Stop Submitting to Award Shows

So the rest of us can gobble up all the awards 😇

This past week I had the pleasure of watching my news feed blow up with friends that were enjoying all that the Cannes Lions Festival had to offer. While I’m sure people who attend would love to bring home some hardware, it’s really become another boondoggle. AdAge even asked attendees what categories should be added next year and one exec responded,

Best Party, because that’s all anyone cares about.

I mean, I don’t have anything against A$AP Rocky, but top billing on the website over the likes of Ron Howard, Sheryl Sandberg, Sir Ian McKellen, or even David Droga just seems laughable. Droga5 was named the 2017 independent agency of the year for the third year in a row. Wow. Hats off.

Contrary to popular belief, there were entries besides Fearless Girl, even though she dominated the field and brought home the Grand Prix. Even after watching the case study and hearing about all of the international attention, I still couldn’t tell you who was behind it. I know the answer, but reading this right now, do you? I think that’s a win for the women’s movement but certainly something that can’t be ignored from an advertising and creative standpoint.

Here were a few digital submissions that caught our eye:

Cheetos Museum — smart use of UGC to ride the wave of fans that were already talking about what their Cheetos looked like. Big congrats to our friends at The Marketing Arm for winning Gold! Link

Gorillaz App — fans were able to stream the new album after finding an AR, geo-located house party. Link

On the heals of Cannes, Publicis publicly announced they would be skipping all award shows in 2018. Agencies were quick to mock, but there are plenty of people that offered up a golf clap for the move. While established creative directors can applaud the move, young creative talent see it as a major step back for their upward mobility. We’ll see if Publicis will stick to it. In the meantime, I’m sure plenty of agencies are happy to see less award show competition.

📰 News

Apple just released the first iOS 11 beta to everyone (be careful not to brick your phone). Link

Google will stop reading your email for Gmail ads, but rest assured they’re still reading your emails. Link

Hand-picked curation of the coolest stuff made with ARKit. Link

Choose Your Own Adventure lands on Netflix. Hooray for the 80s! Link

‘Sega Forever’ (retro Sega games for iOS and Android) launch receives lukewarm response. Link

🏆 Site of the Week

Essential — Andy Rubin (creator of Android) launches his new anti-iPhone phone. Link
Read more about why he started Essential Products. Link

🖥 Cool Tech

Nike’s `Unlimited Stadium` took home 15 Cannes Lions this past week. Link

😍 Time-Savers We Love

Feather — simply beautiful open source icons. Link

SmartMockups — create product screenshots with just a few clicks. You can even just use a URL. Link

🎧 Weekly Mixtape

Your weekly Spotify ear candy. Link