The event took place at Ster-Kinekor at The Zone in Rosebank on Thursday, 8 September and at Cinema Nouveau, V&A Waterfront on Thursday, 15 September. The panelists, who were all judges at Cannes Lions this year, shared their best and favourite creative from the Awards, explaining why they chose this piece of work.

“True winners pop to the top naturally.”

JENNY GLOVER, Cannes Lions juror and ECD of TWBA/Hunt/Lascaris
AD: Rewards by Harvey Nichols; Grand Prix in the Film category

“This advertisement was done on a very small budget, using existing footage with an excellent soundtrack. I chose it because it demonstrates that it is not always about big budgets; it is about a great idea and this is something we need to understand. South Africa can compete on the world stage; it is about being brave and finding brave clients. We cannot complain that we do not have the big budgets, because we have great ideas and there is also still a bit of cowboy in us. The radio category demonstrates this. We did very well in radio – and have done for many years.”

“Purest design is a great business asset.”

NATHAN REDDY, Cannes Lions juror and founder/CEO of Grid
AD: Panasonic charged 21 ways; Grand Prix in the Design category

The battery idea in this piece of creative is a great demonstration of an idea, the use of illustration, the craft of copy and how an idea can engage people. It is also a piece of creative not normally associated with Panasonic, a gigantic tech company. It also shows that design is more than just CIs and logos, while demonstrating the use of technology in design. It is the merging of disciplines, platforms and technologies that provides a seamless experience for consumers. The lesson to us is to stop categorising things.”

“VR is not an idea; it is a tool.”

FRAN LUCKIN, Cannes Lions juror and CCO of Grey Africa in JHB
AD: Jaguar VR prank; won four Lions (a gold, two silvers and a bronze)

“As a judge in the Out of Home (OOH) category, the brief to us was to award real brands doing real work. The Cannes Grand Prix for Outdoor in the category 'Integrated Campaign led by Outdoor' winner, the Brewtroleum campaign by Colenso BBDO in Auckland, New Zealand, is an example of audacity and the scale of the creative was crazy. Both it and the Jaguar VR prank execution are breaking new ground. What got me about the Jaguar idea was that Virtual Reality (VR) is often seen as an idea, when it is in fact a tool. So I loved this idea because it had a sense of humour and they used VR to demonstrate that real life is more exciting while they made people re-feel the intensity of the experience and it blew their preconceived idea away.”

“The time and intensity of judging in Cannes was amazing.”

EOIN WELSH, Cannes Lions juror and CCO of Havas Worldwide JHB
AD: REI's #OptOutside took home nine Lions overall, including a Grand Prix in the Promo & Activation category and in the coveted Titanium category, celebrating non-traditional campaigns.

“Not only did REI not open any of its stores on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States (US), it gave all its staff a paid leave day. It also encouraged the public to join them and spend the day outside, because going outside is good for you. The scale of the campaign – closing all their stores and not just trying it with one store – and the bravery of it – this is the one day that stores in the US make more money than any other shopping day, required real guts. I loved the idea that this was a full-blown promotion in the classic sense, while it was a promotion by technically not doing a promotion.”