Matt Shirtcliffe, EVP/ ECD at Proximity Canada, is chronicling his Cannes judging experience in a blog, MattinCannes.com. Stimulant received Matt’s blessing to excerpt our favourite bits, so check back regularly to keep up.

As the Cyber jury president remarked, the online space is where everything is converging: film, outdoor, promo, direct – you’ll find them all here. Take for example the biggest brightest star of Cannes – BBDO New York’s work for HBO. Just in case you haven’t seen it, the big idea was to project a huge installation onto the side of a downtown apartment building – creating the effect of being able to look in on the lives of the occupants like a voyeur. Each window you peered through contained another story –  which were played out magnificently online. This campaign has already won two Grand Prix – one each in Outdoor and Promo Lions; last night it picked up golds in Cyber. And there is not a skerrick of debate it’s well deserved. So I hope my colleagues from New York packed an extra suitcase and booked an extra seat. Oh – and good luck with the metal detector guys.

Being the inaugural year for Cannes Design Lions, there was some truly stunning work on show. Perhaps the one that caught my eye the most, was for an environmental cause in Europe. The idea was to attach a series of pens to the outer branches of trees; when the wind blew the trees drew. These created unique works of design art – and much notoriety for the cause.
It was also good to see Canada represented last night with a gold for GJP in Toronto.