The Integrated Titanium category debuted at the 52nd annual Cannes International Advertising Festival, and produced four Lion winners, but no Grand Prix honoree. The category was formed to recognize notable creative work that successfully encompasses at least three different media or platforms.
The inaugural Titanium Lion winners were selected from a shortlist that included only eight pieces. Automotive makers drove away with all except one of the honors. Mini Cooper’s “Counterfeit” package out Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, which included online, broadcast, and DVD elements, picked up a Titanium Lion. (Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man directed the DVD and broadcast elements of the package.)
Honda Diesel’s “Grrr,” package, which in addition to its award-winning TV spot–which picked up the film Grand Prix–also included other integrated elements, and earned a Titanium Lion. A package for Volvo, out of Fuel, Amsterdam, won Titanium. The work included Web-based short films and trailers that featured conversations between people in Volvos. One such conversation was with Bethany Hamilton, the surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.
Rounding out the Titanium Lion winners was a Virgin Mobile Australia package created by Host, Sydney, and The Glue Society collective, which directs work out of bicoastal/international @radical.media. Called “5 Cent,” the work features a diminutive rapper modeled after 50 Cent who promotes the fact that calls, text messaging, and other services on Virgin’s phones are five cents. In addition to working on other elements of the campaign, which included spots, online, packaging and print, The Glue Society directed the broadcast portion of the work.
INAUGURAL CATEGORY
While this is the first year that Cannes had a full-fledged Titanium category, there is some history to the honor, which debuted as a single Lion in 2003. The Titanium Lion was created by Dan Wieden, chairman of Wieden + Kennedy, who led the film jury that year, to honor work in any category or combination of categories that displayed innovation in design, thinking, execution and/or sensibility. The very first single Titanium was given to the second round of BMW Films out of Fallon, Minneapolis, and produced by bicoastal RSA USA.
In ’04, from entries across different categories of the Cannes competition, jury chairs could have singled out another Titanium Lion winner. However, judges concluded there was no such deserving work in last year’s overall competition.
Nonetheless, given the evolving nature of the business, the International Advertising Festival decided to create a Titanium category this year, for which entries could be expressly submitted. Chairing the jury for the Titanium category was Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstin & Partners, San Francisco.
Goodby noted that he and his fellow jurors wanted to maintain the high standard of looking for ideas “that point the way forward” when awarding the Titanium honors. “We went back to original intention of the award–of showing the way forward” said Goody. He added that they looked for work that people would turn to as “redefining the way we engage people.” No Grand Prix was awarded this year, related Goodby, because although good work was entered and honored, “none of the pieces were at that level.” He also pointed out that the type of work honored by the Titanium Lions represent the future of both advertising and the Cannes Festival, and would one day become one of the most coveted advertising honors.
Goodby noted that simply being an integrated campaign–i.e. across multiple channels–wasn’t enough to garner a Titanium Lion, and in fact some of the non-winning entries were more integrated than what was awarded.
Titanium jury member Daniel Morel, chairman/CEO of Wunderman, New York, said that one of the trends present in the Titanium work was that it showed that “the consumer is very much in command, and intimacy [between the brand and the consumer] was created through the work.”
Goodby praised Honda for its “groundbreaking strategy of embracing hate,” and said that the Mini package was “transformational work that presents a new way of talking to customers. There is the presence of irony–an assumption that people will get the joke; that they know about fake Rolexes.”
Titanium judge Robert Greenberg, chairman/CEO/chief creative officer of R/GA, New York, noted that the make-up of the Titanium jury itself points to the future of the industry, of how it must collaborate to create groundbreaking work. The 10-member jury comprised senior level people from multiple disciplines, including direct marketing, media, creative and filmmaking, although he cautioned that integration alone wasn’t enough to create a Titanium-winning piece of work.
On the presence of multiple winning campaigns from automakers, Greenberg related that car companies “were one of the first to develop a great consumer experience” online, and it was natural for them to take the lead in moving forward.
