Cannes 2015: Should Cyber and Mobile Lions be combined?

Key takeaways from Knaap:

• A lot of smaller cases were getting attention at this year's Cannes Lions, which Knaap found interesting. He sees more briefs that are focused on real business solutions, instead of polishing brand ideas. We will see more of such work that really add value to client businesses in the coming years, he said.

• There are a lot of related categories and sub-categories in Cannes Lions at this moment, and those under Cyber and Mobile should be one category, he said. On one hand, every new platform needs its own category; on the other hand, everything is actually about digital experiences—just executed on different platforms. 

• Currently, a film director has a different status from a digital production director, but Knaap does not agree with this. A digital director has the same influence on the creative output of an idea, and both jobs should be combined eventually, he said. Production agencies need to be in the second layer of credits, Knaap said, but he quoted Sir John Hegerty who once said a winning concept contains 80 per cent idea and 80 per cent execution.

• The most difficult challenge he is facing as a production agency is to create content belonging to the same idea and of the same quality across different platforms but within the same budget. The smartest way is to combine the budget for all the layers of content that needs to be produced for film, digital and mobile, he said. And this will be the modus operandi for MediaMonks' new Shanghai office, to be up and running by year-end.

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.