Jeremy Hogg’s Cannes Diary #1, #2 and #3
Jeremy Hogg, executive creative director at Howatson+Company is representing Australia on the Cannes Outdoor Lions jury. Hogg, along with most of the other Australian and NZ jurors, writes exclusively for CB.
Cannes Diary #1
Here we are in the south of France. It’s the week before the festival proper, when all the jurors get together after a month of pre-judging to decide what makes the cut, and what wins it all.
And the day started with rain and thunderstorms. Exactly how you’d think of Cannes. I hope none gets into my glass later and waters down the rosé.
Today was all about finalising the shortlist for Outdoor. Online pre-judging narrowed the number of entries down quite a lot. So it may seem like much of the work has been done before we even arrived, but today we got to interrogate each and every one of those pieces, and also debate the merits of reintroducing a few that might have fallen away. It’s the first time our 10 person jury could be in a room together, and it has certainly prompted intense discussion. There’s no such thing as an easy shortlist.
The evening provided a tonal contrast to locking ourselves away in jury rooms for a few days. Welcome drinks at Carlton Beach Club. It’s every bit the Cannes cliché — lovely location, lovely rosé, fun people. I wore linen, but probably not enough. Might need to go shopping while I’m here.
Looking forward to tomorrow where we start to chat about the medals, but for now, la vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin.
Cannes Diary #2
The work is diverse. And very good. There’s some lovely traditional outdoor. And some exciting new ways to use the medium. Simple but great, complex but impressive. All of which has meant that day two of judging has been hard. And long. 13 hours in a room with no windows. Lunch was nice.
In outdoor, there’s no room to hide, even when the category allows for a case study. Every decision made gets scrutinised.
There’s been really interesting chats about scale, familiarity, culture and context.
We finalised our list of bronzes while sitting around a table eating late night pizza in cardboard boxes, which didn’t feel like the glitz and glamour of Cannes, but strangely still felt very much like advertising.
Tomorrow we’ll work out what elevates to silver, gold and Grand Prix.
Cannes Diary #3
Ok, it’s done. What an amazing few days. You learn a lot when surrounded by great people with interesting perspectives on the work. Also, you drink a lot of nice wine when you’re in a beautiful coastal city where lots of ad people come together.
There were a few things we consistently spoke about. Has the brand stood behind the work? Is there strategic consistency — something fresh that is meaningful and instrumental to the brand? Does it matter? Is it interesting and understandable for the audience? Is it solving a genuine problem for the brand?
We have a responsibility to improve the work that people will actually see. Not just the work that will impress our peers.
Of course there’s a few pieces I loved that didn’t make the cut. Every juror feels the same. But that’s the nature of advertising. There is always room for personal preference and opinion. What I do hope stands up, is that each and every winning piece of work, from shortlist to Grand Prix, provoked a conversation. And was universally agreed as being a piece of work that deserved recognition.
Above all that, to the work at the pointy end — I applaud all those who helped conceive, buy, create, shape and protect the work. You can see the care that has gone into it.
The best of the work was inspiring. A mix of brilliance, originality and immaculate execution. A representation of what we should be striving for on every brief, not just for a couple of weeks in the south of France.
Thanks for having me.