DROGA5 SNARES TITANIUM LION FOR NYC DEPT OF EDUCATION ‘MILLION’ PROJECT
Australia’s most famous advertising expat David Droga picked up a highly prized Titanium Lion for New York City Department of Education ‘Million’ project, which gave New York school kids a free phone and call credits to encourage kids to attend school.
However, Australia and New Zealand failed to turn its three shortlists into one of the six highly coveted Titanium and Integrated Lions handed out this evening in the closing ceremony of the Cannes International Advertising Festival. There were two Titanium Lions, two Integrated Lions and a Grand Prix winner in each category.
Locally, hope was resting on Clemenger BBDO Sydney’s Roads & Traffic Authority ‘No one thinks big of you’ and Lowe Rivet, MTV Australia ‘Welcome Snoop’ for Australia and Publicis Mojo Auckland, Speights ‘Great Beer Delivery’. Australia won Titanium Lions in 2005 and 2007, while New Zealand won an Integrated Lion in 2007.
Jury president, Mark Tutssel, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett Tutssel, said Speight’s Great Beer Delivery got very very close.
“The thing that differentiates the winners was that human connection. There was just that next level to it for everybody, but brilliant work,” he says.
Nick Law, EVP/chief creative officer R/GA, New York, says as an Aussie he took special interest in the Trans-Tasman work, and smirked the whole way through the Speight’s presentation because he recognized Kiwi’s in and what made the brand powerful in New Zealand.
Projector Tokyo’s ‘Uniqlok’ picked up the Titanium Grand Prix and McCann Erickson Worldgroup, San Francisco won the Integrated Grand Prix. Mortierbrigade, Brussels won Titanium for Music for Life Charity’s ‘Black Boy Wanting’, while Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, won an Integrated Lion for ‘Whopper Freakout’ and JWT India Mumbai won an Integrated Lion for Times of India’s ‘Lead India’.
Tutssel said the work that won represents some of the finest thinking in the world today, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of human behaviour: “The two Grand Prix’s that were awarded represent, for different reasons, ground-breaking thinking and charter new territory for the industry, providing a glimpse into the future of what we do.”
28 Comments
MAMMOTH!
Jim. Ben. That is plain, fucking, grouse!
I thought the jury was supposed to award creativity? If his name wasn’t attached, this never would have won. Rubbish.
Cam and Matty well done. Brilliant and well deserved.
Amazing idea.
4.37. Are you fucking kidding?
4.37pm. if your name was attached to your comment, then you wouldn’t be such a dumb ass.
4:37 here.
Gents, this is simple technique called positive reinforcement. No creativity whatsoever. All he did was replace the Gold Star with a crappy cell phone.
Here’s another little tid bit to think about. They banned cell phones in new york city schools. Then these guys come up with a plan to give them cell phones?
Who’s the dumb ass now 8:57?
to 4.37, creativity is more than just words and pictures.
The whole idea of titanium is to reward work that makes the industry re-think what advertising is.
Sure, they could have run TV/online/press etc with ads about how studying is cool etc. Instead they created a product which was tied to the objective of the brief (inspire kids to learn) which was much bigger and had more social momentum than any ‘ad’.
Whether it’s a great idea or not, I believe the highest award this industry has to offer should be reserved for those projects with a clear commercial focus. Community-focused work, however brilliant, is always an easier brief because of its inherent emotional resonance. That’s why for most other media, there is a clear distinction.
what, like a binoculars ad?
get your hand off it. this is a massive achievement.
to 1:01.
Yes, creativity might be about all of things.
But the awards business is about a bunch of ad snobs giving each other awards.
Droga’s work was just okay. If this came from an agency in Paris, it would have won Bronze.
So what were the actual results of it? Why weren’t there any real statistics?
genius idea, well done lads.
4.37 your explanation demonstrates that you clearly have no fucking idea how the Million works. It all started with the banning of the cell phones. And as for 2.07 suggesting that the idea is somehow easier because it is for a social cause, are you kidding me?
9:04AM
It’s not just me who is suggesting social causes are easier, pretty much every award show agrees. That’s not to suggest social cause ideas often aren’t brilliant. Indeed, they are some of the most brilliant work that is created. That’s why they have their own sections – to allow the guy working on toothpaste a fairer crack at winning an award. All I am suggesting is that Titanium either be reserved for commercial work or that it have a separate category for social work.
So, no, I am not kidding you. I’m just trying to create a debate through argument rather than empty rhetorical questions.
personally I love it. Perhaps if they had done a one off press campaign with a big visual more people would approve.
Hey 4:37
Here’s another little tid bit to think about. The phones are locked during school hours so the kids can concentrate on their schoolwork.
You really should find out how the Million works before you go bagging the work.
Who’s the dumb ass now?
If only 30 thousand phones where given out why is it called the millions project? If you ask me it’s the idea of the idea here not the actual work. Titanium should be attached to real results. Personally I think they should have waited a year instead for those real results instead of fudging them for awards.
4.37 has an argument. And not a bad one either.
We should accept it.
7.46pm
I think you’d even be over the actual figure by about 25,000 students….or so I hear….
2.07… It’s more than a community based campaign. It’s a cultural idea. They’re changing the way kids look at school. For over 1 million kids. It is actually a commercially based idea also. These guys had to sell this idea into Samsung to be given 1,000,000 mobile phone handsets. They’re not $1 each. They then had to sell it to the telco to get free phone credit. (What is not commercial about this idea?) And after all of that, they had to sell it into the Department of education.
I can only imagine the hurdles they had to climb over to make this ‘idea’ a reality. 2.07 you have to admit buddy that’s harder than selling it to one client. Stop thinking traditionally here, I would have agreed with you if it was a TV ad or a print campaign but this is much more involved.
This is the sort of idea that shows the industry what’s possible when you won’t let ‘no’ creep into your head. From everything I’ve seen, Droga 5 is about keeping the faith and making shit happen. Well done D5 ‘you guys suck’
This is the future of advertising, who pays for the phones? the advertisers thats who, why? because they have a market where they know exactly who they are advertising to. Who makes the ads for this exclusive market, droga5, because they own the media, airtime. Droga5 are not dealing with just the marketing guys they are having meetings with the presidents and ceos, of companies like apple, nike etc. This is less about social causes and more about creating a monopoly. One that goes directly to one of the hardest markets to capture. It will create a dialogue with the kids, it is a brilliant example of technology and branded content welded together.
Tell me who is not going to sign up for this, when given the choice between totally free or not?
Whether this works now or in 5 years is irrelevant, they understand that in todays fractured market, a captive audience is any advertisers dream. The creativity is not some dumb ass joke tacked onto a picture of a product, it is a clear understanding of the current state of flux this industry is in.
I think 4.37 has a point.
But in this case it doesn’t seem that relevant. The client is a government agency, the department of education.
I imagine that it would be like any other government business.
And then there is the Droga factor. Could have some sway I suppose in a jury room. Didn’t work for him on honeyshed though.
I still think that all the Titaniums given were deserved. I don’t think the jury would put their reputations on the line.
It would have been way better if the kids had animals in front of their faces – like if they had binoculars and they were made to seem closer.
That’s what real advertising is. This stuff I just don’t get.
here’s an idea.. let’s give the kids something that isn’t conducive to learning, to try and get them to learn. Let’s give them something that the city government banned during school hours.
Here kids, don’t use your cell phone, but here’s a cell phone… and here’s another 50 minutes too!
this might sound like a good idea, but it’s not. This will be a total failure.
These kids idolize people like Soulja Boy and Kanye West. What does carrying around some garbage cell phone do for their reputation. “Oh you’re one of the poor kids who uses a free cell phone”
how could people love this, yet bag Earth Hour?
Earth Hour has much more of an impact.
Well done on the award but I think the idea is a tad recycled. That’s just my opinion.
A bit like your ground breaking ‘product placement’ stuff, writing a whole film around a product, that I saw in B&T. Genius. If Michael J Fox didn’t have parkinsons you could get him to act in one of these movies.
Just my opinion.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23922196-17061,00.html
Maybe this explains the idea a bit more for those still struggling with the idea?
2:07 makes an interesting point. Community service ads are ineligible to win film and press Grand Prix at Cannes. However they can win Titanium. Comments anyone?
Hey Sycophants,
Blow this up to the size of a truck and put it on the wall:
DROGA IS GOD.
It worked for Clapton.
Im from NYC and this simply won’t work. Plain and simple. Sorry “Mr. Droga”
Let’s revisit this in a year and see the results.