Emad Tahtouh
One of the most recent categories at the Cannes Lions Festival is Lions Innovation devoted to celebrate the best in pioneering technology for a product, service or brand message. This new category includes two subcategories: Innovation and Creative Data, that according to what Emad Tahtouh, Applied Technology Director at Finch and Jury President in Innovation Lions explained to PRODU, are very different but intentionally comprehensive and inclusive. “When looking at the awarded pieces and those submitted, we see a great distinction in the work, not only in its physical expression but in the rationale behind it” Tahtouh said. He added that the product must show its scale, the feasibility that it can work, and if its for social benefit, it must say whats the problem and display the positive steps to change it. “Its not enough saying ‘This is the problem and this is our idea’, it must prove what youre going to do”. In pieces for Entertainment -depending if the category is experience or digital- it must prove it is superior and better than other similar ways of entertainment. If it is the VR school bus you can argue that the experience was experiential and how credible it was. This is part of the criterion. The Grand Prix in Innovation Lions was awarded to Google Deepmind London by Google deepmind alphago, a campaign designed to boost its artificial intelligence (AI) project AlphaGo.
