Cannes Lions, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in new venture

Grand Challenges Explorations: Aid is Working. Tell the World is a call for action that aims to inspire the world's greatest brand communicators to come up with an idea that will help solve a global problem.

Any individual, team, agency or company can submit a communications idea simply expressed on just two-pages, based on the challenge issued through the foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations programme. The brief calls for new and innovative ways of telling the real story behind global aid.

"The global Cannes Lions community is made up of the world's greatest communicators who are solving problems for clients all day every day," says Philip Thomas, Cannes Lions CEO. "Imagine if our community could harness this creativity to solve a global problem with an outstanding idea expressed on just two pieces of A4 paper? Imagine if a great idea emerged, and if that idea was honed and improved by the best thinkers in the industry? And imagine if there was the money to actually make something happen, to create the idea."

The awards

Up to 10 participants will be awarded US$100 000 for the development of their idea - and the chance to be mentored by the Grand Prix Winners from Cannes Lions 2011, who have come together to form the 'Cannes Chimera', possibly the greatest collection of creative talent ever assembled. Successful projects will then have the chance to seek additional funding up to US$1 million to bring their idea to fruition.

Tom Scott, director, Global Brand & Innovation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "Aid is effective, but the story of aid isn't breaking through. Now more than ever it's critical that we look at new and innovative ways to change the debate. We are excited to partner with Cannes Lions to help ensure that the world's greatest creative minds can put their energy against a really important challenge."

How to take part

Grand Challenges Explorations: Aid is Working. Tell the World is open to everyone. The idea has to be submitted on two sides of A4 paper between now and 15 May. In the summer, all the ideas will be judged anonymously, solely on their merit, stripping everything back to the purity and creativity of the idea itself. The jury will be made up of the Cannes Chimera, as well as members of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's review board and a small group of panel experts. Up to ten of the most brilliant ideas may be selected as finalists to each receive US$100 000 to further develop the idea.

In the autumn, Cannes Lions will fly the finalists and the Cannes Chimera to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus in Seattle, USA. There, the Cannes Chimera will draw upon their different skills and expertise to help hone the winning ideas and mentor their creators. The ideas can then be re-submitted to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a chance of winning up to US$1m to put them into practice. There, the originators will be invited back to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in 2013 to show the rest of the global advertising community what they produced and the difference it has made.

The Cannes Chimera

Cannes Lions has created a group, The Cannes Chimera, made up of one senior creative from the award-winning agencies of each of the 2011 Cannes Lions Grand Prix winning pieces of work. The Chimera will advise the programme, review the submissions, and mentor the finalists as they develop their projects. Go to The Cannes Chimera to see the Cannes Chimera consultancy board. South Africa is represented by Rob McLennan, executive creative director, Net#work BBDO, Johannesburg.

A new challenge will be set each year to harness the power of creativity for the greater global good. Each year, a new Cannes Chimera will be formed with the respective Grand Prix winners. Previous years' members will remain part of the Cannes Chimera consultancy board, which will grow year on year.

Go to http://www.grandchallenges.org/can for more information about Grand Challenges Explorations: Aid is Working. Tell the World. For more information about the Cannes Chimera, go to http://www.canneslions.com/chimera.

Key features of the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative are:

• A short application. Two-page applications are accepted online at https://gce.gatesfoundation.org/_layouts/GCE/Pages/login.aspx
  
• Rapid turnaround time. We will select grants in approximately 5 months from the proposal submission deadline.
  
• We review for novel ideas that show great promise. Our review process is based on reviewers with a track record in identifying innovative ideas selecting the proposals they find most pioneering - no consensus or peer review is needed.
  
• Phase I grants of US$100 000 are awarded initially; projects have one opportunity to apply for a follow-on Phase II grant of up to US$1m.
  For more information about Grand Challenges Explorations, go to http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Pages/introduction.aspx

So, what is a Chimera?

The Chimera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the centre of her spine. The term Cannes Chimera is with thanks to Crispin Porter + Bogusky

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