This year there are 41 different sub-categories under digital in Cannes Lions. Only this by itself, is a great evidence of how digital landscape is diversed and extended. As I always mention, creativity comes in many different forms and shapes in today’s advertising world. Be it an illustration, a motion graphic, a social platform, an integrated campaing, storytelling, use of video or a branded game. There are countless oppurtunities and connections. Below you can see the Cyber sub-categories.
Cannes Lions 2014 is over. My main interest is Cyber Lions of course :) This year there are about 41 different sub-categories under 9 different Cyber main categories. The most-crowded categories are Craft and Social, as you may guess.
I will share the outstanding projects of this year briefly, here we go:
Pharrell Williams – 24 Hours of Happy collected many Cyber Lions in different sub-categories such as user experience, interface & navigation, use of video, microsite, interactive video and overall aesthetic design. It deserved anyway.
The Scarecrow, digital campaign of Chipotle Mexican Grill, was another star of this year in Cannes Lions. The overall campaign got Cybers in Integrated multi-platform campaign, storytelling, animation & motion graphics and use of video. This campaign really showed again, how different moving parts a big idea can have, mainly digital components.
Live Test Series from Volvo Trucks of course was another hit of this year. The epic split, one of the series, quickly became an internet phenomenon. Te campaign got Cyber Lions in engagement platform, webisodes/series, integrated multi-platform campaign.
Check them out here: http://winners.canneslions.com/2014/interactive/index.cfm?award=1
A couple of my other favorite award winner projects are;
If We Made It from Heineken,
Speaking Exchange from CNA,
Melbourne Remote Control Tourist from Tourism Victoria,
Sweetie from International Childs Aid Organization.
Check all the winners;
In complex digital era, each type of creative agency needs “whole-brained” account people. It means they have to be talented both strategically and logistically. This is obviously a challenge but these 2 skill sets are vital for any client’s satisfaction, especially in emerging digital landscape.
Logistic skills are to necessary to build a great coordination among clients and resources. It is important to ensure a quality service, day to day operations and being the main client-facing function in the agency. This is more or less similar in lots of agency types for decades. Managing budgets, allocation resources, daily communications and reportings.. These of course have huge importance, but the fundamentals of this position.
The second skill set I believe, is the most differentiating part of an account person: Strategic skills. In complex digital media landscape, the account person should be competent of the new advertising dynamics. They should be a well equipped advisors for clients in the first place. Account person have to interpret clint’s briefs, with a deep understanding of client’s each marketing initiative. They are also the people who has to ensure the projects are done according to the client specification and on brief. Lastly, account managers of new era must definitely have a creative edge.
In digital creative agencies, another challenge of account people is to handle the complexity of digital assignments. That is where project managers are taking to the stage. However, account people still have to be accountable in project objectives, coordination, performance and effectiveness.
Since account management is a vital function of a creative agency, account management people have to raise the bar to be the best in such dynamic business.
It is always a pleasure to share about Voden :) So, who are we?
We are a creative agency digital at core based in Istanbul. We create engagement rather than advertising for digitally enabled audiences of new communication era. And to us, engagement is any form of interaction. Whether it is a website, microsite, digital campaign, social media presence, video, story, platform, game or application. We create meaningful content and experience for audiences independent from any form and any medium. And social is at heart of what we do.
We are 60 talented people with a great enthusiasm and vision to craft effective communication plans & executions for our brands, in new, extremely complex media landscape.
Some of our clients are; Coca-Cola Company, Peugeot, Turkish Airlines, Kellogg’s, Johnson & Johnson, AXA, Avea, VakıfBank, Watsons, Veet, Odeabank, İnci.
I love our brands and our people.
Here is a piece of our work.
Agencies need both generalists and specialists. These two expression is my favorite in order to have a better understanding of the people and talents in the agency.
Generalists are the people who need to know a little about a lot of things! They need to be fluent in marketing, advertising world, new trends, technologies and creative process. These are the client-facing people and generally are senior and higher representatives of the agency. A generalist will be an effective advisor for the clients and capable of creating, evaluating and recommending creative & strategic approach in the complex digital landscape.
Speialists are the people who know a lot about a little! Their talent and execution is the power of the work being done in the agency. Especially in digital agencies there roles are very important to build an innovative approach, technology mastering and visual quality.
Here is Voden people and I love them all!
People & culture are the only power of a creative agency. And creativity comes in many different forms and shapes in digital era. So it is vital for each and every Voden people to come up with innovative and creative solutions for our brands whether it is strategy, design, development, copywriting, account management and other.
The passion, talent and enthusiasm of our people are the main success drivers of our brands.
Both brands and agencies used to run for a big idea. The agencies used to work to craft one big, TV centric, broadcast campaign. But this approach is over now.
Digital landscape also transformed the creative approach for crafting ideas. A core creative idea may come up with a lot of tactical ideas and executions which will provoke conversations among target audience. So, for agency people; creatives should not just focus to find a very “big idea”. Because in digital, creativity comes in many different forms. What brands need is to craft a lot of integrated tactical creative ideas & executions, originated from a single core creative idea, that can live in a number of channels.
There will always be “big ideas”, and we will be running to get them. But a big idea is most effective when the agency also crafts other extensions/interpretations of the idea in each different channels in an engaging way.
Digital marketing projects require a “dynamic” production process. Which is totally different than any other advertising production process in marketing communications. Let me briefly explain.
For example a website is never done. You have to always track, analyze and optimize. Or a digital campaign production is never done when it is on air. You have to put a lot of energy behind a campaign even after it goes live. Analytics and sentiments lead us to change a flow, update a page, add&drop a function or respond instantly to a user feedback. Or think about social media; the content and conversation is always evolving according to the user generated contents and co-creations.
And yes you are right, it requires huge effort and collaboration :)
Having a group of people who can complete digital projects isn’t the same as have an agency that thinks and works in a digitally-centric way. Having a digital “capability” is not the same as having a digital “competency”.
Exposure, broadcasting, display are the elements of traditional advertising. But in digital we try to build engagement, interaction, experience and conversation.
Ben bizim yaptığımız işi aslında böyle özetliyorum. İnsanlar ile etkileşim kurma, interaksiyon yaratabilme, bir kullanıcı deneyimi yaşatma ve diyaloğa girme.. Pazarlama iletişimi için ne kadar değerli şeyler öyle değil mi? Ve bir o kadar zor. İşte dijitalin özeti; çok meşakkatli ve çok değerli :)
