Judging the Cyber Lions

This year there were 1 244 entries in the Cyber Lions category. The 15-member jury was split into three groups and each had their own set of categories to judge so all the judges did not see all the work in the first round of filtering. Our group had 539 entries to cover and the only South African work I saw was for Osram, the VW Bus Tribute, Nando's Street Brawl and Bluebean's "You, 12 hours, R150 000" e-mail campaign.

In this initial phase, the only piece of SA work that really stood out was that produced for Osram. It was a simple idea that was simply executed and made an impact. Although it had potential, VW Bus Tribute's execution really let it down and it felt a little dated and unprofessionally produced. In addition, the Brazilian entry to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VW in Brazil (which made the shortlist) really did highlight the shortcomings of SA's VW bus entry. The Blue Bean stuff was not terribly exciting and unfortunately blended into the rest of the entries. The Nando's Streetbraw was simply too local and was glossed over by all the judges. On many of the machines the site did not load properly which didn't help the scores either.

Overall the quality of all the entries was very poor and the good work really stood out. It could be argued that bigger budgets internationally contribute to better work, an example being the fact that Nike have around 50 people working full time on its websites. Yet simple ideas for banners caused more than a few outbursts of laughter from the panel throughout the sessions.

The first shortlist after the filtering saw only two South African entries come through, the Primi Piatti website from The Jupiter Drawing Room and the POWA banner from Harrison Human Bates. Primi Piatti was an example of a good execution of best practice stuff from previous years and was eliminated. But fantastic news for POWA with its Gold win in the Banner category. It really had a huge impact on the other judges.

I think our performance this year could be due to many things. The exchange rate does not allow companies to enter as many items as they would like, perhaps eliminating some good work before it is even seen by the jurors. And I suspect that some of the interactive design companies do not enter simply because they are not as 'award ceremony aware' as their advertising and design cousins.

From a local point of view, we need to present and produce stronger ideas; agencies need to push their clients harder on good ideas; and clients need to be a little braver. One area that cannot be ignored is that of budgets. If you do not have a reasonable budget, you cannot even consider spending the right amount of time brainstorming good ideas. If you have three days to conceptualise and produce a campaign using photography shot in the studio with a digital camera you are not starting on a good platform.

Overall, though, I was happy with the results. The Volvo Grand Prix, in my mind, was the best entry. Fantastic that Volvo advertised the car in a way that only showed you the car online. All the ads directed you to the site - and what a site. So out of the norm for a car site. The production values were top class and you just want to keep going... The other Grand Prix winner, Nike Europe's "Panno Ko", was a great example of listening to your customers. They saw a game being played on the streets, took it in and made it a sport. The website was so different from the other Nike stuff, fresh with street credibility - just like the game.

Generally speaking, the medium best practice seems to be taking over from the conventional good advertising idea/concept. Every site needs a game, preferably pinball, and you must be able to send an e-card. A car site is not a car site without being able to configure your own car and order it from the website.