Kristal Knight’s Cannes Diary #3

Kristal Knight, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi is representing New Zealand on the Cannes Direct Lions. Knight, along with most of the other NZ and Australian jurors writes exclusively for CB.

I never expected the rush I would get from giving someone else a Lion. The thrill of hitting the ‘YES’ button in the Grand Prix vote and making someone’s career. And I think the rush came from knowing that the other 10 people in the room and I were unanimously pressing the same button, in the deep belief that it was the right thing to do.

The Whopper Detour did everything we asked of it: it knew its audience, it made them feel something, and boy did it make them do it. It was simple, cheeky, on brand and massively successful. We unanimously felt it did the job of sending a clear message to next year’s entries about what Direct is.

We were a jury made up of 6 women and 5 men, an Australian, 2 Americans, a Brit, a Frenchman, a Spaniard, a Swede, a Brazilian, a South African German and a Kiwi. Having argued the case for diversity in business in ad campaigns myself, it was incredible to see with my own eyes how a wider palette of opinions, tastes and cultural insights can lead to far more robust decisions. There were many heated discussions, but always unanimous outcomes. Or maybe it was just because we were such bloody good mates.

Maybe its Stockholm syndrome, but we are all already suffering separation anxiety. We’re missing the laughing, the crying, the dancing and the stupid jokes that make no sense outside our windowless jury room. Luckily we have our case study soundtrack Spotify playlist to take us all back there any time.