Droga5 wins Cyber Grand Prix with brilliant Giselle Bundchen campaign – but ‘cyber’ isn’t why it’s good

Part of the trick about Cannes is to enter your ad – or whatever it may be – in the right category.

One regular source of confusion is the ‘Cyber’ contest, which Droga5 has just won with its campaign for Under Armour, featuring Giselle Bundchen.

But what does ‘Cyber’ mean. It used to mean Arnie Schwarzenegger but time, presumably, has moved on.

It seems to mean an ad campaign with lots of digital bells and whistles. The trouble with this is that the award might go to the best submission – detailing the above – rather than the the best multi-media ad.

Jury president Isobar CEO Jean Lin, clearly aware of these concerns, says: “It’s an entry that demonstrates how a powerful brand narrative is enabled through technology and how this narrative can live and grow in a modern, multi-screen digital environment. It’s social by nature and real-time by design. It demonstrated how a well-crafted digital experience can create uplifting impact, from the point of engagement to the point of transaction.”

But it isn’t, primarily, a well-crafted digital experience, it’s a good ad than can be distributed in all the ways that digital makes possible. D5 wouldn’t have touched this with a barge pole if it was just going to be a social media campaign.