Media Experts Chris Walton and Val Whiffen, winners of the Canadian Young Media Lions Competition are at the Cannes Festival of Creativity this week competing in the Young Media Lions Global Competition and taking in all that is this truly global meeting place for advertisers, advertising and communication professionals. This is their latest dispatch.

Credia – Defining the Grey Area

Probably the most recurring questions Chris and I have had when taking in all of the the inspirational work lining the walls of the Palais: How do we determine that fine line between media and creative?

After attending the Awards for Creative Effectiveness, Outdoor, Mobile and Media, we were left wondering what criteria this work is judged on in order to warrant a particular lion. Some of the campaigns awarded for outdoor would have lost all relevance without the perfect media solution; and on the flip side how does a creative stunt secure a media lion when all subsequent online buzz has been generated organically?

It has definitely made us re-evaluate the relationship between agencies and has driven home the importance of collaboration from briefing to final execution in order for media and creative to work in harmony to maximize effectiveness.

The winning cases can now be found on the 2012 Cannes Lions Website and a few of our favourites that truly brought media and creative to their full potential are:

Every 18 Seconds Somebody Dies of AIDS (Kempertrautmann – Hamburg) – http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/media/entry.cfm?entryid=13516&award=99&order=0&direction=1

Pedigree Donation Glasses (Colenso BBDO / Finch – Auckland) – http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/media/entry.cfm?entryid=27098&award=99&order=0&direction=1

Stay tuned for the next dispatch from Val and Chris, and feel free to leave your comments below