Great Guns : June 2014

What a week we had in Cannes.

It was a whirlwind of lunches, dinners, food, rosé, new friends, old friends, awards and A LOT of fun.

If you came to one of our lunches or dinners this year you know what's coming, and might even spot a picture of yourself... but for those of you who'd like to know what the Gunners got up to on the Croisette... go pour yourself a glass of rosé, it is Thursday after all (we recommend Minuty), put one of our playlists on, and get your scrolling finger ready!

Grapefruit Cocktails with Bacon Popcorn

As last year was such a success, we did the same this year. We set up our popup just above the Michael Kors shop in the Lerina building. The apartment boasts a huge terrace which we covered in huge umbrellas and cooling fans.

Massive Music provided an awesome DJ booth from which DJ's serenaded us with chilled beats and lounge music throughout the week. Maria Elia came back to whip up over 50 different dishes over the course of Cannes Lions, from sit down lunches to family style dinner feasts. It was our oasis of calm amidst the general madness on the Croisette, and we had the pleasure of sharing it with creative minds, friends and family.

Ruby Griffiths and Anna Allgrove from LBB with Nicki Masterson from Source E Creative and Gunner Kelly

Cass Zadawoski from BBDO Proximity in Germany

Jonathon Ker our Partner and CEO at Great Guns USA with Lyndy Stout, Editor at OnePoint4

Kristen Armstrong from Royle Productions with Great Guns EP in LA Annie Hanlon

Creative Director Ivan Pols from Ogilvy

Tonise Paul - President & CEO of Energy BBDO Chicago

Sergio Lopez - Head of Integrated Production at McCann

Maureen Butler our Midwest Rep with Sally Lipsius - Head of Broadcast at WCRS

People arrived, caught up with old friends, networked and eventually made their way to their seats to sit down for lunch or dinner. Maria changed her menu daily depending on what was available from the Cannes market that morning. We can't resist sharing a few of our favourites from La Maison Bouffe this year...

Seared salmon with a pistachio and dill crust

Prawns with tomato and watermelon cubes which turned into watermelon and prawn gazpacho soup as seen below.

Greek salad cucumber boats

'Hangover' pulled pork tacos with avocado and chilli

Giant macaroons and roasted apricots

After lunch or dinner guests moved around tables and introduced themselves to people they'd spotted or wanted to meet.

Executive Producer T.K. Knowles, Tanya Lesieur Chief Production Officer at Saatchi NY and Laura Gregory

Carlos Soms - Founder of VV Films Barcelona with Great Guns EP Jane Gershfield

Jeff Benjamin - Chief Creative Officer at JWT with Laura Gregory

Diederik Van Middelkoop and Ben Einziger from Massive Music

Bonnie highjacking the Massive Music decks on the night of the Massive Party!

Great Guns Director Andy Morahan

Great Guns Director Remo with our Executive Producer Kate Phillips

Nanna Skipper Gronli, Magnhild Foldoy and Gry Baekkelund from Saatchi Norway

We hope everyone who came to our lunches and dinners enjoyed themselves and made some great connections. We're looking forward to next year already!

La Maison Bouffe wasn't the only success... Our Great Guns Directors Jonty Toosey, Olly Blackburn & Mikko collected a hat-trick of Lions in Cannes!

Great Guns represented director Mikko picked up Sauna International's first GOLD Lion award for his spot for Fragile Childhood.

At the first ever Health Lions, Gunner Olly Blackburn received a SILVER Lion for his commercial for the pharmaceutical drug Erbitux shot for McCann Healthcare.

And to round up the Gunner's week and wins at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was Jonty Toosey and his Bronze Cyber Lion for Rethink's 'Beer Fridge' for Molson Canadian.

The full press release on these wins is out soon and we will update the post with a link to it when it goes live.

Jonty celebrating his Bronze Lion win :)

What. A. Week.

Thank you to EVERYONE for making it another unforgettable Cannes.

See you next year!

The Gunners x

As McCann left... in came the Gunners.

We began with a reunion lunch, all sat round the table catching up, chatting and some meeting for the first time. The team flew in from all over the world and Maria and her team utterly spoilt us with a gorgeous sit down meal to kick off our Cannes.

We started with a white and green asparagus, wild mushroom, parmesan and white balsamic salad and BBQ flat peaches with prosciutto, pecorino fresco, truffle and honey.

The main course was incredible - radicchio and strawberry risotto with balsamic oil. The dessert stole the show and was perfect on a hot, sunny day in Cannes - avocado sorbet with chocolate and coffee ganache, coffee jelly, cocoa soil and chocolate popping candy. YUM.

Lunch finished and we started getting ready for our first big dinner. The tables were set for 40 fabulous dinner guests and the evening kicked off with mojitos and some great music from Massive Music.