Get a bunch of advertising people in one place and you’re bound to be subjected to stunts. That’s true in the South of France as much as anywhere else. We rate some of the highlights of what we found this week.
Blippar lets you find parties
Say Blippar to a couple of mobile ad execs here in Cannes and they say “Wait, that’s still around?” Indeed, it is. The visual discovery app is hoping it catches on with brands and agencies with a stunt dubbed “Be the Gossip.” Created with M&M Global, app will asks you to “blipp” (scan) an image of the Cannes Lions logo so it can deliver to you a list of all the parties happening that night at the Festival. If you scan it in the morning, it will give you a list of who won Lions the previous night. The whole thing seems like a smart idea, but it doesn’t fit well with the spontaneous late-night vibe here in Cannes. B
Tinder for Cannes
CannesWeMeet.com is a “Tinder” for Cannes that works best on your mobile browser. Built by video programmatic player Virool, the app is built as a Tinder for networking (but you can probably use it to find hookups, too, not that we’ve tried.) It connects with your LinkedIn profile and shows you other attendees. If you both swipe right on each other, a match is made and an email is sent to both of you so you can set up a meeting. By Tuesday morning, this reporter already had made five matches. For work. A+
Twitter makes Emoji for Cannes
First there were “advertising emojis.” Now, with every tweet hashtagged #CannesLions, a little blue Cannes Lions logo pops up. Cute. B
Thunderhead’s Thunderhead
Software company Thunderhead has a mascot. His name is, well, Thunderhead, and he’s a Khal Drogo lookalike that wears a loincloth and, er, breastfeeds people in commercials. He’s showing up to Cannes this week, on a Harley Davidson Fat Boy, so people can gawk and take pictures. He’s also going to lead a flash mob around the Palais. You can also tweet @_TheThunderhead with hashtag #getmeabentley so you can get a ride, any time. It’s very Vegas, but not too French Riviera. C
Mullen Lowe Group donates Lions value
It’s well known how expensive the Cannes Lions are — a Film Gold Lion trophy costs almost $3,000 from the Cannes Lions store. Mullen Lowe Group is donating the value of all the Lions it wins this year to feed people in Nepal. Monday night, after winning 11 Lions, it donated $14,000. A+
180 L.A. tries to hire Cannes jurors
The agency both spoofed case study videos and cleverly nodded at the talent poaching that goes down in Cannes with an award submission that was actually just a recruitment ad. Designed to target “the best creative directors in the world,” the ad put the offer in front of those people while they were judging at Cannes. A
Hey @180LA thanks for the offer in the middle of the judging process. Lol. I’ll call monday.
— Claudio Lima (@claudiolima1) June 19, 2015
The Barbarian Group goes ’90s
The digital agency is experimenting all week by handing out 80 old-school, brick phones to attendees at the Festival. Each phone comes with five numbers from other brick-phone-owners, and people randomly get called by each other. New friends are made: owners of these phones can seen trying to find each other and go to parties together. Sometimes, old just works. A+
Introducing #coldcallcannes. 80 working brick phones scattered around Cannes programmed with mystery VIPs to call. pic.twitter.com/N2CBQfkleT
— Colin James Nagy (@CJN) June 21, 2015
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