Thursday, June 19, 2008 - Cannes is not just one big party. It's also a place to test out the kind of made-up buzzwords that make the ad world so awesome. Here are a few of the current candidates: 1. Digitology: This was the name given to a workshop put on by British shop Profero. I didn’t make it to find out what exactly digitology is, but one attendee told me it was “painfully basic.” 2. Creativology: Microsoft has a significant presence in Cannes, promoting on the front of the Palais the notion that it’s “pioneering creativology.” It’s apparently the marrying of creativity and technology. One Microsoft exec, after several glasses of rose, admitted to me last night he though it was “complete bullshit.” 3. Utilitainment: AKQA’s mobile chief Dan Rosen tossed out this term during a session on mobile marketing. It seems like a variance on brand utility. The example he gave was a cool effort AKQA has done for NikeID. It lets users customize sneakers using colors determined via a picture taken with a cell camera. Which word is most painfully awesome? Vote after the jump.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - Microsoft never
tires of reminding people that online advertising is a scale business.
Alas, Microsoft’s platform isn’t as big as Google’s. The Google guys
also have that 747 party plane that’s pretty impressive. Well,
Microsoft takes the cake in Cannes with its party boat. It upgraded
from last year’s more modest Wally B to drop at least $300,000 for Parsifal III, a 158-foot sailing yacht that sleeps 12 in five staterooms bigger than my apartment. There’s also a jacuzzi.
The owner is a Danish coffee-maker magnate who owes his success to the
Scanomat machine that can brew coffee and froth milk from the same
appliance. Useful. Monday, June 16, 2008 - Last year, I found it odd that for all the talk of sustainability, Cannes loaded participants down with so much crap. This year is no different,
only I can better calculate the crap level, thanks to a scale in my
hotel room. The bag has DVDs, trade rags, an aqua T-shirt, several
books and dozens of fliers. It weighs in at 7 pounds. The festival
organizers report over 9,500 delegates, so we're looking at more than
33 tons of junk.
Sunday, June 15, 2008 -
One of the great mysteries of Cannes, other than why the French waiters
all have fauxhawks, is what goes on inside the jury rooms. Colleen
DeCourcy, chief digital officer of TBWA Worldwide, is using Twitter to
provide some insight into the selection of the Cyber Lions. She started Thursday with some thoughts about how the jurors would
evaluate the work. In digital, she says, they could look for great use
of technology, a cool idea, trying something never done before, or all
of the above. DeCourcy Twitters the decision: “We decide to work with skilled use of medium + craft + idea. Discounts a lot of work.” Follow Colleen for the nuances of the selection process, though she warns she won’t discuss specific work. (You can also follow Colleen here on LeFreaque.) If you want updates on the ridiculous side of Cannes, I’ll be Twittering, too.
Or because many people (myself among them) find the "whinings" of this "insufferable douchebag" to be incredibly insightful and precise and above all, hilarious.
Brian is one of a handful of industry journalists who really gets it, who has the ability to see beyond the artifice and PR-speak to get at the underlying truth.
Let me tell you something. I know insufferable douchebags. I work with new media douchebags. Many douchebags are friends of mine. Brian Morrissey is no douchebag.
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