• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 15, 2014

So David Hasselhoff was all the rage in Cannes on Sunday. He kicked off the festival at the Golin seminar touting HofforNot.com which launched June 14 and on which people could guess whether or not the image was, in fact, The Hoff or a look-a-like. Those at the seminar were asked to play the game live in the auditorium. The campaign saw 60 million uses of the #hoffornot hashtag from launch to the beginning of the seminar and another 24 million additional during the session. Relating it back to the session, Golin President Matt Neil said, "The campaign builds on his relevant strength of 'entertaining.' There are far more likely chances of success with relevance being the driver." It was all, as it says on the Golin Hoff or Not site a social experiment to quickly build a brand in real-time. It seems to have worked. There was little mention of another arguably bigger celebrity who also appeared onstage Sunday, Patrick Stewart.

Sticking with Cannes Lions for a minute, the face of the event has changed quite a bit over the years. Originally, for the most part, it was a festival at which ad agencies could experience and appreciate the work of other agencies. Then the clients wanted to go. And they did. Some didn't like this change because, let's be honest, it can sometimes be awkward to find yourself drunk at the Gutter Bar at 3AM trying to carry on a coherent discussion with your client. More recently, it's the ad-tech companies which are all over the event. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, they've descended upon Le Croisette this year en mass. From ExactTarget to MediaMath to PubMatic to Turn to Rubicon to TubeMogel to AdKnowlede and more. It's really turned into an event for the entire advertising ecosystem much in the way SXSW has transformed from an event for geeks to an event for all of marketing and beyond.

Well if The Effies are to be believed, Fallon has every right to be gloating. The agency which lost the Cadillac account about a year ago, recently won a Gold Effie for its ATS vs. the World campaign. Of the win, Fallon CEO Mike Buchner said, “It’s nice to be rewarded for good work and strong results. It’s extra special given our circumstances with Cadillac.” Now an agency crying over the loss of a client after having won awards isn't really something to be proud of. Except for the fact that, if its methodology is to be believed, The Effies award work that actually achieves something for the client rather than just looking pretty so it can take home a Lion. And for this reason, Fallon has every right to gloat. Someone buy the man a bottle of rose this week.

And just to further remind you that a Cannes Lion isn't the only award on the planet, last week Stun Creative was awarded the Promax BDA Creative Agency of the Year Award. The agency also won 7 Gold Promax awards for individual campaigns. And making the agency even happier, the Dove Men ad which last week achieved upwards of 3.5 million views was produced by Stun. Of the Promax wins, Stun Co-Founder and Partner Mark Feldstein said, “This is all about the teamwork. We wouldn't be where we are today without the total collaboration and imagination of the incredible talent we have on staff, and our clients, who give us the opportunity to take creative risks.” So buy Feldstein a bottle of Rose too if you see him wandering around Cannes this week .