Nancy Hartley’s Cannes Diary: Day Four + Five

Nancy Hartley (centre), creative partner, Rumble Creative & Media is Australia’s representative on the Outdoor Lions jury. Hartleyalong with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.

“It makes me sick to my core.” This was the reaction of one of the jurors on first sighting the work that we would eventually award Grand Prix. Deep envy is a timeless barometer of great work.

That was a 5 days and 5,000 entries ago, and we seem to have been in the jury room ever since, finally reaching a Grand Prix decision at 2am this morning.

The diverse work awarded reflects the definition of what “Outdoor” is today and the future of the category. We saw great billboards and posters, disarmingly simple ideas that had huge impact, fresh and funny insights, and one particularly thought-provoking piece that even questions the notion that creativity can never be replaced by data.

The Outdoor jury consisted of 18 people from 18 different countries, 40% women, and occasionally, a hungry 3-month old baby. We were all grateful for the short break last night when our Turkish juror’s tiny son arrived for his dinner. Headed to the roof and snapped off some quick shots before returning for deliberations.

Looking forward to tonight’s awards, seeing the rest of the festival and finally taken up some of the awesome party invites in the inbox. Ciao for now.