CANNES JUDGES’ TAKE ON THE WINNING BRANDS
Members of this year’s juries discuss the evaluation process, the winners, key themes and their personal favourites
CREATIVE DATA SIMON JAMES GLOBAL LEAD, DATA ANALYTICS, SAPIENTRAZORFISH
Rapidly evolving technology is expanding the possibilities of what marketers can achieve with data. Yet it is often the simple ideas that evoke the biggest response. “AIMEN” for Canal+ was probably the most creative use of artificial intelligence and IBM Watson – it was on-brand, salient and applied AI to do things that a human can’t do. For creative teams to adopt data-driven technologies, they need to be exposed to campaigns like this one. Other gold winners had societal good at their heart and behavioural change on their mind. “Reword” is an anti-bullying browser plug-in. Sberbank turned an outdoor campaign into a market research tool to link small businesses to their communities. “AAMI Smartplates” helps transform how young people learn to drive. The Grand Prix winner, “Care counts”, was based on a simple yet compelling insight that school attendance is affected by access to clean clothes. Whirlpool didn’t feature this in an ad. It installed its machines in 47 schools and gathered data for a year until it had proof, then told the world about it. At a time when society is worried about who is gathering data for what purpose, it is vital that brands big and small demonstrate that there is value in data – not just to fill their own pockets but to have a positive impact.