The Media area has been highlighted as, up till now and with good chances of continuing in the same way, the most democratic of all, with ample distribution of its prizes, including small markets that rarely ever go back home with Lions in hands. 55 Lions, including the Grand Prix, were granted to 25 countries. The main prize was given to Sweden, and the most awarded countries were the United States and Germany, who also were (in reverse order) the ones with the most subscriptions.

United Kingdom and Brazil didn’t do very well, as they were the third and fourth biggest contestants, and will come back home with only two and one Lion respectively. The Grand Prix, the five Golden Lions, 17 Silver and 32 Bronze were granted to 25 different countries, 11 of which are taking a single Lion home, and only 4 countries stood out: The United States, with two Gold Lions, two Silver Lions and three Bronze, in top position; Germany with one Gold Lion, two Silver Lions and three Bronze, came in second; Japan with one Gold Lion, one Silver Lion and three Bronze, in third; Belgium with one Gold and one Silver came fourth.

In area’s the general score, the United States comes first, with 61 points (two Gold Lions, two Silver Lions, three Bronze and 28 finalists); ahead of Germany, with 47 points (one Gold Lion, two Silver Lions, three Bronze and 12 finalists); and Japan with 33 (one Gold Lion, one Silver Lion, three Bronze and 12 finalists).

It wasn’t such a good year for Brazil. We had 104 competitors, only seven of them were placed in the shortlist, and we ended up with one single Bronze Lion – granted to “Moviestar”, by Lew Lara/TBWA to Nokia, that won in Best use of Cinema.

With identical performance there were expressive markets such as France, India, Argentina and Mexico, but also much less relevant countries in the advertising world, like Colombia and the Philippines. Even very small markets like Costa Rica and Dominican Republic had a more expressive score than Brazil.

The Grand Prix went to the “MMS” project, by Swedish Forsman & Bodenfors (awarded Media Agency of the Year) for a pension fund named AMF. Having the youth as target, the main platform was the MMS and the mobile part was well integrated with the other Medias, generating a high level of interactivity and great results for the client.

Another impacting piece, awarded with two Golden Lions and runner up for the Grand Prix, was the “Fresh Salad” panel, by Chicago Leo Brunett to McDonald’s, an action that integrated the mobile platform beautifully into a more traditional mass media (outdoor). 

It is also important to note that nearly 80% of the Lions, including the GP and all of the Gold ones, were awarded to traditional full service agencies, rather than media agencies. Even considering that the Cannes’ bias is creation oriented rather than media business oriented, there lies an alert to the media agency’s necessity to keep on incorporating, as they have been doing, creative area and personnel within their structure.

After all, “all the clients want is a good job done, and that obligates media agencies to seek for creative talent and traditional creative agencies to increase their media expertise”, reminds Pablo Duran, Havas Media’s Colombian judge.

Translation from portuguese to english by Eduardo Bonatto.