Which Content Will Be King of Cannes?

Branded Content and Entertainment is sure to be one of the hottest categories at Cannes Lions this year. Not only has this been the year in which content marketing finally delivered on its early promise but, at last year’s festival, the top honour in this category went noticeably un-awarded.  This time around, all eyes will be on who has upped their game enough to walk away with the Grand Prix.

Looking back on 2014, the single best piece of content marketing has to be The Lego Movie. While it’s not an obvious example, and not something I imagine will be up for an award this year, it was the highest-grossing film in the UK last year and also happened to be two hours of very obviously branded content.

Certainly one brand gunning for the Grand Prix this time will be Chipotle. Last year at Cannes, along with Creative Artists Agency Los Angeles and Edelman New York, the brand won three gold Lions for The Scarecrow, a three-minute animated video that’s been viewed on YouTube more than 14 million times.

This year Chipotle will want to go one better with its four-episode web series Farmed and Dangerous, which promotes the burrito chain’s stance against antibiotic-raised meat and genetically modified foods. While the series, which aired on Hulu from February, is another strong effort, it doesn’t appear to have caught the imagination of the industry – or the media – in quite the same way. It will be interesting to see how it’s received at the festival later this month.

Another campaign that caught my eye was Skoda’s Fight for Attention, released to launch its new Fabia model. Created by 18 Feet & Rising and B-Reel, it used eye-tracking software and the viewer’s webcam to determine which of the two on-screen Fabias stole your attention. This was a clever way not just to advertise the new car but to present Skoda as a fun, innovative brand.

A truly unique offering came from Huggies in Brazil, which gave a pregnant blind woman a 3D-printed version of her ultrasound and filmed her reaction – a video that has since had more than 10 million views on YouTube. Created by ad agency Mood, it’s hard not to feel an emotional connection with the mother-to-be as she runs her hand over the model of her unborn child.

At Havas SE Cake, we give every idea the 'fundamental stress test' – in other words, does it make anybody’s life better? Is it genuinely useful or more fun? Does this campaign serve a purpose and give someone something they wouldn't otherwise get? That innate tangibility is a good starting point for creating truly meaningful content that will resonate with your audience on a number of levels.

Who tastes success at Cannes is fortunately not for me to decide, but I will of course be hoping our own #FilghtDecks campaign for Virgin Atlantic comes out on top. We staged the first ever livestreamed gig at 35,000 feet to launch the airline’s new 787 Dreamliner. Fans were invited to join Rudimental and Gorgon City on board the inaugural flight whilst the whole thing was streamed live to viewers back on the ground.

All in all, I’d be shocked if the Grand Prix went un-awarded again. What I can guarantee is that the overall winner will be a truly engaging story; something we want to invite into our lives and watch or interact with over and over again.