Kim Pick’s Cannes Wrap-up: Melted Hokey Pokey, drone octopi and a hard-won Grand Prix
Kim Pick, Group Executive Creative Director at VML New Zealand, represented New Zealand on the Cannes Creative Commerce Lions jury. As her time in the jury room wraps up, Pick shares her diary from inside – and outside – the Palais, exclusive to CB.
Sunday
Enjoy the sea and the sky tonight, said the Cannes Lions chairman at the jury welcome cocktails, because you won’t be seeing it for several days. Since arrival this morning, the beach at Cannes has been transformed from sand to city, row after row of impossible temporary structures, which will disappear in a week. There is a buzz of belief and confidence, as well as power tools.
Monday
It is a heatwave, and France has issued a red warning, the highest of the 3 levels. 800 schools are closed. I’m locked in the room at the Palais, phone in a bag, thrashing through the 56 longlist shortlist entries for Creative Commerce. We are looking for transactions that transcend.
My Whittaker’s Hokey Pokey, a taste of New Zealand for the fellow jurors, has melted into odd-shaped clumps, but jurors politely taste test. I try satay biscuits from Singapore, and snacks from the Cote D’Ivoire.
We debate until 8pm.
18 entries removed from shortlist. But 3 rescued from round one.
Shortlist locked in.
The streets are thronging when we emerge, too late for the opening party and the first awards show. Cannes feels different from years before. Once upon a time, creatives packed liked sardines into the villas and spilled noisily onto the footpaths outside bars in t-shirts and jandals, but today the vibe feels more salmon polos and boat shoes. Influencers are filming their film equipment. France is playing tonight. At 10.30pm, it’s still hard to get a table, but I finally do in a cobbled street in the old town. As the crowd thins out, a well-known tv star negotiates a roll-up from the waiter and leans on the wall next to me to have a quiet smoke. I’d tell you who they were, but would feel like such a traitor.
Tuesday
Oprah is in the Palais and people are queuing already. (Apparently her talk is brilliant and emotional and non-fans are now fans.) But we are back in the air-conditioned room, and today it’s metal discussion. We’re aiming for 13 award winners, so it’s time to start cutting. By 5pm, we still haven’t locked in bronze and are asking if we can have 14 winners to break the impasse. Discussion moves around what is “smarts versus genius”, what is the true weighting of the idea (30% of score)? and where AI fits in. Did it sell? What was the path to purchase? Who can learn from this? Has it been done before? What is a sequel and what is an evolution? How do we acknowledge long term brand strategy and its role in the ‘it feels familiar’ chat? Do we reward first mover technology? Where is the agentic AI? Was this truly Commerce or was it Brand Activation or Media? We’ve done 3 dummy voting rounds. We go back to a sense check criteria we can all agree on, and vote for real.
By 7pm we are on to Silver. By 9pm, we have a Grand Prix and some bubbles, and a shot of Jambu, a beverage from Brazil that numbs your lips.
Outside, the air is hot and England is playing Ghana on screens. There is a drone display in the sky, an octopus spreading its tentacles. Public Enemy is on stage at the beach, raging against the power. Time for that exorbitantly priced rose.
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