Tim Devine’s Cannes Diary #2: The final day of judging
Tim Devine, Global Chief Invention Officer, AKQA, is representing Australia on the Cannes Digital Craft Lions jury. As his jury’s deliberations draw to a close in Cannes, Devine shares his insights from the final day inside the jury room, exclusive to CB.
Three things stayed with me from the final day, and the first was the room itself. Some of the work that won had been cut entirely at earlier points, then pulled back in and argued over again. As a group we listened well and held our views loosely enough to change them. A jury only works that way by design, so credit to everyone in the room and to Marian Brannelly, Global Director of Awards at LIONS.
The harder thing underneath all of it was reduction. The process asks you to boil each piece down to an essence, a few ways of framing it that you can actually hold and compare. That’s useful, and it’s how we end up able to celebrate more work rather than less. But it cuts the other way too. Reduce a piece too much and you can lose good work out of contention for the wrong reasons. The care this year was in not doing that, and I think we managed it.
The complex pieces were the hardest of all. Some work is brilliant if you know the domain deeply and opaque if you don’t, and no jury holds subject-matter expertise across everything. In a field as broad as digital craft the range is enormous. That’s not a flaw in the process though, it’s the job, and it’s the same job a lot of us do every day. You’re rarely the expert. The skill is engaging with a subject you don’t own, asking the right questions, and drawing the understanding out of the people who do know. From shortlist to award, that’s what we’re doing.
Mostly though I came away grateful. To the jury, for the care and the listening and the willingness to be moved. And to everyone who entered, for the work they put into helping us understand what they made so we could celebrate it properly.
Register for FREE HERE and receive the Campaign Brief Daily Bulletin and/or the global Best Ads Best of the Week Bulletin. Subscribe to Campaign Brief Magazine.
#More Creative News #No paywalls #No annual membership fees
Subscribe to Portfolio & Reel for current listings of Australian and NZ ad agency and production company leadership and key personnel.