To combat rising PSI levels, adidas, via iris Singapore, is offering free one-day gym passes at True Fitness to all those determined to not let the haze disrupt their exercise schedule. The number of passes given away will be linked to the PSI level.

Says Sarah Fisher, senior brand manager at adidas: "adidas is committed to being all in and we know our customers are as well. Our 'all in(doors)' program is a simple way to ensure that people stay fit, but stay healthy at the same time. We don't want the haze to stop people training."
 
The program will be run through adidas' Singapore Facebook page.

Lenovo has put its ThinkPad through a series of verification tests in order to display and prove its strongest point, it's "robustness", in an online film via Beacon/Leo Burnett Tokyo.

In pursuit of "ultimate robustness" Lenovo conducted various tests, such as the drop test and  opening-closing test.
 
VIEW THE SPOT

Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Asia Cannes blog for the last seven years. He's at it again this year.

This is the busiest Cannes I can remember. With a reported 12,000 delegates and at least as many again just here for the ride, you're never short of company. Even when you don't want it.

But moving a lot of the seminars from the Debussy Theatre to the much larger Grand Auditorium means I haven't had to miss a session this year due to capacity problems.

The auditorium was packed for the visit of fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood, on stage with Sapient Nitro Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Gaston Legoburu.

The theme of the day was storytelling and while this has been a well-worn path at Cannes over the years I found that this session did at least provide some fresh insights and practical ideas. Not to mention some inspirational words from Dame Vivienne.

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe in Australia, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition.

And we're done. The reason we spent 20+ hours on a plane, took more time than that trip but felt much quicker. Tonight we feel pretty happy with our work. We'll see how we're feeling back in the Young Lions Briefing room at 10am tomorrow for the results.

BBH China has been awarded brand strategy consultancy to one of China's most prestigious and high profile property developments - The Hub.
 
BBH China will be responsible for the brand positioning and creative communications for both the leasing and consumer phases for The Hub and will also be the integrated lead agency - directing and consolidating agency partners involved in the project.

Matt Williams, content editor at The Engine Group, London offers his take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week, exclusive to CB.

I always tend to be quite scepitcal when a Cannes Lions seminar features a big name from outside of the industry, especially when the celebrity has just been part of a recent ad campaign, and is being brought on stage (paid for) by the agency of said campaign.

The US has done extremely well at the Cannes Innovation Lions with The Barbarian Group taking out the Grand Prix for its 'Cinder' software technology as well as DE-DE New York winning one of only three Cannes Innovation Lions for 'Thunderclap'.

Launched this year, the Innovation Lions category received 270 entries. After preliminary judging, the jury, led by David Droga, founder, Droga5, then convened in Cannes to review their chosen shortlist of 25 entries. For the first time, delegates were invited into the jury room as shortlisted entrants presented their technology innovation.

Dave Bowman, joint ECD of Whybin\TBWA Sydney, was a judge on the Cannes Lions Direct jury. Here he gives several day by day insights into this year's judging.

Day One: So, first things first. Traditionally this is the bit where people in my shoes have previously complained about being inside under fluoro lights in front of a telly while it's 23 degrees and sunny directly outside on the Riviera. I won't be complaining about that because it's still awesome. An overused descriptor, but in this case blindingly accurate. This city knows how to accept an overnight dump of 12,000 egos, most of whom haven't had a day (or night) out of their office in months. I've been put up at a strange hotel with a Moroccan theme. Some jurors are moaning about it already. Some find it amusing. I'm with the latter. 

Each week Bestads picks the very best advertising in the world, in every medium - which is reviewed by a top creative director or team to select their own personal favourites.

This week's guest judge is Dave Buonaguidi, founder and chief creative officer at Karmarama, London.

READ HIS REVIEW

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition.

And we're done. The reason we spent 20+ hours on a plane, took more time than that trip but felt much quicker. Tonight we feel pretty happy with our work. We'll see how we're feeling back in the Young Lions Briefing room at 10am tomorrow for the results.

It was a big night for The Philippines tonight at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with DM9 DM9JaymeSyfu Manila winning the country's first ever Grand Prix.

Mobile, now in its second year at Cannes Lions, saw DM9 DM9JaymeSyfu come out on top taking their first ever Grand Prix for Smart Public Affairs. The concept saw Smart utilise old analog mobile phones as a teaching tool.

Read the full story on the campaign on Adobo.

Jury members, led by Rei Inamoto, Chief Creative Officer, VP, AKQA, viewed 1061 entries before reaching a shortlist of 101 of which 9 went on to win gold, 26 took silver and 24 bronze trophies were given.

JWT Beijing won a Gold and two Silvers in Mobile for an app the team created for BaoBeiHuiJia (Baby Back Home), which turned every smartphone into a search tool to locate missing children. 

Download the winners list: Mobile Winners - CL2013.xls

The Outdoor category saw Taproot India pick up two Gold Lions and JWT Manila pick up only the country's second Gold Lion ever tonight at the Cannes Advertising Festival's second awards presentation.

Taproot won 2 Gold Lions for Farmers Suicides for Times of India. JWT Manila won Gold for Schick Exacta 2 Razor.

McCann Singapore also picked up Gold for L'Oreal "Upside Down Necklace" and Hakuhodo Jakarta won for their Berlitz Language Center campaign.

Ogilvy Paris scored the Grand Prix for IBM.

Download the list of winners: Outdoor Winners - CL2013.xls

In terms of country performance:

India scored 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes.

Singapore won 1 Gold, 4 Silvers and 2 Bronze.

Philippines won Gold and 1 Silver.

Indonesia won 1 Gold.

Other performances were: Malaysia took home 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes, South Korea won 1 Silver, Thailand won 4 Bronzes, China won 2 Bronzes and Japan 1 Bronze.

Omnicom Group Inc, a leading marketing and advertising holding company, demonstrated its long-time support for China by hosting a panel discussion at the first "China Day" event held at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Says Serge Dumont, Omnicom group vice chairman, and chairman Asia Pacific (pictured): "As the Festival celebrates its 60^th anniversary, its organizers have wisely chosen to spotlight one of the world's most important countries. The support of the Group and its agencies at this year's Festival reflects our long-term commitment to China, the world's number-two advertising market worldwide in terms of market scale. Because understanding China has become crucial to any company with global aspirations, Omnicom assembled a panel of senior executives from our agencies to discuss the key trends affecting China's families, individuals, and institutions."

Each day Simon Veksner, head of ideas at Naked Communications Australia, is posting a photo diary depicting 'the other side of Cannes'. Guaranteed no coverage of jury rooms, seminars, or award shows, exclusive to CB

As Advertising Creatives, we are permanently searching for the new and innovative - our job is a neverending quest to do something that no one else has done before.

And that's why we refuse to follow trends. 

Sorry Google Beach. Sorry Grand Audi Room. Sorry Spotify Garden. Sorry all the other brands that are trying to gain currency with creatives in Cannes. Ray-Ban owns this town, with near 100% top-of-shirt awareness. 

All pictures from last night's Campaign Brief cocktail party.

As Cannes International Festival of Creativity celebrates its 60th anniversary, Leo Burnett Worldwide and Contagious will look 60 months into the future to offer a head-start on the most significant technological innovations that will redefine how brands connect with people.

On Tuesday, June 18, from 5:00 - 5:45 p.m.in Cannes (10:00 - 10:45 a.m. CST) James Kirkham, Leo Burnett's newly appointed global head of social and mobile and Paul Kemp-Robertson, co-founder and editorial director for Contagious Communications will explore how technology can be applied to the natural cadence of our daily lives in order to make routine activities and behaviors more streamlined, meaningful or entertaining. 

Voted the "Seminar of the Day" by the first-ever Lions Live, Full of Tomorrow will be live streamed on Cannes' Lions Live page for viewers at home. 

Says Kirkham: "Working on this already feels like a career highlight; I get to work with Contagious on exploring incredible technologies which brands will be able to humanise in the very near future. It is like being a part of your favourite book and getting to talk about it to the world live on YouTube. What's not to like?"

Ben Welsh, ECD at M&C Saatchi, Sydney is a judge on the Cannes Lions Outdoor jury. Welsh, is giving daily insights to this year's judging for Campaign Brief Asia.

Day five? I think so. Yes, yes, it is, and it's our last day which means we have to keep going till we have finished. We have 28 categories to go through and then we have to pick the Grand Prix. Will I make the Aussie drinks thing at the Grand? Bump in to Ben Coulson on the Croisette and for the second time we are dressed identically, two bearded Bens. He tells me of controversy amongst a few entries which had kept them at it till two or three in the morning. Will I make the end of the Aussie drinks thing at the Grand?

Cameron Hoelter, creative director at DDB Sydney is Australia's representative on the Cannes Lions Press jury. Hoelter, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is of course reporting exclusively for CB.

Day four was by far the most interesting. Today we awarded Lions and selected the Grand Prix.

Campaigns that on day one you thought had a good chance, suddenly felt out of their depth. A pretty harsh reminder of just how good a press ad has to be here to even compete.

The basic parameters in press haven't changed in a hundred years. Just ink on a page. So creating something that feels fresh is unbelievably difficult. Consequently a fair bit of debate centred around originality. How close does it have to be, to have been done before?

Innocean Worldwide, the creative force behind the Hyundai and KIA brands, has announced its intention to expand in Europe beyond automotive to work with brands in other sectors.

While Innocean boasts a global network of 20 offices located in 16 countries, Innocean Worldwide Europe's move from 'In-house Agency' to fully-fledged communications company will see the European branch become the continent's largest communications start-up - beginning its first new business drive with a team of 250 employees across 8 European offices.

Innocean Worldwide Europe recently established itself in stylish new offices separate from the Hyundai and KIA Motor Europe premises in Frankfurt's creative quarter and has made a string of new senior hires to mark its aggressive new business push.

Matt Williams, content editor at The Engine Group, London offers his take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week, exclusive to CB.

When it comes to selecting Cannes' 'Creative Marketer of the Year', we've all heard the rumours about the judging process.
 
That it's not really about the work at all - that instead it's down to a brand campaigning for months to get chosen, promising that if they win they'll spend lots of money at the festival, bring hundreds of delegates and enter more awards than ever before.

Following the successful outcome of the recent global HSBC review, Bates CHI & Partners and JWT have announced the formation of a new joint venture to house the HSBC Retail Banking & Wealth Management business in Asia.

Conrad Chiu, Bates CHI & Partners' CEO Greater China will move from his current role and assume the role of CEO in the new joint venture from 1 July 2013.

Replacing Chiu as Managing Director of Bates CHI & Partners Hong Kong will be Tak Chi Lee who is currently Client Service Director at Ogilvy HK.

"Tak will lead the implementation of a new plan which will include a new office space, some new clients and a new management line up in Hong Kong." Says David Mayo (left), CEO Bates CHI & Partners "I thank Conrad for what he has done in leading Bates to where it is today and I cannot imagine a more worthy successor than Tak who from my direct experience is an A class operator."

Ben Polkinghorne, creative at Colenso BDDO NZ and co-winner of the Axis Emerging Talent Award (with Anna Stickley) has been picked as one of 35 creatives under the age of 28 to attend the 2013 Young Creative Academy in Cannes. Here he gives a rundown of his first day in Cannes.

Gidday all. I suppose the reason you're reading this is because you want to know why I have a crab on my head. Or perhaps you want to know more about the Young Creative Academy.
 
Either way, I can't help you. At least, I couldn't when I wrote this intro on the plane.

AKQA has appointed Hideki "Nick" Watanabe's as Creative Director of their Tokyo office. Reporting to Rei Inamoto, AKQA Chief Creative Officer and Vice President, Watanabe will lead their Tokyo creative team.
 
Watanabe (left) joins AKQA from Naked Communications where he was Managing Partner / Executive Creative Strategist. There he developed the global social media strategy for Uniqlo and also worked for brands including Sony, Coca-Cola Georgia, and Unicharm. Prior, Watanabe spent 10 years at Beacon Communications / Leo Burnett Tokyo as Digital / Creative Director. He has won global recognition for his work and collaborations including Cannes Lions, One Show, Spikes Asia and Tokyo Interactive Ad Awards.
 
Rei Inamoto, CCO/VP said: "Nick's background in creative strategy, together with his passion for developing excellent ideas is reflected in the global admiration and recognition for his work. I've known Nick for over five years and tried to hire him previously. We are incredibly excited to welcome Nick to our team in Tokyo".

Kath O'Shea, founding partner of O'Shea & O'Brian, Sydney offers her take on the Cannes Seminars running throughout the week.

Day 2 in Cannes at the respectable time of 1.00pm, I decided to see how the advertising community could change the world for the good of mankind. Big call given my colleagues would have been well into pre-lunch drinks on one of the most stunning days ever. However, a choice with no regrets.

The 'cry for help' - as delivered by Tom Scott, Director of Global Brand and Innovation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - was for our community of extraordinary thinkers help solve the world's most urgent global health and development problems. The goal of the Gates Foundation is to eradicate extreme world poverty by 2030 (as defined by living on US$1.25 per day or less). A short video highlighting some of the work conducted by the Gates Foundation ended with a very powerful statement: "The work we do is complicated, the reason we do it is not". Therein lies the challenge for the creative community... how on earth to start solving such complicated world problems, with all the barriers associated with doing so in developing countries? No small feat.

Each day Simon Veksner, head of ideas at Naked Communications Australia, is posting a photo diary depicting 'the other side of Cannes'. Guaranteed no coverage of jury rooms, seminars, or award shows, exclusive to CB.

So here I am in the SOF, where many delegates are writing informative blog posts about the state of our industry. I thought about doing that too. Then I thought 'nah'.

Welcome to 'the other side of Cannes' - guaranteed no coverage at all of jury rooms, seminars, or award shows. Those of you who are stuck back at the office, working, may be feeling ball-shrinkingly jealous of the glamour we delegates get to experience. And so you should! Check out my hotel, for example.

SEE MORE

It's only day two in Cannes and already McCann Melbourne has picked up two Grand Prix awards for the agency's Metro Trains 'Dumb Ways to Die' campaign.

First up was the PR Grand Prix and a Gold Lion in the category. Then it was the Direct Grand Prix, plus two Direct Gold Lions.

The campaign "missed out" in the Promo & Activation Lions - only winning two Gold Lions.

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition. Here they give a rundown of the Young Lions briefing day.

Today was our Young Lions Cyber briefing day. The diverse range of countries and accents made us imagine we were part of Eurovision contestant inductions.

Ben Welsh, ECD at M&C Saatchi, Sydney is a judge on the Cannes Lions Outdoor jury. Welsh, is giving daily insights to this year's judging for Campaign Brief Asia.

Day three. We have a short list. A rather long shortlist given that we started with close to 6,000 entries, but in theory, today should be shorter, which is just as well as I'm knackered. I was visited by all the last two days' entries in the night, each case study, over and over again. I feel like Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange'. I need some Milk Plus.
 
We start going through the folios, the 114 have become 22, and it's scan, scan, scan time again. 17 scanners are continuously doing this so it sounds like a forest full of Bell Birds. The work is much better for the culling and I'm seeing stuff our group didn't get to look at. It's surprising how little automotive and alcohol work there is when they account for so much outdoor.

The Brand Agency's Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Cannes blog for the last seven years. He's at it again this year.

The first session of the 2013 Cannes Lions was crap.

Or to be more accurate, it was about crap. Bob Garfield introduced the GE Focus Forward project. The project, which is subtitled Short Films, Big Ideas is an award-winning series of 30 three-minute stories about innovators--people who are reshaping the world through act or invention--directed by the world's most celebrated documentary filmmakers.

Some of you may have seen the story of the invisible bicycle helmet that is part of the series.

DDB Group Singapore has scooped up two of the 13 Gold Lions awarded in the Direct category at tonight's gala awards show in Cannes.

The agency's "Third Eye" campaign for Starhub Mobile picked up both Golds.

Cheil Worldwide Korea picked up a Silver for Samsung Life Insurance "Bridge of Life". Bronze Lions went to O&M Hong Kong, DDB Mudra Mumbai and Proximity Beijing.

Download the winners list: Direct Winners - CL2013-1.xls

O&M Hong Kong's lion was for "Shop Elsewhere Hong Kong". DDB Mudra won for AARAMBH "Help Desk" and Proximity Beijing picked up for Volkswagen "Building the People's Car".

The Promo+Activation category at this year's Cannes Lions has seen Asia awarded 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 4 Bronzes.

Cheil Worldwide Seoul won both Gold Lions for Samsung's Bridge of Life project. Cheil created the idea to combat suicides on the Mapo Bridge. They created an interactive bridge by introducing a human touch to deter would-be jumpers, rather than erecting physical barriers. They installed sensors on the guardrails, so that when people walked by, lights turned on according to their movements. On the lighted rails appeared short messages, making it seem as if the bridge was speaking to the passers-by.

Ogilvy & Mather Thailand picked up Silver and Bronze for The JCC Company "Cut to Build" concept. Further Bronze Lions went to Y&R Philippines for Maynlad "Dengue Bottle", TBWA Hakuhodo Japan for United Arrow and DDB Singapore for Starhub "Third Eye".

Download the winners list: Promo & Activation Winners - CL2013-1.xls

Cannes Lions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced a new brief for the Cannes Chimera Initiative, a creative competition that identifies innovative communications approaches to help solve global development problems. The initiative delivered its third challenge to the creative community in a brief announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Brought to Campaign Brief by Sapient Nitro

Cameron Hoelter, creative director at DDB Sydney is a judge on the Cannes Lions Press jury. Here's Hoelter's rundown of day two and three of the judging.

After an unexpected half day on day two, day three got a lot more serious.

Today was about the shortlist. Marcello even seemed more serious. Which was slightly disconcerting. Him being a giant and everything.

Before we got under way he stated what he thought the criteria should be for the shortlist.

Asia has had a great performance at the shortlist stage of the Cannes Lions Outdoor category. Overall, a whopping 661 entries were shortlisted in Outdoor this year and 156 of them are from the Asian region.

India had a good result with 43 shortlists (including 9 outdoor craft entries). Singapore has 31 entries through to the metal round and Thailand has 27 (including 5 in outdoor craft). Next best is Malaysia and The Philippines with 13 each; Indonesia with 10; Hong Kong 4; and Vietnam and Japan with 3 each.

It was a great performance from Lowe Singapore with 20 of Singapore's 31 shortlists. They were the top performing agency in Outdoor. Ogilvy India has 15 shortlists followed by O&M Malaysia with 8; Grey Mumbai with 7 and McCann Mumbai, Hakuhodo Jakarta, Lowe Bangkok, Y&R Manila, and Taproot Mumbai with 6 shortlists.

Download the Outdoor Shortlist: Outdoor Lions Shortlist 2013-1.xls

There's a tonne of advice out there for juniors wanting to break into the industry -- books, blogs, and people wanting to give you their two cents. But advice comes from experience, and experiences are personal. Which means there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. In a regular column (Monday and Thursday) Lauren Ami MacDonald tries to make sense of it all.

They say the way to determine this is to answer whether you think in words or visuals. But what if you can do both? When I was writing for an agency in Sydney, I ended up illustrating for a bunch of jobs as well. Which really blew, because I'd draw something I was happy with, and inevitably have to make changes to it. Retarded things like making windows appear less square, and bellies less toned. For me, making the decision between the two didn't come down to whether I thought in words or visuals. And it wasn't a matter of having one of two skill sets. What it came down to was deciding which of the two I wanted to keep for myself, do in my own way, to please nobody but me. If you're in the same position, where you could go in either direction, think about which of the two you'd want to keep working on. They don't call it a job for nothing.

CB Asia interviews Nick Law, the global chief creative officer of R/GA and R/GA Sydney ECD Gavin McLeod and managing director Ameer Youssef.

VIEW THE INTERVIEW

The Cannes Lions Press jury has shortlisted 492 entries in the Press category this year. Released today, the shortlist contains 84 entries from Asia - not including the Craft categories.

It's a strong performance from Asia, with India leading the way with 23 shortlists. Thailand and China both have 19 shortlists, followed by Singapore with 13. Indonesia, Vietnam and Hong Kong have 3 each and Malaysia has one.

Leading the way is Y&R Beijing with 9 shortlists including 6 for Penguin Books. Taproot india and McCann Mumbai have 6 shortlists each followed by Publicis Singapore and Creative Juice Bangkok with 5 each.

(NB: these totals do not include the 54 entries from Asia that were shortlisted in the Press Craft categories).

Download the Print Shortlist: Press Lions Shortlist 2013-1.xls

Liam Riddler and Alex Bolderoff, a young creative team from 303Lowe, are competing in the Digital category of the Cannes Young Lions competition. Here they give a rundown of their first day in Cannes.

Atoms are cool. Japanese robotic cat ears are cool. A debit cards that can tell your balance are cool.

Today was our "sorta" first day at the festival and since the Young Lions area wasn't fully open we went and explored the inaugural Innovation Lions presentations.

The format was shortlisted team were given 10 minutes to explain their idea to the judges. Followed by 10 minutes of questions.

For the hot summer days of 2013, when young people across China will be reaching for a Coke, Leo Burnett Shanghai has developed an initiative to make the happy moments even more unforgettable by replacing the iconic Coca-Cola logo on the pack with individual nicknames, like 'Buddy' and 'Sweetie Pie,' that add to magic of sharing a Coke together.

The campaign, which aims to increase trial and purchase of Cokes by sharing these unique cans and bottles, will be supported by two TV commercials featuring massively popular band May Day, and a selection of OOH, retail and print, and nationally launched on 10th June 2013.

WATCH THE 45SEC SPOT
WATCH THE 30SEC SPOT
WATCH THE FIRST 15SEC SPOT
WATCH THE SECOND 15SEC SPOT

John Mescall, ECD of McCann Australia, is one Australia's representatives on the Cannes Lions Promo+Activation jury. Mescall, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.

3 days in and I finally gave in to the siren song of Cannes. Today, we finished judging a little early which left us with time on our hands. And when you have time on your hands in Cannes you drink rose. And when you drink rose you start to believe that your wardrobe is lacking pastel clothing and espadrilles. And when you start to believe that, you find yourself drawn to one of either two places: Bruno's on the Croisette or the many and varied shops on Rue d'Antibes.