Cannes 2016: Vague links between new technology and media creativity in Asia

In the Media Lions, the honour of Grand Prix finally went to Burger King’s 'McWopper' from Y&R Auckland, which also won the in Print & Publishing just the other day.

Asian countries also won 7 medals including 2 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze, among a total of 28 entries from Asia shortlisted. As a Korean, I was a little bit disappointed with the result of Korea’s performance which has only one shortlist this year. 

The two gold medals are from Thailand (Behind the leather: Use of ambient: Large scale) and China (SMS Last words: Public health & Safety). But both golds are for charities and non-profit organisations, which are not eligible for the Grand Prix.

The result for Asia was not bad, but it could be better in consideration of the economic status of Asia and the size of Asian populations. The media jury has tried to look for excellent campaigns that delivered a balance between data, technology and creativity.

During the judging process, there were several discussions among jury members about the difficulty to judge due to the ambiguity between new technology itself and media creativity. Our conclusion was that even though new technology is amazing, if it doesn’t convey any sexy creative idea, then that’s just new and amazing technology. 

So many Asian entries this year just tried to show the new and amazing technology adopted for their campaigns but failed to demonstrate how media creativity was added to the tech.

Asian consumers are most advanced in tech-savviness, but the entries are just nice and fancy product demonstrations.

Where is the media idea? 

Anyway, it has been a wonderful experience for me and to remind me that ‘less is more’. We in the advertising industry should try to balance between creativity and technology when we connect brands with consumers.

Jaewoo Kim is media planning director at TBWA Korea