2013 Cannes Lions Award Winners: A Methodological Perspective.

Submit your information for the year-end "Hit Product Rankings" early!

Hello, everyone. Hard to believe, but only about a month remains of this year. If you're thinking, "Well, I should probably start considering year-end cleaning, New Year's plans, and year-end/New Year PR soon..." Well, that's not good enough! PR requires getting ahead of the information release curve! For example, if you're thinking about Christmas content for a monthly magazine, you need to get it into the November issue. So what does that mean? Considering the editorial cycle, you ideally want to have Christmas-related information prepared and approach the editorial department two months before the magazine's release date – preferably by August.

Furthermore, as you know, media coverage of seasonal topics keeps starting earlier and earlier. "Early Christmas tree lighting ceremonies"? They started on November 1st this year! Then in October, we see "Luxury osechi delivery sets are popular this year," and while you're preparing for Christmas, next year's Valentine's Day trends start popping up. Whew, if you're screaming "I can't keep up!" you're already behind the curve (old saying?). A true PR pro is always prepared to share information about their company's products or services, no matter when or where (ahem!). To help with that, we create our own annual PR calendar for constant reference. We track when staple events become social news, anticipate new events for next year, and note magazine feature trends. This lets us prepare information for release at the optimal moment. It's surprisingly handy—I'll show you sometime, though it's paid (lol).

Speaking of which, I finished providing information for the "2013 Hit Product Rankings" announced by various media outlets like the internet and TV by October. If you think, "It's already mid-November, year-end is coming, I should probably start providing info for those hit product rankings soon," you're dead wrong. Some rankings come out as early as the beginning of November, so you need to compile your information by October and approach it like, "Hey, remember this? It was a huge hit!" Just think back for a moment!" The media, too, can surprisingly forget things from the beginning of the year, so the key is to get them to notice. If it's an undeniably huge hit product, you can probably leave it alone, but for anything else, getting it considered for the ranking table is crucial. You can't just leave everything to fate. Move where you can move—that's what being a PR person is all about (ahem!).

 

Just telling people isn't enough to get consumers to act

I used a few words on seasonal topics, but this is the final installment of "Strategic PR Essentials Seen at Cannes Lions." Following Part 1: "Storytelling Matters" and Part 2: "Consistently Communicate Your Corporate Message," this time I'll explore 'methods'. That said, I'm not looking for some 'super stylish, crazy new method' at Cannes. What I want to present is more of a mindset or principle for choosing solutions: "Communicate information in a neutral way (i.e., from a neutral perspective, using appropriate and correct methods)." I think this is crucial.

Looking back, Japan's advertising industry long prioritized information reach. It was all about "Just get it out there—to every single person in Japan!" And that cost money, of course. But then we realized: Just telling people doesn't move them. Or rather, maybe it wasn't really getting through? So we're back to square one. ←Like, here we are now. While this is common sense in PR, recently even international ad awards have started evaluating "final results" right from the initial judging stage. Back in the day, they'd judge based on momentum—like "This is stimulating!" or "This video is awesome!" No, no, I think that's fine too. It got people to look and find it interesting. But now, if it doesn't lead to tangible results, clients get angry.

 

What will get us closest to the results?

That's where the goal—or rather, the outcome—becomes crucial. From the initial brief, we must firmly establish with the client what the target goal is, then objectively select the most "effective and efficient" method to achieve it. In other words, don't stop thinking within your own area of expertise; consider the overall plan with a more flexible, bird's-eye view.

Honestly, this takes real courage. In an ad agency, you might hear things like, "We absolutely need newspaper ads!" or "Prioritize selling this ad slot!" Or, "Just to be safe, let's run this many commercials." "We need Facebook likes, right? Should we just make a fun app for now?" But when you think about the client's results, you can't afford to waste a single yen, right? So, I believe it's our duty to propose methods that are thoroughly thought out from the perspective of "What will get us closest to the results?" – not just "a safe, fail-proof plan as an ad agency." We need to set aside whether we're an ad agency or a PR firm and focus on that.

To achieve that, it's crucial for every member involved in the project to sit down together at one table and share the core strategy! Based on that strategy, we neutralize our thinking and formulate a communication plan that brings us closer to results. We must move beyond prioritizing tactics! Doing so allows us to objectively choose not only the "importance of the story being told," as mentioned earlier, but also "where (in which media) to tell it." This should deeply achieve the core goal of "personalization." Watching Cannes, I'm reminded of the importance of the Neutral Way, alongside discoveries like, "Oh, that's an approach!"

 

Introducing examples from Cannes Lions award-winning work viewed through the "neutral way" lens

 

■ "The Ant Rally" (Germany)

A forest conservation campaign commemorating WWF's 50th anniversary. By thoroughly considering "who suffers most" from deforestation before selecting the communicator, it successfully amplified the message. Since the creatures living in the forests suffer most when they disappear, the campaign had leafcutter ants—which inhabit tropical rainforests and have the habit of carrying leaves—transport leaves cut into messages like "Save Trees." This became a major event at Cologne Zoo, generating buzz and spreading the forest conservation message. The actors don't have to be humans, right?

This campaign won the Grand Prix for GOOD at Cannes Lions 2013, as well as Gold in the Promo & Activation category.

 

■ "Toxic Tours" (Mexico)

Currently, 70% of rivers in Mexico are polluted with chemicals. This is a Greenpeace campaign that believes society must be made aware of this fact. On World Tourism Day, they launched TOXIC TOURS (a toxic tour agency) and invited domestic celebrities. Many famous people experienced "toxic activities" such as "snorkeling in oil-covered rivers" and "fishing for dead fish." At the same time, they conducted educational tours of polluted rivers for the general public. The celebrities and tour participants who experienced this sent autographed "stinking postcards" to members of parliament and the media, raising awareness and sparking a nationwide debate on the environment. The key to the project was the creation of a system for disseminating powerful personal experiences from symbolic figures. The visuals, which make you feel sick just looking at them, are excellent.

Won Gold in the PR category and Bronze in the Promo & Activation category at Cannes Lions 2013.

 

■ "Make The Politicians Work" (Russia)

The roads in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, were in terrible condition, causing great frustration among citizens. Local news site URA.RU, wanting to boost traffic to their site while improving the city, planned a major campaign to get politicians moving. URA.RU used potholes in the roads to draw caricatures of three well-known local officials—the governor, mayor, and deputy mayor—and wrote messages next to them like "When will you fix this pothole?" Politicians scrambled to erase the portraits from the roads, but URA.RU secretly filmed their efforts and streamed the footage live. The site saw a massive surge in traffic, media picked up the story, and politicians were forced to repair the roads overnight.

Furthermore, the special project "URA.RU Roads" was launched, allowing any citizen to submit a request demanding repairs for problematic roads. Previously, only 1.4 km of roads were repaired per month, but after the campaign, 7.6 km of roads were repaired monthly. Anticipating politicians' typical tactics while amplifying public opinion to bind them from all sides—that's the strategy. What was impossible with a few petitions alone became a visible social issue through this masterful approach.

Winner of Gold in the PR category, Gold in the Media category, Gold in the Promo & Activation category, and other awards at Cannes Lions 2013.