A friend of mine - Ben Therrien, who also happens to be a Cannes Creative Leaders Program Alumni shared this fantastic article with me. Its a brilliant read on how the big brand leaders regard winning creative awards.Enjoy.
By: Jonathan Mildenhall
Coca-Cola
had its best year ever at this year’s Cannes Lions, winning 30 awards
including two Grand Prix. In the wake of the event, Coke’s Jonathan
Mildenhall summed up the company’s creative performance for Coke
staffers and drew a line between awards glory and business success.
Here, a version of that article.
The global significance of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
gathers momentum each and every year. This year both official
attendance figures and advertiser entries increased in excess of 20%.
This is quite remarkable when you consider the broader economic
challenges that nearly every business and geography is facing.
So why does the Cannes Lions’ momentum keep growing? From my vantage point I see two main drivers of interest.
Firstly, no other award festival covers so many critical categories
for advertisers. Cannes Lions now boast 18 award categories, including:
Design, Film Craft, Outdoor, Branded Content, the Grand Prix for Good,
Media, Mobile, and arguably the most important, Creative Effectiveness.
The breadth is staggering and it will only continue to grow as more and
more genres of creativity are embraced to drive business growth.
Coke’s "Hands" won the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category
Not only are the categories increasingly broad but so are the
nationalities that Cannes Lions represents. The festival attracts award
entries and delegates from as many markets as The Coca-Cola Company does
business in. While this increasingly global presence at Cannes is
impressive, it is even more beautiful to watch the distribution of
recognition grow to these new regions. This year countries as diverse as
Finland, Peru, Guatemala, Denmark, China, Costa Rica, South Africa, India, Dubai and Turkey all picked up major awards. Long may this
distribution of recognition continue. It certainly makes the global
soup of creativity more interesting for the palette.
But an awards festival that focuses solely on breadth could be
destined for a dull and uninspired future. Cannes is not about volume.
It is absolutely, steadfastly and utterly, committed to quality. And to
me, few things are more important. Cannes Lions simply curates the
world’s finest strategies, ideas, executions and craft. To be recognized
at Cannes is to be recognized by the world’s finest creative minds.
Minds that are not only brilliant, but brutal in their critique of the
work. Winning a Cannes Lion builds careers. Permanently.
I have long been an absolute believer in the correlation between
outstanding creative success and outstanding commercial success. In this
year’s marketing (campaign) for Cannes Lions I am quoted as saying "If
Cannes has taught me one thing, it is that creativity drives
effectiveness. You can not have one without the other. That knowledge
has been instrumental to my career." I have been going to Cannes for
nearly 20 years and can’t help but notice that the the client
organizations recognized as Advertiser of the Year often enjoy periods
of historic financial success at the same time. Let’s take a brief look
at a few of them.
Volkswagen: Recognized as Advertiser of the Year in 2008, the same
year that its share price grew 89% to 283 Euros. This most prolific
period of stock market growth coincides precisely with its most prolific
period of creativity.
P&G: Recognized as Advertiser of the Year in 2007 when its share
price hit an all time high of $74.67, beating the S&P 500 by a
country mile.
Honda: In 2006 Honda was awarded Advertiser of the Year for brilliant
work like "Cog" and "Grrr." During this time, its share price was as
high as $38.50 and its U.K. sales were up 28%. Wow.
Playstation: Was awarded Advertiser of the Year in 2005. Now,
Playstation is a sub-division of Sony so we cannot isolate its share
price. However, what we can do is isolate its sales. During that year it
became the worlds biggest selling gaming console selling a record 100
million units.
BMW: Took the mantle of Advertiser of the Year in 2004. So rightly
deserved when you consider the lasting legacy of BMW films (still held
up by most as the breakthrough work taking advertising into long form
content). As a result of this work, which ultimately landed them the
award, BMW saw a sales increase of 12% and a stock price rise of 16%.
This is huge, especially when you consider the turbulent, post 9/11
period.
Nike: In 2003, the same year that Nike was awarded Advertiser of the
Year, Phil Knight, CEO and Founder, wrote ‘’We decided to cross the
threshold of 9/11. Eight months later we delivered a 14% increase in
earnings and beat the S&P 500 by 45 points. Advertiser of the year
was a defining moment. A Nike moment.”
Swatch: From 1999 – 2001 the S&P 500 did not grow a cent but Swatch reported its steepest growth period on record.
Clearly, the correlation between winning at Cannes and winning in the
marketplace is compelling. That’s one of many reasons why The Coca-Cola
Company places a premium on creative excellence. It is simply makes
sound business sense. The creative industries and client organizations
are in a co-dependent relationship--we need each other. As Phil Thomas,
CEO of the Cannes Lions, puts it: ‘‘The Advertiser of the Year award is
presented to advertisers who have distinguished themselves for the
inspiring, innovative marketing of their brands and who embrace and
encourage the creative bravery of the creative work produced by their
agencies.’’
If you still doubt the correlation between creative and business success, please check out the wonderful book The Case for Creativity,
by author James Hurman. We met in Cannes this year. Credit to James,
he actually spent years analyzing the data. His book is a compelling
read but I have also included a link to his presentation summary. Coke’s "Polar Bowl" won four Lions
I firmly believe that winning at Cannes Lions is important for The
Coca-Cola Company. Good, vibrant, creatively dynamic brands make for
good, vibrant, creatively dynamic companies. And in his beautiful words
of wisdom and insight James concludes his book:
In every case, the companies that have been the most tenacious in
their pursuit of great creativity in their advertising have been the
ones outperforming the stock market and enjoying historic periods of
financial prosperity. And in every case the leaders of those companies
had created a culture of innovation that advertising was just
symptomatic of, but which extended well beyond advertising and into
culture, the products, and the day to day activities of those companies.
A creative day to day that produced the most extraordinary results in
the history of the world’s most illustrious companies.
As I look forward with the above beliefs held firmly in place I am
incredibly excited about the future of The Coca-Cola Company. This year
we took home an all-time high of 30 Cannes Lions. This number is nearly
twice our previous record and included 2 Grand Prix and awards from 3
Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America and the Global team. We won
for Coke, Coke Zero and Sprite. We won across 9 categories and most of
our awards demonstrated a fusion of storytelling, technology, social and
executional excellence.
As for Advertiser of the Year, well that recognition still eludes us.
That said, Cannes Lions makes the call for next year’s advertiser early
in January and this year’s performance leaves me confident that we will
give the industry’s best a run for their money.
Jonathan Mildenhall is vp of global advertising strategy and creative excellence at Coca-Cola.
