From the pulpit

It's that time of the year again. Cannes.(1)

There are many things I loathe about Cannes: the conspicuous consumption; the hyper-ventilation and speculation about shortlists; the all-pervasive air of self-congratulation; the gossip; the pointless celebrities pontificating about...well, nothing; the agonising 'whither advertising?' conversations.

And there are many things I love about Cannes; the conspicuous consumption; the hyper-ventilation and speculation about shortlists; the gossip; the agonising 'whither advertising?' conversations.

Yes, you've got it. I am conflicted about Cannes.

But one thing I'm not conflicted on is its role as a showcase of great work. Work that challenges, breaks rules, leads the industry forward, takes the best of new technology, and finds new ways to demonstrate and connect with universal human truths.

There's stuff that's brilliant, stuff that's bizarre, and stuff that's bonkers. Sometimes you get all three in one piece of work.

Increasingly too, I admire the way Cannes showcases the work of agencies and clients that does something good for society. I confess I have not always been a fan of this kind of thing. I took the sceptic's view: that this was often a whitewash, a salving of troubled consciences.

But in the last 18 months or so, and in putting together this issue of The Directory, I have come round.

Too often – at least when it is not preening itself – the ad industry beats itself up, and forgets the contribution it makes to the wider world. This is stuff it can rightly pat itself on the back for.

You can see it in some of the work we highlight in these pages, more of which later.

One of the things that fascinates me about Cannes is the way the winners rarely emerge from nowhere. Rather like the Oscars, a steady drumbeat builds in the month or two about the ceremony about the likely winners.

Leading creatives pick their favourites and, almost by osmosis (that's how it feels, anyway, to a semi-outsider) a consensus arrives well before the event itself, and feeds through to the judges.

Have we played our part in highlighting some of this year's winners? It's hard to say.

We have certainly had a huge range to choose from, with over 250 pieces of work submitted from round the globe. It's been enormous fun choosing them.

We've also asked a selection of creative directors from around the world to nominate their choices. You can read their tips from page 8.

There's some overlap, but not a huge amount. Two stand out: one is J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam's extraordinary work, in co-operation with Microsoft and Delft Technical University, for the Rembrandt Museum and its sponsor ING. (2) "A sure winner on Creative Use of Data and a great contender in many other categories," says Rafael Guida, OgilvyOne Hong Kong's executive creative director.

Using AI, it is a thoroughly contemporary effort that, to use a portmanteau word, has 'imagin-eering' at its core.

The other is Clemenger BBDO Melbourne's work for an Australian male underwear brand, Bonds. (3) If there was a portmanteau word for this I'd use it, but suffice to say it's brilliant and bonkers. The campaign features a pair (what else?) of talking testicles. "Written hilariously, acted great and executed with a simplicity that makes me jealous," says Fabian Pensel, BBDO Dusseldorf's creative director.

What other threads can we draw together from the work featured here?

Tech certainly plays a role, and one thing I like about this is that it's not tech for tech's sake (ie gimmicky), but what you might call 'applied' tech.

Thus, on the one hand we have Kit Kat Japan's direct mail shot, which uses a simple piece of plastic allied to a smartphone to turn a boy band into a hologram. (4)

In Stockholm, DDB created an app to turn test drives for VW into an on-demand, Uber-type service.

Musician Usher wanted find a way to stop people ignoring the growing incidence in the US of race-driven police brutality. AKQA's video of his protest song Chains used face recognition technology so that, if the viewer turned away, the video stopped playing.

This, to me, is a welcome change: tech as the servant to the idea, not the master.

Talking of ideas, what characterises the work we've selected is the simplicity of the idea. With all the tools and channels at their disposal, it can be tempting for agencies to over-complicate. With the work here, there was nothing to distract you from figuring out what was going on.

When a Portuguese politician used the law to stop a newspaper digging into allegations of corruption, Ogilvy produced a front page with the offending passages blocked by a blue pencil – a potent symbol of the censor's tool from the time (not that long ago) the country was effectively a police state.

Australian Weaving is a small towel manufacturer with no media budget with which to hit back at lower-quality imports. M&C Saatchi used packaging to highlight its key difference – and turned its fortunes around. (5)

And as for the work that goes beyond mere 'advertising', it's immensely gratifying to see agencies applying their creative brains to wider societal problems or just doing some good. Sweden has a relatively large number of Syrian refugees who – guess what – celebrate Mother's Day just like the rest of us. The trouble is, they're in Sweden and their mums and families are in Syria – many beyond the reach of mobile phones.

So Åkestam Holst bought a load of airtime on a Syrian radio station, and invited refugees to record Mother's Day messages for broadcast in Syria. Simple. Brilliant.

If this is a low-tech example of doing good, there are agencies working with clients to apply their own technology to make the world a better place. Samsung and Leo Burnett in Australia show us one way, with a device to measure the impact of head injuries from contact sports; (6) Vodafone in the Netherlands is another, working with DDB & Tribal Worldwide Amsterdam to create a prototype 'smart jacket' for cyclists.

There's much to delight and excite in this edition of The Directory. The work in here is testament to the contribution creativity – in its widest sense – can make.

A year ago, the esteemed Patrick Collister, proprietor of this noble title, wrote that one of his core values as editor was rage – rage at advertising's blandness.

My own rage is focused on a different subject: measurement. We ask those submitting work for entry to give us some top-line results. These results don't, per se, determine entry, but they add useful context.

So my rage is about the fact that, too often, these 'results' make no contribution whatsoever. This is mostly true in the reporting of social media. Views, shares, likes, retweets, reach and so on are dutifully detailed.

But they tell us next to nothing. "So what?," I think. Is this good or bad? Was there a target, or is there a category benchmark?

I have no idea and nor, I suspect, do they. The numbers are there because they're easy to measure, but just because you can measure something, doesn't mean you should. It's far harder to measure the stuff that matters – brand preference, purchase intent or, even, sales.

I'm not saying this can be achieved overnight, or without blood, sweat and tears. But it's the direction the industry needs to travel.

That's it. Rant over. Rage spent.

You'll enjoy the ideas and executions here enormously, as much as I do. Be proud you work in advertising.

Dominic Mills writes the weekly Mills on Monday column for Mediatel. He is a former editorial director of Campaign.

1. Cannes, I'm conflicted
2. J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam – The Rembrandt Rembrandt never painted
3. Balls. Brilliant and bonkers.
4. I like it the Kit Kat work from Japan because it isn't tech for tech's sake.
5. How an agency can turn the fortunes of a brand around
6. Leo Burnett in Australia show us one way in which technology can make the world a better place, with a device to measure the impact of head injuries from contact sports