ENTERTAINMENT FOR MUSIC
MATT EASTWOOD GLOBAL CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, J WALTER THOMPSON
This was my first time judging Entertainment for Music and only the second year of the category at Cannes. In that sense, the category is still evolving. But, over five days, my understanding of the role of artists and composers in the creative process also evolved. We were blessed to have a jury that included mostly artists, composers and music company executives. It was brilliant to see the role of music for brands through their eyes. Interestingly, we all agreed on a similar principle – the music must serve the brand and the brand must serve the music. Only when those two missions aligned did we truly find magic. One of the biggest decisions we made was not to give two Grands Prix like the jury did last year. Our feeling was that choosing one Grand Prix from the two music video categories and then another from all work across the remaining 22 categories seemed unfair. As one juror said: “The categories are all equal. All of those people who lived or died creating the work deserve the same consideration.” So, in choosing the Grand Prix, we looked at the award as a whole and eventually chose “Original is never finished” from Adidas. Not only was it an incredibly complex and wellorchestrated campaign with music at its heart, it spoke to the very manta of Cannes – original is never finished. We felt that it perfectly summed up the essence of Entertainment for Music – brand, creativity and with music at the core.