This year at Cannes, cyber jury president Bob Greenberg declared that online advertising had come out of the corridor. As a member of his jury, I saw the power of this 'big thinking' in work from countries as far apart as Korea, Poland and Brazil - the power to sway emotions, not just to drive clicks. The two Grand Prix winners exemplified this fact but they also stood in fascinating contrast to each other.
The NEC Ecotonha project, a site on which people 'nurture a tree collaboratively and at the same time contribute to the actual environment' (trees planted by NEC on Kangaroo Island), represents the web's collective power and the potential to do good. It also happens to be a beautiful piece and very technologically advanced. In contrast, the San Silvestre Vallecana campaign, based on an urban legend about Madrid's famous bear statue coming to life, seems simple and within reach for most agencies out there.
The jury strongly connected with this work because it is a big idea, well and consistently executed online but easily could have extended across any medium and would have been strongly complemented by TV, press and outdoor in particular. These very different pieces typified the best of what we hope will inspire the future of online. But there are other trends which will have a huge impact on this future.
For some time now, agencies have tried to harness the potential of viral marketing. As a result, work in this category (once nothing more than TV ideas which had been rejected or were un-airable, or toilet humour) is maturing. Original, purpose-made film and flash movies, fun interactive games and the wonderfully strange have emerged as marketers are discovering that this medium can also entertain. Branded video content is another category which will continue to experience immense growth as bandwidth expands. We're all familiar with Fallon's landmark BMW Films, but more recent work, films they have completed for Amazon, in which you can buy the items in the films by shopping from the credits, show a remarkable progression. In fact, even the lowly banner continues to progress, with strong performance by (and even public acceptance of) banners with a high level of interactivity.
Engaging, entertaining, immersive and experiential, online continues to evolve as a medium and is providing richer opportunities to connect with an audience which is, in turn, increasingly leaning forward to interact.
