On Cannes: Cyber, Print, and Design Grand Prix

The red-hot American interactive-ad shop 42 Entertainment in Pasadena won a Grand Prix at the Cannes International Advertising Festival for its viral campaign for Trent Reznor/NIN (Nine Inch Nails).

It was one of three firms to take home a Grand Prix in the increasingly coveted Cyber Lions category for best interactive marketing campaign. Projector in Tokyo was named best website/interactive campaign for its Uniqlock work, and Mediafront in Oslo won for its Scandinavia Online banner-ad campaign.

The awards were made at a ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, tonight.

42 Entertainment is the same agency that is generating a lot of buzz for its unique guerilla campaign for the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight.

Its campaign for Reznor/NIN was a long-term, fan-involved, Orwellian interactive mystery that included scavenger hunts, cryptic clues on T-shirts, and USB drives planted in bathrooms at NIN concerts.

Conspicuous in its absence in the Cyber category was the Cadbury Guerilla video, created by Fallon in London and which has been watched nearly 2.5 million times on YouTube alone. Fallon chose to only enter the piece in the Titanium competition, for campaigns "beyond media categorization."

Lean Mean Fighting Machine in London was named Cyber Agency of the Year. Crispin Porter & Bogusky of Miami was cited for its work for Burger King, Dominos, and Coca-Cola.

The big winner in the print category was DDB South Africa, which won four Grand Prix for its work promoting Energizer lithium batteries. The campaign included ads that demonstrated the absurd situations children left to their own devices can get into when their toy batteries die.

The first year in the Design Lion category saw a Grand Prix for Coca-Cola identity work done by Turner Duckworth of London and San Francisco.

Winners in the film, Titanium category as well as the agency of the year will be announced on Saturday, the last night of the weeklong festival attended by almost 10,000 delegates from 85 nations this year.

by James P. Othmer

For an interactive map of Cannes parties, click here.