Sweet Adieu from the International Advertising Festival at Cannes!

Well, friends, they’ve wrapped the ceremony celebrating outdoor advertising in all its glory. Diesel and its “Be Stupid” campaign was the big winner, along with an ambient piece for a beer I never heard of. We’ve moved through press as well, awarding the Grand Prix to a Lat Am campaign for Billboard Magazine, which, incidentally, would have made extraordinary out-of-home.

I’m going to leave you with a few of my favorite pieces from the show (posted above), though I do not have the supporting credits for them. Ah, well, good outdoor should speak for itself, no?

Keeping this blog has been a privilege for me, as was hosting your 2010 OBIE Awards in Phoenix Arizona. I hope you appreciated my efforts here as much as I did! OOH has a special place in my advertising heart.

I deeply enjoy my commitments to the OAAA. Moving forward, I invite you all to visit my “home” blog, the Gods of Advertising, where I post several times a week about creativity, marketing, and other decidedly more heady issues! Or follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Steffan1

Two new categories indicitive of outdoor's growing stature in Cannes.

Billboard, Palais des Festivals

This year two grand prizes must be awarded in the Outdoor Lions category, one for Billboards & Street Furniture and Posters, one for Ambient. In 2009, only one Grand Prix was awarded, for the Zimbabwean “fight the Regime” campaign from TBWA/Hunt/Lacaris in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Not that anyone from Cannes’ advisory board is asking, but in an already vast sea of categories and possibilities, I actually like this change. A lot. Outdoor advertising is growing in stature and diversifying in forms. The advent of digital technologies has opened up more possibilities for OOH than in any of the other mass media. Read that last sentence again. It’s pretty amazing. Most people think the future of marketing is online –and maybe much of it is- but ‘signs’ will always be with us.

My opening remarks at this year’s OBIEs were all about the importance and longevity of signs, the text of which can be found here: http://godsofadvertising.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/hosting-the-2010-obie-awards-consumating-my-love-affair-with-posters/

Life after the 2010 OBIE Awards

Coming off hosting the 2010 OBIE awards (What a blast that was!), I’ve agreed to blog about the outdoor category from the Cannes International Advertising Festival, June 20-26th.

Cannes is the end-all/be-all of advertising awards shows. Given the international vibe, I think exploring OOH through its lens will be fun and meaningful for all of us.

In deference to evolving technologies and the growing interactivity of outdoor, the festival has added some new categories this year, including indoor applications.

Like all the categories in Cannes, the competition is fierce. Typically, the USA does not win as many Lions as certain other countries, although in OOH most OBIE Hall-of-Fame winners have been historically well represented.

Below are links to the very international jury as well as last year’s big outdoor winners. In addition, please visit me daily on my personal blog, Gods of Advertising: http://godsofadvertising.wordpress.com/

http://www.canneslions.com/lions/archive_list.cfm?playlist_id=4322&pg=4

http://www.canneslions.com/enter/juries.cfm?juryid=3