I am very satisfied with the Volcano that concluded just a few hours ago, as it brought to our community a combination of results that many, like me, did not expect. It is late and tomorrow there will be more time to add, however, it is worth a few more minutes to leave you my first impressions.
In the first instance, this Volcano was characterized by the personality of two first class jurors here and in China. Both Marco Colín and Rodolfo Borrell excelled in sharing with us their impressions in a friendly, sincere, transparent and no less direct way. They inspired, encouraged and, at the same time, reprimanded especially that poor habit of applauding only what is ours. Borrell said it forcefully and promoted applauding good ideas, wherever they come from, and especially for the country first of all. The road to Cannes must be traveled united and not divided.
Then, and although it seemed a simple modification of style, the fact that the awards were presented by different creatives and heads of the country’s agencies, promoted the exercise of delivery between rival teams and with it, the reinforcement of a dream: to stop seeing us as competitors among ourselves, to set our sights on the international festivals. The idea worked and indeed, it was very refreshing to see the commitment among us, as well as the sincere congratulations. It gave a taste of what we should do more of every day.
I also believe that having such a large jury, 27 in total, helped to validate the results. In a process such as the one we went through, we have the necessary documentation and data to corroborate any doubts or concerns that may have arisen, as we are clear that it will never be possible for everyone to leave the room happy, and that opinions will always be given in one direction or another. For this reason, I emphasize the peace of mind that a crystalline process such as the one effectively conducted by Lilliana González gives us.
Having said the above, however, I cannot go to sleep yet without acknowledging that for me it was a volcano of surprises. Just as I was not surprised to see the Bavaria commercial start the night with the expected awards, the Automercados commercial came to confirm that it should have been in my expectations of winners, since it was mostly supported by the jurors until the end. This piece, by managing to sneak into the big volcanoes, accumulated points for Automercado to become the advertiser of the year, although it was not enough to do the same for the agency.
At the same time, the score generated an agency of the year that did not win in the last big volcanoes. For this reason, to the eye of the event attendee, the winning agency was between JBQ and DDB, especially if we were not careful in adding up the Volcanoes won on the night. For this reason, at the awards ceremony it was also a surprise that Garnier BBDO won the Agency of the Year award, although it took a few minutes to add up what had been achieved and thus confirm that one point after another, Garnier BBDO had added up all the merits to achieve this precious distinction.
There are always surprises and based on what we won, perhaps we all left thinking that we were in for more. In fact, for us it was a surprise to see the Andrea commercial for the BAC with a Volcano on the bench, as it was also a surprise that Osa did not win in its media innovation category, as we thought that the skin for tattoos could have been for more. So many other submitted pieces took the course of the unexpected and surprising.
Tomorrow we can calmly add more. Meanwhile they dance and celebrate in the salon, I say goodbye to go to sleep, satisfied and grateful.