Despite having two Brazilians in the Direct judging committee – board chairman Marcio Salem and USA’s representative Mauro Alencar – we still haven’t managed to bring any Lions back home to Brazil in 2008. Out of nine pieces classified in the short list, none really caught the judges’ eyes. “I believe we had excellent pieces but the judges in general didn’t think they deserved a greater highlight”, states Salem, whose agency hit the shortlist with two pieces. Alencar, San Francisco Publicis Media Dialog’s creative vice-president chose to compare the festival to the soccer world cup: “As if in a soccer championship, one might have the best team and still not win in some year. That doesn’t mean the team is weak”, defended.

Thirty seven Lions were awarded (seven Gold lions, thirteen Silver Lions and seventeen Bronze Lions), and the Grand Prix, considered unanimous within the judges, who granted India the maximum prize, for the the “Lead India” campaign, by JWT India Mumbai to The Times of India. The case involved several communication channels and an ample participation of the country’s population, who was invited to apply for being the new “leader of the people” after the newspaper’s own announcement celebrating 60 years of India’s independence was published. More than 34 thousand subscriptions were received through more than 50 announcements published in the paper and e-mails. After the subscriptions were made, an American Idol like program asked the population to vote in their favourite “leader”. The outcome? One of them was really chosen by the people and is has currently joined a political party in that country.

Shackleton from Madrid was chosen as the Direct Agency of the Year for the second time in a row (last year it was also awarded the Grand Prix), in front of JWT India Mumbai and Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand Auckland.

Differently than last year, when they leaded the scores in a sovereign manner, Germany and the United Kingdom, and this time Australia, which occupied the third place in 2006 and 2007, has also taken the highest post, scoring 36 points (one Gold Lion, one Silver Lion, three Bronze Lions and 15 finalists), side by side with Germany (one Silver Lion, three Bronze Lions and 10 finalists); Spain with 25 points (one Silver Lion, two Bronze Lions and 14 finalists); and India, with 24 points (one GP, one Silver Lion, one Bronze Lion and six finalists) that achieved the same score as Sweden (three Silver Lions and nine finalists).

The United States, ironically Direct Marketing’s home and biggest market in the world, were an even bigger than last year fiasco, when they took home one Gold Lion, two Silver Lions and 4 finalists. This year the country’s achievements were limited to four pieces within the finalists and nothing more.  Listed bellow are the nine Brazilian pieces featured in the shortlist.

– “Russian doll”, by Sun MRM to Club Med in Travel, Entertainment & Leisure

– “Napkins”, by Sun MRM to Club Med in Alternative Media

– “Stolen Picasso”, by Sun MRM to Sulamérica Seguros in Dimensional Mailing

– “Messed-up newspaper”, by Sun MRM to Correio Braziliense in Dimensional Mailing

– “Search”, by Salem to Yahoo in Commercial Public Services

– “Shout”, by Salem to Comunique-se in Dimensional Mailing

– “Mizuno speeding ticket”, by Bullet to Alpargatas in Loyalty and Continuity Schemes

– “Brazilian flip flops”, by MPM to Sulamérica Seguros in Alternative Media

– "Indestructible”, by Wunderman to Land Rover in Cars & Automotive Services

Translation from portuguese to english by Eduardo Bonatto.