Australia reveals its Achilles Heel at Cannes
On the plane to Cannes on Friday, I had a horrible feeling this could be the worst year for Australia for a long time at adland’s top awards show.
There hasn’t been a campaign to match NAB Break Up this year, and there’s been a bit of negativity in the market about the humdrum state of creativity in Australia.
But I’m happy to be proved wrong so far. And the omens look pretty good for us to put in a solid – if unspectacular – showing in the South of France.
Our lions haul has improved – dramatically in some cases – in media, press, promo, direct and even outdoor, which was an embarrassing let down last year.
Then other aspect to why Australia falls short in digital marketing internationally is that our relative digital production costs are steep for the reach that is achieved from most projects.
Too often at all the agencies I have worked at costs are the factor which limit the opportunity to be as creatively innovative with new tech as we would like.