Among the latest group of Grand Prix agency winners at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity were: R/GA New York and Volontaire, Stockholm, which each earned Cyber Grand Prix honors; Serviceplan, Munich, which copped the Design Grand Prix; and 72andSunny, Amsterdam, which earned the Press Grand Prix.
The latter came for United Colors of Benetton’s controversial “Unhate” campaign, specifically the spots “Paslestine & Israel,” “U.S. & Venezuela,” and “Germany & France,” each showing the leaders of those countries kissing one another on the lips. “U.S. & Venezuela,” for example, showed Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez locking lips.
Meanwhile R/GA garnered its Cyber Grand Prix for “Nike+ Fuel Band.” The genesis came two y ears ago when Nike presented R/GA with the idea of a device that tracks your daily activity and a common, universal metric called Fuel for every active body out there. They asked R/GA to design the entire user experience. The agency ensured ease of use: set your goal, and get from red to green. If you meet your goal, animations celebrate your performance. Hit a streak and Fuelie shows up to cheer you on. Data visualizations show where you were most active daily, weekly, monthly, and beyond. R/GA created Bluetooth synch technology so when you finish your day, your Fuel is wireless synced to the platform. NikeFuel levels the playing field, and fits into your life.
As for Volontaire’s Cyber Grand Prix recipient, the honor went to Swedish Institute/Visit Sweden’s “Curators of Sweden.”
The concept called for Sweden to become the first country to let go of an official communication channel and hand it over to its citizens. Ordinary Swedes are @sweden one week at a time. Tweet by tweet, the image of Sweden is built: dynamic, innovative and deeply human. The initiative drew 26,000 followers from 120 countries in six weeks. Real interaction, thousands of conversations. The project inspired 21 countries and cities to do the same and was featured in major media globally for a PR value of more than $19.8 million.
And winning the Design Grand Prix was Munich agency Serviceplan for Austria Solar’s “The Solar Annual Report 2011.” The entry was a printed annual report that could only be read under sunlight. Therefore, the most challenging part was to determine the right mixing ratio of the photochromatic colors, in order to render the report all white under artificial light. After much experimentation, the right amount of environmentally friendly photochromatic colors were deployed so that nothing could be seen without UV exposure. The remarkable presentation underscored Austria Solar as an innovative organization.
Directing Duo Mindcastle Joins Farm League For Commercials and Branded Content
Film company and certified B Corporation Farm League has added directing duo Mindcastle--consisting of Casey Warren and Danielle Krieger--to its roster for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Mindcastle has spent a decade building a body of work that takes viewers from energetic anthemic sports campaigns to emotional narrative stories to big worlds layered with CGI and VFX. The common link through each genre is their crafted, highly cinematic visual language and grounded performances from believable heroes.
After developing their cinematic eye through photography, they first began directing when ESPN approached them to create a piece from the NFL draft. This snowballed into travel across the globe for numerous films, commercials and TV shows, and collaborations with talent including Derek Jeter, Floyd Mayweather, and Guillermo del Toro. Mindcastle’s work for Adidas, Questrade and Patron shows the spectrum of their worlds and themes.
In a joint statement, Mindcastle shared, “Farm League’s work has an energy and dynamism to it where it’s not only defined by a strong visual style, but it also captivates your heart. We love the passion and mindset that the Farm League team brings to each project, including their drive to infuse a creative-first ethos into each project. We are incredibly excited to dig in together to continue expanding our roots of memorable and dynamic narratives.”
Tim Lynch (TL), Farm League Founder and EP, commented, “Mindcastle’s passion for telling big, crafted stories struck me immediately. They create worlds that are visually intriguing and grounded in humanistic performances, exactly the balance we seek at Farm League. We can’t wait to see where their vision can go... Read More