Cannes 2015: Graham Fink on judging for Titanium & Integrated Lions

Key takeaways from Fink:

• It is getting more difficult to judge Titanium and Integrated Lions in many ways because it used to be about breakthrough ideas which are provocative and point to a new direction in the industry. However, there is the Innovation Lions now, so it can't be about innovation so much. But entries are judged on the basis of three main criteria: the quality of the idea and freshness of the creativity; the level of risk (the element that lifts the campaign from good-creative to exciting-creative), and the implementation and consistency of the idea working across different channels. 

• A lot of badly-made case study videos don't explain what "the judge is supposed to be judging" and are almost trying to "sell you into giving an award".The level of detail that the jury now scrutinises include: individual frames, mobile websites in real-time and photoshopped giveaways. It was "a bit like a forensic lab" operation, he said, that also had the judges calling around to "investigate if certain things were real". 

• A trend Fink saw across the whole festival was a lot of work were about doing good, so much so that "even if you advertise a loaf of bread now, it's about saving people's lives". That is obviously important, but people should not be embarrassed to talk about the selling, he said. The simplest ideas are always the best ones, he reiterated. What Fink loved about the ALS ice bucket challenge that won the Grand Prix For Good was how "stupid and simple" pouring a bucket of water over your head is, yet effective.

Hear words of wisdom from the other judges:

• Jean Lin (video), global CEO of Isobar as well as Cyber Lions jury president

• Yanyan Yang (text), creative director of Baidu, on the Cyber Lions

• Jimmy Lam (video), vice chairman & chief creative officer at DDB China, on the Direct Lions

• Kitty Lun (video), chairman and chief executive officer of Lowe China, on the Press Lions

• Delia Liu (video), chief creative strategy officer at WizAd China, on the Mobile Lions

• Anna Chitty (video), managing director of PHD China, on the Media Lions

• Johnny Tan (video), chief creative officer of BBH China, on the Design Lions

Catch up on Campaign Asia-Pacific's Cannes coverage at campaignasia.com/cannes2015 and coverage by the entire Campaign global team at cannes.campaignlive.co.uk.