Canadians roar at Cannes Lions

Cannes Lions began in 1954, as the International Advertising Film Festival. Since it's inaugural year the festival, which was inspired by the internationally known Cannes Film Festival has grown from a festival with two categories to a festival with 18 categories and counting.

Today, in it's 59th year the festival has a new name, The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and boasts more than 28,000 entries. "The festival is the only truly global meeting place for advertisers, advertising and communication professionals."(http://www.canneslions.com/about/) With over 9000 delegates from 90 countries it is "the world's biggest celebration of creativity in communications."(http://www.canneslions.com/about/)

This year the festival was held from June 17-23 and was once again a showcase for international and specifically, Canadian talent in the advertising and communication industry. Some of the major Canadian firms who were honored at Cannes Lions in 2012 include:

JAM3
Tuxedo
Blast Radius
Grey Group
Cossette
JWT
LG2
Taxi
BBDO
Leo Burnett
Cundari
Lowe Roche
DraftFCB
DDB

Each of these firms was awarded either "Gold, Silver or Bronze in a variety of categories- including two golds in the new mobile award segment."(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/five-canadian-cannes-advertising-winners-you-should-see/article4368322/#gallery_4048=1)

Both gold lion statues were awarded to Toronto based firm Cundari for their mobile pain app, Pain Squad, for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. The app was created to allow young patients to record exactly how they were feeling on a daily basis. Each patient was given an iPhone with the app installed and was reminded via an alert to record their pain twice daily. To help motivate the children further, Cundari integrated a series of motivational videos as well as a reward system featuring prominent Canadian celebrities from the television shows Flashpoint and Rookie Blue. The app has been so successful for Sick Kids Hospital that it will soon "roll-out into four other Canadian hospitals and will soon be made available everywhere."(http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/mobile/entry.cfm?entryid=8544&award=2)

See the video below or click on the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsl9NjyVpHY to discover the reason behind the app and exactly how it works! It is an amazing way to help kids deal with painful cancer treatments!

-Rachel