In a rare moment of clarity I have jotted down some thoughts about this year’s Cannes festival. Although last year “Change” was very much on the agenda with Obama’s election campaign winning the titanium grand prix, it set the tone for this year’s event too.

The twentieth Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase was introduced by a live Richard Myers hologram who explained that Paul Arden would have loved to have been present to introduce the 20th showcase, unfortunately he couldn’t make it as he was dead. Then via a little bit of digital wizardry a talking Paul Arden hologram did indeed introduce the event. You’ll have to ask David Perry about how they actually managed that, but it looked stunningly real. For the films themselves there was a unanimous favorite, the pixels film.

 I think the reason the theatre clapped mid way through this spot was that it combined a number of elements that people love. The craft was obviously present, there was a nod to the old with space invaders and Pac Man characters but also the new with visual effects. All this told charmingly over our very own Manhattan skyline. What’s not to love?

As for some of the other films I had a chat with some senior Saatchi London folk and there was some disagreement over what was hot or not. Personally I liked the crazy woman running away from the machete wielding fat man, I thought it was hilarious. Some of the others, not so much, but where would be the fun if we all agreed on everything?

I hunted out some new technology at the Microsoft tent, to see what we might be expecting to change over the next year or so. The ‘Natal’ project that I wrote about before is now officially called ‘Kinetic’. I stood in front of the Xbox while it scanned in my body parts and then played a white water rafting game and a driving game, using just my arms rather than a controller. A lot of fun and I’m sure destined to change the gaming industry. Just imagine an air guitar version of Rock Band. The other thing I liked from Microsoft was a piece of software called ‘Pivot’. Essentially it was a contextual visual version of excel. One example showed a collection of all the covers of Sports Illustrated which you could then categorize into say, boxing or soccer. There were many other things too which lead me to believe planners will find that Pivot will be both highly addictive and highly additive.

An industry that has been forced to go through massive change is the record business. I met Jennifer Fromer from Interscope Records who has the enviable task of trying to converge brands and artists to find new revenue streams. She had some great stories about the Lady Ga Ga telephone video including why they wanted Miracle Whip, it seems Ga Ga has a liking for that particular product. For more sustained success Jennifer urged agencies to get in touch with record companies at a much earlier stage in the creative process. Artists are much more interested in working with brands on a content and ideas level rather than just getting money for product placement. For me the most important thing Jennifer talked about was the huge success that is The Beats by Dr Dre headphone product line.

When Interscope first heard about the iPod, way back, they correctly thought that music quality was going to be an issue. So along with Dre they developed a quality alternative to those nastily little white buds. A few years later this is a $25m brand. Jennifer was very coy about whether they actually make more money through selling headphones than music but the fact that both a Lady Ga Ga and P-Diddy product extension are coming out, along with a Mary J Blige sunglasses line would seem to indicate that it’s been a worthwhile detour. For those of you that know me you will know that I firmly believe we, as a creative agency, are capable of creating products and brands that will make money. We know that our traditional sources of revenue are being cut. If the music industry can put aside some time and money to develop products surely ad agencies must too.

In terms of the awards having judged the one show this year there were no real surprises, except for perhaps the titanium grand prix. The digital grand prix went to Nike’s brilliant tour de France live messaging campaign, chalkbot, while the top film prize went to Old Spice. We picked up a gold for the Fruit By The Foot spot which was well deserved. What’s interesting is that the phrase from this spot, “I’ve replaced your…” has become a YouTube sensation, second only to, you guessed it, “I’m on a horse”. This is great evidence that proves the notion that if you want to grab people’s attention and make them participate then you need to be creative, you need to go a little left field, try new things rather that stick to the same old tired formulas. Some real data from the IPA in the UK actually states that ads that win creative awards are 11 times more efficient at delivering business success than those that don’t. Please print that last sentence out in a 100 point font, stick it on your wall and chant it religiously to yourself and your clients daily. You have no excuse not to change your ways.

I suppose the one bit of controversy was the Titanium grand prix that went to the Twelpforce campaign for Best Buy. Some would say this is not a piece of creative. I would say that’s entirely the point. This is a service, a utility, rather than a film or a site but it’s certainly a creative solution to a business problem. I hope this Titanium paves the way for more people to think about changing the way they approach briefs.

What else happened in Cannes? I got a little tipsy on the rosé, a little sunburnt and watched a little too much football. Which just goes to show it’s actually all too difficult for people to change their ways.