The votes are in and Canada has earned a Silver and four Bronze Lions at the second awards show of this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Outdoor

Leo Burnett has another Lion to add to its collection. After winning Bronze in Direct yesterday, James Ready’s coupon billboards nabbed a Silver Campaign Lion in Outdoor today. James Ready has been a profitable client for Leo when it comes to Cannes hardware, earning the agency a Gold last year in this category.

TBWAVancouver was awarded a Bronze for its ads for the BC Lottery Corporation scratch tickets entitled ‘Boat’ and ‘Pool,’ which feature images of those objects appearing to have been sketched with scratch marks like those you’d see on a lottery ticket. BBDO in Toronto also nabbed a Bronze with their clever use of a giant bike lock – attached to a Smart Car where only a bike would normally fit – proving that Smart Cars can fit just about anywhere.

The jury couldn’t pick just one Grand Prix winner, so they chose two. Jury president Tay Guan Hin of Singapore joked that this year they picked the ‘stupidest work,’ selecting a campaign for Diesel by Anomaly in New York that touted the benefits of being stupid with taglines like ‘Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls,’ and ‘Smart critiques. Stupid creates.’

The other Grand Prix winner was courtesy of Argentina – a ‘Teletransporter’ for Inbev’s Andes beer by Del Campo/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. They created a soundproof booth and placed it in bars to target young men out on the town, looking for a night away from their girlfriends. Inside the booth, the men could choose a background noise, such as a hospital or a gym, and call their ladies with a now-air-tight excuse for not being at home. Of course, as the video demonstrated, women can use it too.

The Outdoor jury reiterated what other juries have said – that it’s easy to be seduced by new technology, but at the end of the day, they were looking for that great, simple idea that built the brand and was relevant to it. There were 122 Outdoor winners in total.

Media

The Media jury, led by Starcom MediaVest global CEO Laura Desmond, didn’t choose any Canadian winners this year, but they were certainly impressed by the Grand Prix winner Leo Burnett of Sydney, Australia, for their ‘Eos Photochains’ campaign. It was based on the insight that great photography is not about technology, but about inspiration. Canon invited users to take a photo and select a detail of it to highlight, which acts as inspiration for a new photographer to shoot, thus creating a chain of connected photos and photographers. It became its own social media platform, and the subsequent creative showed real Photochain users holding their actual photos. The campaign has generated 20,000 photos so far, about 97 per day.

‘We think it’s a world-class example of social media because they did an amazing job of integrating advertising, a technology platform and human and consumer interaction. [It was a] terrific way of connecting people and inspiring people to share, which, at the end of the day, is the core of social media,’ Desmond said.

‘We loved the way that, as the photos continued to be uploaded and the photochain was created, the advertising effort with the photos themselves became the medium. So it had a dual ability to both create human interaction and then become a medium that fuelled even more interaction.’

Desmond also noted that the fact that the campaign increased market share by over 50% and that the average amount of time spent on the site was 12 minutes helped Canon’s case.

The jury decision was based on the following criteria, she said: ‘Is this emanating from a simple, human insight? Is this creating an immersive experience? And does this build a brand?’

Radio

Taxi chair Paul Lavoie presided over the Cannes radio jury this year with a mission to find and recognize work that shows the way forward in radio to ‘inspire the next generation.’

Lavoie opened the radio awards press conference by discussing radio’s assets in today’s digital-centric adverse, one being its extraordinary affordability, which in turn enables diversity in the awards roster. ‘You can do great radio anywhere,’ he said. He also commented that radio has always had that characteristic of being participatory: ‘It’s theatre of the mind.’

The jury ultimately found 55 Lion-worthy spots, but no Grand Prix, said Lavoie: ‘At the end of day, we couldn’t find that one campaign that took radio to the next level.’

The jury did however award Canada two Bronze. Juniper Park’s ‘Bears’ spot for the Chicago Tribune took one, and Canadian judge Jane Murray, ACD Ogilvy, said what stood out was ‘really good copywriting.’

When a player gets drafted, we’re there.
When a player gets traded, we’re there.
When a player gets injured, we’re there.
When a golden arm fires like a cannon in the midst of battle, we’re there.
And when the Bears take it all the way and are celebrating in the locker room with some players fresh out of the shower all naked and still dripping with water, we’re…we’re outside, waiting to get the story.
Y’know, when they’re less naked…yeah, wearing clothes.
Chicago Tribune. Our team has your team covered.

Lavoie mentioned that due to its lack of visual distraction, you really see the talent in radio. ‘You can’t hide in radio, it’s like being naked on a squash court,’ he quipped.

The other Canadian Bronze Lion was claimed by Marketel McCann Erickson for its ‘When the Spotlight Hits’ spot for Federation of Quebec’s Alzheimer Societies Memory Walk.

The spot opens with a DJ announcing a young singer/songwriter, Viviane Audet, and her new single. She starts to sing, then begins to forget lyrics:

I yell to you
Say someting
Sombody call…my…
Uh…I…Uh

The v/o then interrupts, and talks about the number of people afflicted by Alzheimer’s and invites listeners to join the Walk for Memory, revealing that Audet is the spokeswoman.

Murray said, ‘That was something that everyone was talking about in breaks even before we decided the awards.’

When asked what was missing overall to take radio to the next level – use of internet radio online capacity? Playing with content integration enough? Smarter targeting? – Lavoie replied: ‘Just going that extra step, using sound in innovative ways, and being more adventuresome with ways radio can interact with people. ‘

Comparing it to the push behind Canada’s athletes for the Vancouver Games, Lavoie concluded, ‘We need full commitment to go for gold.’