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NEWS FLASH: Canada snags its first Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2007

Canada rocks Cyber. As predicted (by us), "Evolution" has earned a Grand Prix in the Cyber Lions. The Unilever viral win out of Ogilvy & Mather Toronto was actually one of three Grand Prix awards handed out today by the Cyber jury in Cannes.

O&M's Nancy Vonk describes her team's reaction as duly ebullient: "We got word from Cannes about the big one about two minutes before boarding our flight. Picture a small group of five-year-olds on Christmas Day, the moment they spot the big score they really didn't think Santa could pull off. It doesn't get much better than a Cyber Grand Prix."

And according to US Cyber jury member Fernanda Romano, right now, "it's more career-changing for someone to win a Cyber Lion than a Film lion."

Jury president Tom Eslinger, interactive and emerging technologies CD, Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, said that the finalists were well and truly scrutinized. "We were looking for the most exceptional cyber ideas in the world," he said, "and the ones that were awarded were far and away more brilliant than others in the category."

Romano, who is ECD Lowe New York, added, "Pretty much every year since Cyber started, you've seen upgrades in tech, and the truth is, this hasn't happened this year. There hasn't been a new technology. The three Grand Prix, if you look at the technology, they didn't invent anything new. 'Evolution,' what's the new technology? None. It's more and more about ideas. A Grand Prix has to be groundbreaking and game-changing."

With "Evolution," the jury was impressed by the decision to put it on the Internet and go the peer-to-peer route - the fact that the advertiser said, "I don't believe I need to buy the space, they will come to me." And, of course, as Romano explains: "What was happening in the last few months that made us stop in our tracks? It was 'Evolution.'"

Eslinger says the winning work represents a shift for Cyber. "They had a strong relationship with the aud - that's game-changing for us, that they could make that emotional connection with an idea." He added that the jury had a quest. "We were looking for exceptional ideas in the category; we wanted to find a Titanium Lion before the Titanium jury found it."

Steve Mykolyn, interactive and design CD at Taxi and past Cyber Cannes judge, says he thinks it's possible that Cyber is a temporary category. "The best companies in the world think about the idea first, then think of how to get the message out, but not in a traditional sense. That's what makes 'Evolution' so great, and 'Subservient Chicken' so cool. Companies that are most successful are using new kinds of media to reach their audience in ways we haven't even dreamt of. Cyber might not be a category when everything boils down to the big idea."

Mykolyn comments that "Evolution" and last year's big winner, Ecko's "Stillfree" by droga5 New York, share a few things - they both connected with their target, as well as the public at large. As per Mykolyn: "The best praise I ever heard was from a CD who said, 'I hate 'Evolution' because I like it, and everyone else likes it too.'"

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