GAYTMs only winners for Australia in PR Lions
The GAYTM campaign from Whybin\TBWA Melbourne and Eleven PR is the only Australian campaign to pick up metal in the PR category at Cannes this year, despite ten campaigns making the shortlist.
The colourful cashpoints, placed around Sydney for Mardi Gras in January, got two Silver Lions, with the Grand Prix going to the US Chipotle Mexican Grill The Scarecrow campaign.
However, Australian juror Claire Salvetti, managing director of Mango, said the results show a rise in quality of entries from around the world.
“This was not about work weak entries,” she added. “We had a really tough time trying to choose which entries won medals, because there were many deserving ones they didn’t quite make the Gold, Silver and Bronze.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWZmm6UY5L8
Debate in the jury room turned to whether advertiing agencies were still outshining PR specialists in the category, with Edelman’s Chipotle work the first time the winner has been entered by a PR agency.
This year saw an uptick in PR agencies entering themselves, rather than as named agencies, with 37 per cent of entries from them, compared to 36 last year.
Salvetti told Mumbrella: “It should be recognised that GAYTMs had Eleven PR front and centre of that campaign.”
She also questioned the focus put by many on the ownership of ideas, adding: “In my experience of coming from a group everything is very collaborative, it’ not about these headlines of creative agencies being front and centre, it’s more collaborative.”
“Behind every brilliant earned media campaign is a very talented earned media specialist. We are representing the craft here, and it surprises me there’s so much debate about ownership, ideas are becoming democratised.
“What we as PR preople are brilliant at doing is leaving our egos at the door. For us it’s about a brilliant idea, not who owns it.”
The winning campaign The Scarecrow centred around an online video about a scarecrow looking for wholesome food, with the earned media campaign extending into a game and then a paid element after four weeks.
The Scarecrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE
Alex Hayes in Cannes
Nice. Thanks Claire. Great to have you representing over there. The submission and cumulative points system at Cannes actually makes it very difficult to share ownership of a campaign, which is why I think so many agencies fall under the radar. Mumbrella Awards are actually pretty good at encouraging joint entries.
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Well written Claire and well done Rob.
I’m especially happy to see a campaign like GAYTM that so well represents a unique facet of Sydney life and thus a part of Australian culture on a world stage, in contrast to some of our less enticing exports – Sir Les Patterson, Crocodile Dundee, Julia Gillard et al.
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