MERCADEO Versión en español
The Branded content category at 2015 Cannes Lions causes controversy
Manuela Walfenzao| 13 de octubre de 2015
David Lubars, CCO de BBDO Worldwide
CCO at BBDO Worldwide, David Lubars was the president of branded content jury at 2015 Cannes Lions. Its one of the newest festivals categories, established in 2012. For the past two years, jurors opted not to award the festival’s highest prize, the Grand Prix, which has unleashed controversy. According to Philip Thomas, Cannes Lions CEO, branded content has seen a consistent increase in submissions over its four years. “This year it was one of the standout categories, with an 18% increase in entries” he said. The first year saw 800 submissions, while 2015 saw 1,394. “This proves that the creation and appetite of this type of content is most definitely there, but is it of a Grand Prix standard? That’s very much in our juries’ hands” Thomas explained. For Lubars, work of that standard existed, just not among the 2015 entries. At the Cannes press conference he said: “I believed the category likely would have had the Grand Prix winner with Honda and its agency Wieden & Kennedy London for {The Other Side;http://hondatheotherside.com/d.php}, a digital interactive effort.” For some juries, contributing to the confusion is the broadness and ambiguity of the category itself. Other creatives consider that its a problem when it comes to judge content and efforts must be done to award the Grand Prix.
