McCann Health Rocks Cannes Health Lions... Again!

We're back from the French Riviera after another rip-roaring success at Cannes Lions 2015. This Cannes update from us will come in the form of 2 jam-packed blog posts, purely because we have so much exciting news and things to share with you all!

We flew into Nice airport on the Wednesday before Cannes Lions week to join forces again with McCann Health for year 2 of the Health Lions (#HealthLions)

If you aren't aware yet of what McCann Health gets up to over Health Lions, then take a peek at our previous blog posts from 2013 & 2014 and get up to speed.

This year we set up our pop-up restaurant on a beautiful balcony overlooking the Croisette, the old Marina and the Med. A superb new location, a stones throw from the Palais des Festivals.

McCann Health spends a whirlwind 3 days in Cannes. During this time they host talks, lunches, meetings and dinners, give out healthy hangover-busting juices, and attend awards ceremonies, Palais events and closing parties. 

They kicked off the whole event with their signature juices, aimed to target those sore, early morning heads. The juices were packed full of healthy vitamins and nutrients...

Like beetroot which lowers blood pressure and fights heart disease.

Parsley which is rich in Vit C, B 12, K & A - meaning it keeps your immune system strong and supports kidney function. 

Ginger which can aid with nausea and and digestive issues. 

And carrots which contain more Vit A than you could shake a stick at, while also hosting other powerful health benefits including beautiful skin, cancer prevention and anti-aging. 

All handed our by our lovely McCann Health Juice Team. Who grabbed one? 

---------------------------

After the juices had been handed out, delegates filtered into the Palais des Festivals for a talk of a lifetime. 

This year McCann Health landed a 1hour speaking slot at the Palais. The brief from Jeremy Perrott Global Creative Director of McCann Health was to find two speakers who have fought for their creative lives. Gunner Laura Gregory knew just the two. 

Slam poet and TED speaker Shane Koyczan and Hollywood director Ilya Naishuller joined McCann Health for an incredible talk. The duo spoke separately but collectively brought the audience to their feet. 

(L-R) Ilya Naishuller - Director, Jeremy Perrot - Global ECD of McCann Health & Shane Koyczan - Slam Poet

Unfortunately we can't share the video of the talk with you - trust us we'd love to! To make up for it here are some snippets from their talks and some pictures of Shane, Ilya, Gunner Laura and McCann Health Jeremy Perrot.  

(L-R) Shane Koyczan, Laura Gregory, Ilya Naishuller & Jeremy Perrott

Day 2 of talks included an amazing panel for UNF Presents: 'Creative Solutions for Saving Women's Lives Around the Globe.' The panel welcomed Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan, Dr. Raj Shah, Dr. Naveen Rao at Merck for Mothers and Aaron Sheridan, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer at UNF, and covered everything to do with women's health. 

If you are interested in anything else Health Lions related, there is a huge amount of information, snippets, photos and backstage chat on their website: CLICK HERE 

Feeling full of creative juice post talks, the McCann Health team put on quite the spread for their guests and team when cocktail hour rolled around. 

The genius Maria Elia and her amazing crew joined us for the 3rd year running, and set about creating amazing canapés and finger food. We were also joined by a new member of La Maison Bouffe - James, who was quite the mixologist - he wowed us with drinks including Lavender and Rosemary Gin Fizz, Espresso Martinis and Coriander and Chilli Bloody Mary's. 

(L-R) Jeremy Perrott Global ECD, June Laffey ECD & John Cahill Global Chief Executive Officer at McCann Health

(L-R) Nicole Cramer, SVP Global Chief Creativity Catalyst at McCann Health, Sheridan Thomas and Laura Gregory of Great Guns, Rahel Rasu Communications Manager at McCann Health, Deborah Zdobinski SVP Brand Communications Director at McCann Health

The McCann Health team ended their time in Cannes with a hearty breakfast on the balcony on Sunday. 

It was a fantastic second year of Health Lions, and yes, we will be back next year! 

a GREAT summer

What a summer we’ve had. London has been (mainly) bathed in sunshine and the Gunner’s have been busying away throughout. We’ve traveled, tweeted, filmed, BBQ’d on our roof terrace, signed new directors, and won awards. We’ve had videos go viral, interviewed for D&AD and even spent time with Gromit. We decided to keep the blogging to a minimum over the summer months and hit you all with a massive update - so here goes... 

First up lets talk awards and screenings... we’re so proud of our directors who have collected an array of awards over the past few months. Mikko took home a Gold Lion for FragileChildhood

Jonty Toosey won Best Of Show for Molson ‘Beer Fridge’ 

and Shearer clinched a Bronze Clio for Nike Ordem at the first ever Clio Sports Awards. 

Olivier Venturini has had his brand film for the Fableists shortlisted into two fashion film awards so far. We've happy to say that Fableists 'Finn' has been selected for the London Fashion Film Festival and the Australian International Fashion Film Festival! If you haven't already seen the film you can watch it HERE

Ron Scalpello's new feature film PRESSURE is set to make its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival later in the year. A trailer is yet to be released - but have a read of this to get an idea of what to expect.

Olly Blackburn makes his return to UK television with E4's brand new series Glue - which starts this September. Written by Jack Thorne (This is England '86, This is England '88 alongside Shane Meadows, Skins and Shameless) Glue will tell the story of police officers investigating the death of a teenager found underneath the wheels of a tractor. Watch the trailer HERE. 

Olly has also just completed on his newest feature film Kristy. 

It's going to screen at the BFI London Film Festival in October. Here is a short write up from the BFI:  

British director Oliver Blackburn (Donkey Punch) proves that college life can still be a killer. As her fellow students depart for Thanksgiving with their families, Justine prepares to spend the holidays alone in her dorm. With just the campus security for company, she finds ways to fill her days, but her peaceful break is suddenly shattered when a gang of bloodthirtsy outcasts invade the halls and Justine finds herself on a desperate fight for survival. Blackburn expertly blends traditional stalk and slash thrills with moments of striking visual lyricism, and in the lead role Haley Bennett infuses Justine with the strength and ingenuity to forever ensue her place in final girl history.

------------------------------- 

The world of social media has gained a new account as Laura Gregory joins Twitter for the first time! 
@blacknapkinT41 is Laura's personal quest to find the best food, bars, chefs, cocktails and black napkins for the solo traveller. 

You can expect great restaurant recommendations, links to interesting news articles, foodie pictures, her best hotel picks and more... think underwear that helps you fart with confidence!! - definitely worth a follow. 

She also has a busy lead up to 2015 with a diary jam-packed full of jury duty and judging. She re-joins the judging panel for the LIA awards 2014 as jury chair for Music Video, TV/Cinema/Online Film Production and jury for Post Production. She will also be sitting on the Eurobest Jury which this year takes place in Helsinki in December. Laura who is already on the D&AD Board of Trustees will also take on the role of judging the Black Pencil New Blood awards as well as the D&AD Next Director Awards.

------------------------------- 

Speaking of D&AD - Andy Morahan has just done an interview with them, talking all about his life behind the lens... 

You can watch it by clicking HERE

-------------------------------  

The next stop for the Gunners is Singapore for the Singapore Grand Prix followed by the Spikes Awards. After last years success choosing DDB's keynote speaker for Spikes (we sent over Game of Thrones and Great Guns Director David Nutter to speak) Great Guns was approached again this year to supply to the key note speaker. We chose Casey Neistat  who will speak about his path in the world of new media. 

From having written, directed and starred in a television show on HBO to building a personal YouTube Network with 100,000,000 views, he will walk the audience through his journey both professional and personal. Focusing on how never learning the way you are supposed to do things forces you to pave your own path and that process can yield unexpected successes. 

It's going to be good! 

-------------------------------  

As you know we love a good lunch and what better way to end this mega roundup than with just that. Yesterday we took the lovely Shots team to Shoreditch House to chat about what we had been up to and what's coming up. 

It was a pretty glorious Tuesday on their rooftop! 

We went simple with a classic pizza

Ryan from shots plumped for the steak with perfectly cooked french fries. 

We shared the salad. Definitely going to try this at home. Strands of courgette soaked in lemon juice with warm haloumi cheese, smoked paprika and coriander. Simple and delicious! 

SH is members only but they have a fantastic sister restaurant downstairs called Pizza East where you can gorge on sourdough pizzas, gorgeous salads and as much antipasti as you like! 

-------------------------------   

We promise to not leave it so long before our next blog post! 

The Gunners x 

D&AD Next Director Award

There's a very exciting new awards show on the scene. Earlier in the year D&AD launched the Next Director Awards at Google HQ in London. Joining forces with MOFILM and YouTube, the awards aim to discover and showcase the next generation of talented directors from around the world. 

ARE YOU NEXT? 

It's open to all aspiring directors of any age, providing they have less than two years industry experience as a director, and any work can be entered from short films to music videos as long as they are 5 minutes or under. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

All shortlisted directors will have their work showcased worldwide by MOFILM. The Winner receives a D&AD Next Director Pencil, a mentoring scheme, a production grand from MOFILM, appearing in D&AD Annual 2015 and tickets and flights to the D&AD Awards Ceremony in May 2015. 

The first shortlist was announced yesterday after much deliberation and fierce competition. Laura Gregory who is the foreman of the jury comments, "Themes of loss, love, perversion, depression, addiction and nutty humour prevailed. The shortlist is a balance of every of every element and the best was almost a unanimous choice. The overall quality was excellent."

We're super happy to say that one of Great Guns' new signings Joseph Oxford has been shortlisted in the first round for his touching short film Me + Her - which you can watch HERE

You can watch all the shortlisted films BY CLICKING HERE

Tempted....? Well we have good news! There are 2 more deadlines over the next 6 months, so you still have 2 more chances to enter. Submit a film you've already made, take a leap and get out there and shoot that film you've always wanted to shoot... and then ENTER IT. 

Here are the dates you need: 

15 October 2014 - Round Two Deadline 11 November 2014 - Round Two Judging 28 February 2015 - Round Three Deadline 20 April 2015 - Round Three Judging 21 April 2015 - Annual Judging 15 May 2015 - Annual Ceremony

Good Luck! 

The Gunners x 

#NextDirectorAward

what a cannes-tastic week

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