[Cannes Lions judges] Cannes through the eyes of a Media Lions judge

Chris Botha: My Cannes experience so far can be broken up into two categories – life and work. Life being these beautiful experiences that we are lucky enough to experience, and work being, well, the work. The real reason we’re actually here.

So let’s get the straight to the fun stuff. Life... Life in Cannes is absolutely amazing. The weather is unbeatable, and the little town is beautiful. Cannes is a small town probably the size of Klerksdorp (yes, I compared Cannes to Klerksdorp). The residents here are mostly old ladies with little dogs that shit on the side walk, and older very, very, very, very, very, very rich men who drive Bentleys, Ferraris, Porsche and Lamborghinis all day every day. They take their yachts out for a spin during the day, and sit around smoking cigars at night. Nice life.

I was lucky enough to attend a HAVAS function on the roof of one of the buildings on the beach line, and was blown away by the views. The Côte D’azur is really just so special.

La vida loca

And then came Monday, when somewhere in the region of 11 000 media and marketing people arrived out of nowhere, adding some much-needed youth to the town. Let’s just say since Monday, I have slept in the region of seven hours in total. La vida loca indeed.

So the work? The work has been a mix between distinctly average and absolutely superb. There were 2900 entries into the Media section of Cannes Lions this year. The one central theme that came through strongly is that media and communication is no longer something that can be put into one box. Certain ideas entered as an Outdoor idea had a mobile element to them, had a digital and social element to them, and had an ambient element to them.

The mix between what is creative and what is media has also completely blurred. I would venture to say that, in years to come, there won’t be any more categories such as Print, Radio, Outdoor and definitely not Digital, just one simple category called “Communication”.

Real sense of social and business responsibility

The other theme that amazed me was the real sense of social and business responsibility that the campaigns had. Some of the work is really game-changing and – more importantly – world-changing.

There was an incredibly special entry from Tunisia on a campaign to rebuild the country that is excellent, and really had some amazing results. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund, not the wrestling one) created a format to create a document in which it is impossible to print!! How amazing, and what implications it has for deforestation.

The winning work, for Tesco in Korea, had an amazing business insight. It changed the way Tesco does business in the country, and moved it to the no. 1 retail brand in the country. Absolutely amazing work! As expected, it had a massive mobile element to it, and could have far-reaching implications for the way ALL RETAILING in any way shape or form is done.
SA work is seriously world-class

Lastly, advice to my fellow workers in the SA market? Well, all I can say is that our work is seriously world-class. South Africans should enter more entries. I could easily think of two or three campaigns within our agency alone that would have been great contenders. Markets such as Brazil, Colombo, and Argentina are superb, and, in my opinion, streets ahead of the US or UK.

So come on, South Africa, let’s bring the Lions back to Africa in 2012.

Miss and love you all. Promise to have a Coca-Cola on you all tonight... sometime...

Chris Botha, joint MD of The Media Shop
2011 Media Lions judge
@chrismediabotha