China Advertising Association and its Secretary General Mr. Yan Jun. Along with Mr. Bernard Brochand, the Mayor of Cannes, selected leaders from the advertising industry and Omnicom agencies attended the lunch. 

Serge Dumont observed, “Two years ago, I had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Li on the occasion of his first official visit to Cannes. We are delighted to see him back here – this time at an event that spotlights the rising influence Chinese consumers are exerting, within and beyond the borders of their home country.”

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity takes place from 16-22 June 2013. Further information about China Day is available at www.canneslions.com.

7 billion hours by 1 billion gamers are what’s up for grabs in the Engagement Economy, according to game designer and author Jane McGonigal, speaking at a seminar hosted by PHD at Cannes Lions festival today. 

With 1 billion people spending an hour or more a day playing computer and videogames, “it’s good news for business, it’s good news for innovation, and it’s good news for anyone who wants to help solve the world’s most urgent challenges” said McGonigal.

Statistics illustrating the amount of time that could potentially be tapped into by brands, “rather than just avenging angry birds” include: 

·300 minutes a day spent playing Angry Birds – the equivalent of 400,000 years

·170 hours a year per player on Call of Duty…or 1 month of full-time work every year

·1 in 4 players called in sick to stay home and play Call of Duty Black Ops II on launch day

And as the economy grows, more hours by more people will become available as a resource. According to McGonigal, the key to harnessing the Engagement Economy is mass participation combined with skills and abilities.

The engagement economy is driven by basic, universal human desires such as the desire “to be challenged, to get better at something, to master new skills, to put those skills in service of something that really matters, to be connected to a larger community, she said. 

“Decisions about where to work, what to spend money on, which brands to be loyal to – these decisions will all be made based on how well an organization, or experience, or product fulfils this urgent desire to engage whole-heartedly with meaningful challenges”.

Games lead to happier, more resilient people and therefore employees when applied to the world of work.  According to research by Gallup,

·89% of global workers are not engaged

·Unengaged workers cost companies $2 trillion annually worldwide

Unveiling PHD’s own game based operating system, Source, for the first time to an external audience, the agency revealed how turning its work for blue-chip clients like Unilever into a mass scale game, has led to 75% of its global workforce displaying unprecedented levels of engagement, collaboration and creativity.

Mark Holden, worldwide strategy and planning director said “Source has changed the way people at PHD work.  Now people come to work each day and play the game - the result and effect of which has enhanced planning and innovation for our clients across the world.  This has been achieved without us truly maximising the full potential of game thinking which suggests that the opportunity for brands, business and communities at large is highly significant.”

Source awards employees points called Pings for collaborating with others in the network, placing them on a global leader board. 

Game mechanics have also been applied to this year’s official Cannes Lions app, which awards delegates Pings for a variety of things, from attending seminars.  Currently 1,572 are actively playing Win Cannes and the top 5 countries are .  USA, Brazil, Japan, UK, India.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has honoured the winners of a further four categories at its Innovation, Media, Mobile and Outdoor Lions Awards Ceremony.

Two golds, six silvers and three bronzes were won by the region’s ad agencies at the Palais de Festivals last night.

Y&R Dubai and JWT Cairo struck gold in the outdoor category, whilst Memac Ogilvy Label picked up four silvers across the outdoor, media and mobile categories for its ‘Mobilising the 12th man’ campaign for Tunisian football team Club Sportif de Hammam-Lif. JWT Cairo’s gold was for its Vodafone ‘Fakka’ campaign, which also won silver in the promo & activation category on Monday night.

It was Y&R Dubai which had the most to celebrate, however, winning gold for its ‘Pelicans’ campaign for Harvey Nichols and two further silvers in outdoor.

Leo Burnett Dubai picked up two bronzes in media for Nawras’ ‘Piggybacking’, while Impact BBDO also landed bronze for its outdoor work for Maltesers.

Launched this year, the Innovation Lions category received 270 entries. After preliminary judging, the jury, led by David Droga, Founder, Droga5, then convened in Cannes to review their chosen shortlist of 25 entries. For the first time, delegates were invited into the jury room as shortlisted entrants presented their technology innovation. Taking the inaugural Grand Prix was The Barbarian Group, New York, for their open source software tool for professional creative coding, ‘Cinder’. A further 4 Innovation Lions were awarded.

The Media Lions jury, led by Jack Klues, Chairman, VivaKi, voted and deliberated on a total of 3031 entries and selected 18 Gold, 38 Silver and 58 Bronze winners from a shortlist of 257. The Jury decided to award the Media Grand Prix to Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam for their entry ‘Why Wait Until it’s too Late?’ for funeral insurance company Dela.   

OMD Australia, Sydney were presented with the prestigious Media Agency of the Year award during the ceremony.

Mobile, now in its second year at Cannes Lions, saw The Philippines take their first ever Grand Prix. Honoured with the award were DDB DM9JaymeSyfu, Makati City, for ‘TXTBKS’, their entry for Smart Public Affairs. Jury members, led by Rei Inamoto, Chief Creative Officer, VP, AKQA, viewed 1061 entries before reaching a shortlist of 101 of which 9 went on to win gold, 26 took silver and 24 bronze trophies were given.

Of the 5562 entries in the Outdoor category, 661 made it to the shortlist with a total of 140 selected as winners of which 25 were Gold, 43 Silver and 71 Bronze. Ogilvy France took the Billboards & Street Furniture and Posters Grand Prix for their campaign for IBM, ‘Bench’, ‘Shelter’, ‘Ramp’. Sheung Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer, Young & Rubicam, presided over the Outdoor jury.

Also honoured at last night’s award ceremony were the Gold winners of the Young Lions Media Competition which went to the team from the UK. Silver place went to Australia and Bronze to Argentina. 

Delagates attending today’s Festival have seen Arianna Huffington take to the stage in a Master Class, six Forums focusing on the theme of Creativity in Mobile Advertising, Workshops from Jack Morton Worldwide, 360i and Directory Magazine, as well as 10 seminars from the likes of Photographer Annie Leibovitz, Mark D’Arcy, Director of Global Creative Solutions for Facebook and Leo Burnett & Contagious with their seminar Wildfire / Full of Tomorrow: How Brands can Embrace Miraculous New Technologies to Create Small Wonders that will Change our Daily Lives, which was voted to be streamed live around the world on YouTube through Lions Live.

Also taking place today was Cannes Lions’ dedicated China Day, which in association with the China Advertising Association, brought some of China’s leading thinkers and experts who presented a series of insightful forums throughout the day, on the media landscape and opportunities of this vast country while offering insight into how to be a part of this exciting opportunity.

Here is the Cannes Lions TV: Highlights from Day 2

GroupM agencies have scooped 16 Cannes Media Lions awards at the 60th Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, with wins coming from all four agencies: Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare.

GroupM agencies have won one gold, four silvers and 11 bronzes across nine of its 11 shortlisted categories. The wins see over 60 per cent of its 26 shortlisted campaigns convert into awards.

Dominic Proctor, president, GroupM Global said, “This has been an outstanding year for our agencies and speaks volumes for the amazing work that all four are doing for their clients around the globe.  Winning a Cannes Lions is a huge accolade and to say that we have achieved 16 across the group shows the standard of work that we are producing for some of the world’s top brands.”

GroupM agency wins include:

Kleenex catches colds, Kimberley Clark, Mindshare London – GOLD

Par-king, Smart Vertriebs, MEC Germany - SILVER

Par-king, Smart Vertriebs, MEC Germany – SILVER

#YouDrive, Mercedes Benz A-Class, Maxus UK - SILVER

Longer Merry Christmas, Heineken, Mindshare Puerto Rico - SILVER

Torchview, Lloyds Banking Group, MEC UK - BRONZE

Nike Greatness, Nike, Mindshare Singapore - BRONZE

Welcome to Small Business Saturday, American Express, Mindshare USA - BRONZE

Longer Merry Christmas, Heineken, Mindshare Puerto Rico - BRONZE

The Beetle Shark Cage, Volkswagon, MediaCom USA - BRONZE

Sky Livespots, Sky, Mindshare Germany – BRONZE

Journey of Hope, KFC, MEC South Africa - BRONZE

Moving the Store, IKEA, MediaCom Norway - BRONZE

Geox Amphibiox, Geox Urban Waterproof Shoes, MEC Norway – BRONZE

Seriousplay, HSBC, Mindshare UK - BRONZE

Nike She Runs the Night, Nike, Mindshare Australia - BRONZE

If you would like to speak to Dominic Proctor or use any of the campaign imagery please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

For more information on the campaigns see individual agency websites and live at the media shortlist exhibition in the Palais.

MEC, a leading media agency, (www.mecglobal.com), has seen its creative capability recognised with five Media Lions Awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2013.  The agency won two silver and three bronze awards for campaigns in Norway, Germany, South Africa and the UK.  

Charles Courtier, Global CEO, MEC said: “As an agency we deliver creative solutions that engage and connect with our clients’ consumers.  It’s a particular source of pride that our Cannes Lions success spans multiple markets and categories.”

MEC UK claimed a bronze in the Best Use of Social Media category for the innovative and creative execution of the Torchview campaign for Lloyds TSB, part of Lloyds Banking Group.  The campaign combined Street View technology with social interactivity to create a snapshot of Olympic history by allowing anyone who watched the torch relay to find and tag themselves. It subsequently became the most tagged piece of content ever on Facebook with over 3m tags.

Likewise, the Geox Urban Waterproof Shoes for Geox Amphibiox won bronze in Best Use of Branded Content and Sponsorship for combining an interactive experience with filmed content to underline the capabilities of the brand’s waterproof trainers.  MEC Germany celebrated two Silver award successes for Best Use of Special Events and Stunts/Live Advertising and Best Use of Mobile Devices categories thanks to its Park-King campaign for Smart Vertiebs. Finally, MEC South Africa completed the five-star performance for the agency with a bronze for Best Use of Special Events and Stunts/Live Advertising for its work on KFC’s Journey of Hope, which outlined the brand’s activities to support the fight against poverty and hunger among South Africa’s children.

In the second day of awards at the Cannes Lions Festival 2013, Ogilvy & Mather has been awarded a further two Grand Prix, this time in the Media and Outdoor categories.

The Grand-Prix-winning campaigns were: ‘Why Wait Until Too Late?’ for funeral insurance company, DELA, by Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam, and Ogilvy Paris’ outdoor initiative for IBM.

In FOREST, ALLEY and GORGE category of Outdoor campaigns OGILVY & MATHER INDIA has won three Bronze Lions for PHILIPS ELECTRONICS INDIA.

‘Why Wait Until Too Late’ gave people the opportunity to say the kind words usually reserved for funerals to their loved ones now, rather than waiting until it’s too late for them to hear. The heart-warming initiative put DELA on the list of Holland’s Top 10 best known brands, while increasing insurance take-up by 50%.

Worldwide Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy & Mather, Tham Khai Meng, said: “Why wait until it's too late, indeed!  Why sing their praises after they're dead?  DELA Funeral Insurance wants you to hear the kindest words people say while you're still alive. It's silly not to.  Everyone should have one of these now. I'd like one, please!”

As the strapline says, Ogilvy Paris’ campaign for IBM was about ‘Smart Ideas for Smart Cities’, bringing IBM’s ‘Let’s Build a Smarter Planet’ messaging to life. The agency created outdoor ads in the shape of ramps, benches, and rain shelters to make life better for city-dwellers.

Tham Khai Meng added: “IBM makes the world work better. Nothing could carry that message any more clearly than advertisements that help make for smarter cities. A very smart idea.”

Ogilvy & Mather won 44 Lions in total today, including 2 Grand Prixs, 10 Gold, 14 Silver, and 18 Bronze Lions, bringing the global network’s total tally up to 84 (please see full breakdown for Tuesday 18 June below).

Cannes Lions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a new brief for the Cannes Chimera Initiative, a creative competition that identifies innovative communications approaches to help solve global development problems. The initiative delivered its third challenge to the creative community in a brief announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The challenge calls on creatives, planners, and staff from agencies around the world to propose communications concepts that can galvanize the public to support an emerging international agenda to ensure that extreme poverty is virtually eliminated by 2030. The competition application is a simple two-page form, which will be judged by a panel comprised of Cannes Chimera members - the Grand Prix winners from Cannes Lions 2013 - and representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals, says, “As we immerse ourselves into the Cannes Lions week of great work and inspiration, we call upon the creative community to take part in the Cannes Chimera Initiative and help change the world by applying their skills to demonstrate the ultimate power of creativity.”

The Cannes Chimera Initiative will award up to ten winners a prize of up to $100,000 (US) and recognition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2014. Winners from the competition will receive an exclusive invitation to attend a complimentary creative workshop at the Gates Foundation campus in Seattle, where they will have the opportunity to receive mentoring from the Cannes Chimera, the winners of the previous year’s Grand Prix awards. Winners of the Chimera challenge will also be eligible to apply for a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of up to $1M (US) to execute their idea in partnership with the foundation and its global partners.

“We are thrilled to partner with Cannes Lions to challenge the creative community to develop ideas that create social good,” said Tom Scott, director of Global Brand & Innovation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We believe the innovations that come out of this initiative will have real potential to help solve some of the world’s toughest global development problems and improve the lives of people around the world.”

2013 Competition details:

The creative brief and background are available at CannesChimera.com

All entry submissions must be submitted online through Canneslions.com by 30 September 2013

Each year, the Cannes Chimera Initiative will deliver a new creative brief focused on a critical global development challenge such as improving maternal and child health, reducing hunger through agricultural development, or combating infectious diseases.

The Cannes Chimera Initiative builds on a year-long partnership between Cannes Lions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that supported a foundation-based creative competition focused on highlighting the progress of foreign aid. For more information on members of the Chimera as well as previous competition winners, visit the Cannes Chimera website.

In a time when an abundance of research is at-the-ready, it seems only natural to want to use its power to define what works in advertising. But, where does that leave creatives? Is it possible to strike a balance between imagination and research insights? Do we lose something vital in the advertising mix, if we lean towards one over the other? And, are there lessons we need to learn from both sides of the fence when it comes to different screens?

With the Cannes Lions Festival happening now, where creativity takes centerstage, IAB and Firefly Millward Brown embarked on the breakthrough study, “A Mobile Manifesto: Creative Leaders on the Art of Successful Mobile Brand Messaging.” Our goal was to identify best practices in mobile creativity. We endeavored to identify proven methods for success that would help and not harness creative thinking in order to fuel the continued growth of the young medium. 

To do this, we leveraged earlier research by Dynamic Logic that identified mobile advertising best practices as defined through consumer data on over 100 mobile campaigns. We then brought those findings to the attention of advertising creative powerhouses - including judges for the Cannes Lions Awards and the IAB MIXX Awards, as well as mobile innovators from agencies such as Chiat Day, Draft FCB, JWT, R/GA and Digitas. And then we asked them to respond. 

At the most fundamental level, creatives agreed with the best practices gleaned from the consumer research - but the creatives also provided additional input to make the principles even more relevant to their work. 

This high-level agreement between both the data and the creatives’ own actual, in-use best practices may indicate that there is a considerable level of experience with mobile among all participating parties. We had a large enough database on mobile campaign performance to find reliable trends in effectiveness; and we found ample creatives with significant experience working with mobile. 

While individual comments varied, the creatives largely agreed with these broad notions identified through the ad impact data: 

•Clear and persistent branding is important for building brand awareness

•Short, focused messaging plays well in mobile’s small format

•A striking color palette can drive ad recall, but legibility is paramount

•Consumers respond to mobile ads that give them something back

The advertising professionals also brought to the fore a new definition of context. It was found that on mobile context doesn’t just refer to the context of the ad on the screen, but the context of the consumer when they encounter the ad, including where they are located, what they are doing, and what they might need help with at that moment. Context now refers to the consumer’s life, not the accompanying article, video, or ad placements. 

The creatives also highlighted a key area for improvement in the mobile creative lifecycle. Mobile is incorporated into the campaign creation process late, more as an addition to a devised campaign instead of being central to it, most respondents said.

My hope is that this study helps elevate mobile beyond this downstream role to play a greater role in multi-channel campaigns. To aid that cause, the report’s findings will be discussed on-stage by top-tier creatives and other industry leaders at the upcoming IAB Cannes Lions session on “Liquid Creativity,” keeping in mind that the potential of mobile has always been there, and that the screen consumers carry with them has now long been a reality. But today, we now have agreement on what works. Today we have experienced creatives and consumer data to back them up. We have found a way to walk the tightrope, letting a delicate stride turn into a big leap forward for mobile.

Authored by:  Sherrill Mane from iab.

Celebrating its 60th year, Cannes Lions has held the first of its four awards ceremonies which saw the winners of the Creative Effectiveness, Direct, PR and Promo & Activation Lions categories announced to a packed auditorium.

McCann Melbourne, Australia, took both the PR and Direct Grands Prix for their entry ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ for Metro Trains. 

The PR category received 1296 entries of which 158 were shortlisted. The jury, led by president David Gallagher, Senior Partner, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Ketchum, went onto award 20 gold, 29 silver and 45 bronze Lions. The Direct jury, led by Mark Tutssel, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett, shortlisted 247 entries from an initial 2578 and awarded 13 gold, 19 silver and 28 bronze trophies.

The Promo & Activation Grand Prix was taken by Ogilvy Brasil, for their entry ‘Immortal Fans’, created for football club Sport Club Recife. The jury looked at 2974 entries before arriving at a shortlist of 265. Rob Schwartz, Global Creative President, TBWA\Worldwide, headed the jury which went on to award 18 gold, 32 silver and 44 bronze trophies.

Shelly Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather, acted as jury president for the Creative Effectiveness Lions, which in its third year received 120 entries. Of the 12 shortlisted entries, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam took the Grand Prix for ‘Heineken’s Legendary Journey: Justifying a Premium the World Over’ and a further six Creative Effectiveness Lions were awarded.

Delegates attending the Festival have already experienced an exceptional content programme with speakers that have included Actor, Producer and Musician Jack Black; Formula One Driver Jenson Button; Singer Melanie Brown and industry names from Andrew Robertson, President, CEO, BBDO Worldwide to Nick Law, Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA. Running alongside the seminars, other content streams include Workshops, Forums, TechTalks and Master Classes.

Anyone who hasn’t made it to the Festival can tune into Lions Live, where once a day a seminar will be streamed live across the globe. The general public have voted to choose the seminar which will go live each day, with tomorrow’s seminar coming from Leo Burnett and Contagious. The seminars can be viewed and further information found at www.youtube.com/canneslions. Offering exclusive interviews, seminar clips and daily highlights from across the Festival, Cannes Lions TV is updated every day with the first of the highlights videos now available to view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krxDYvApK2A.

The Game Changers Exhibition officially opened its doors on Saturday to both delegates and the general public. Celebrating the campaigns that have changed the brand communications industry forever, the exhibition showcases the ads and creativity that have altered the shape of advertising. Other exhibitions at the Festival include a retrospective look at 60 years of Cannes Lions, featuring programmes, press releases and other memorabilia from across the decades, as well as exhibitions of the shortlisted and winning work as and when they are announced.  

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is currently taking place in Cannes, France and is being attended by close to 12,000 delegates. The winning work from tonight’s awards will be available to view on www.canneslions.com from tomorrow.

Here is Cannes Lions TV: Highlights from Day 1-

Ogilvy & Mather Sydney has won a coveted Creative Effectiveness Lion for its integrated ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, while also taking home a Grand Prix in Promo and Activation for Ogilvy Brasil’s ‘Immortal Fans’ initiative on the very first day of awards at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2013.

‘Share a Coke’ launched in Australia in 2012 before rolling out across the globe as a result of its impact: in just three months consumption of Coca Cola by Australian young adults had increased by 7%. The initiative built on Coke’s sharing positioning, encouraging members of the public to personalise bottles of Coca Cola with their friends’ names, as well as their own.

The initiative was one of just seven campaigns to be honoured with the competitive award at this year’s Cannes Lions. The category – now in its third year – only considers work which won a Gold Lion in the previous year.

Worldwide Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy & Mather, Tham Khai Meng, said: “The most creative work is also the most effective, and here is the indisputable proof.  "Share a Coke," which rounded up a pride of Lions at last year's Cannes is back to bring home a coveted Effectiveness Lion. This infectious idea helped Coke pick up the Lion's share of sales in Australia.”

Ogilvy Brasil’s ‘Immortal Fans’ campaign for Sport Club Recife introduced the world’s first ever organ donor card from a football team, encouraging football fans to become immortal by registering as donors. Over 51,000 people have registered for a card, and organ donation in Brazil has increased by 41%.

Tham Khai Meng added: “This Grand Prix-winning work from Sport Club Recife connects the bone-deep passion of its fans with a cause that touches the heart. This idea has emotional impact and a strong message. Die-Hard Fans knocked me out cold … it seems to have hit the judges with the same force.”

On day one of awards at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity Ogilvy & Mather took home 10 Gold, 12 Silver, and 15 Bronze Lions (full breakdown below).