Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions falling short on metrics, say judges

The grand prix winner of the category of work that has produced ‘a measurable and proven impact on a client’s business' was John Lewis’ 2014 Monty the Penguin ad, by adam&eve DDB. There were 13 winners in the category. 

But according to reports from  Warc, the judges felt that many of the campaign case study entries failed to properly demonstrate effectiveness. 

"Out of the 109 entries, I would say that about 80 of them were efficient – but not effective," Anthony Wong, global effectiveness director at Ogilvy & Mather, was quoted as saying.

"We are judging for creative effectiveness, not for creative efficiency! Instead, they shared media metrics about press coverage and engagement – which saves media costs, but does not change brand perception that leads to higher sales and profits."

Another judge, Martin Weigel, head of planning at Wieden + Kennedy, added that he wasn't sure that all of the industry understand what effectiveness is, claiming that many good case studies had "shot themselves in the foot" by not making their case properly.

Adrian Farina, SVP of marketing at VISA Latin America, said that he felt marketers would get more comfortable with using data over time. 

"[...] what we saw is what I believe is going to be the future – data informing the creative," he said. "There were cases where that was evident, and I think we are going to see more and more of those."