Le Salon des Refusés

In 1863 the Paris Salon held its annual exhibition of paintings.

The work that was selected was fashionable and forgettable.

The Salon des Refusés was a more popular show of the work the academicians had rejected.

And it displayed a number of pictures, which went on to become some of the most famous in art history.

At Directory we too are fallible.

Every issue we try to select 40 case studies we think are interesting and innovative. But sometimes we do miss great work. This time last year, for instance, we rejected Grabarz + Partner/Lowe GGK's "Nazis Against Nazis" campaign, which went on to become the single most awarded piece of creative work in 2015.

Doh!

Even as we go to print, we are still arguing in the office about the campaigns we have selected and about the campaigns we have not.

So here are some of the campaigns we would have liked to have given more room to if we'd had another 100 pages to play with.

Apologies to the agencies involved.

Here's hoping you can rub our noses in it when you win big at Cannes.

Direct Mail

Agency McCann Worldgroup Colombia
Client Ministry of National Education
Title The Bulletpen

IDEA

Colombia has endured civil war since 1958. But finally it looked as if a peace agreement was about to be signed. 500+ influencers were sent the pen, including the President, to generate news and optimism about the future.

RESULTS

At peace talks between FARC and the Government in March both sides said they hope to have a signed agreement by the end of the year.

OUR THOUGHTS

Two very similar ideas at exactly the same time (see pages 32-33 for DDB Hamburg's 'Weapen' idea for Reporters Without Borders) but in different parts of the world. And both of them relevant, targeted and highly charged pieces of communication. Both deserving of recognition. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_zn6WS7v4

Digital

Agency Achtung! Amsterdam
Client Volkswagen Netherlands
Title Connected Dog

IDEA

Volkswagen drivers own more dogs than the average Dutch person. So to communicate the advantages of the My Volkswagen app, an online film was made showing what the app's features would mean if you could have the same control over your mutt.

RESULTS

3m views on Facebook, headline news in Turkey, Japan and Colombia. Now VW may make the app available in other countries than The Netherlands.

OUR THOUGHTS

Nothing like a good analogy to make the point clearly and amusingly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFj3vevCqZo

Agency AMV BBDO London
Client Cancer Research UK
Title Could you decide who lives and who dies?

IDEA

Both your mum and your dad smoke. But there is only enough money to save one of them. Which one?

A series of films puts people into the situation of deciding, who lives, who dies?

RESULTS

16,000 signatures added to the petition to the UK Government to abandon its plan to cut health services by £200m when there will very real decisions between who gets help and who doesn't.

OUR THOUGHTS

This is 'Sophie's Choice' but with real people being forced to make the choice and very uncomfortable viewing it is too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRSM4tOlIdA

Agency BBDO New York
Client Mars M&M's
Title Remix with M

IDEA

An augmented reality app, where fans can use their mobiles to scan real M&M's in order to be able to remix

the original 'Candyman' M&M's anthem. Each of the six colours is a different instrument in the song.

RESULTS

3,000 remixes of 'Candyman' created, an average dwell-time on the site of more than 5 minutes, a real celebration of 75 years of M&M's.

OUR THOUGHTS

Music. Mobile. Millennials. One big tick. creativity-online.com/work/mms-candyman/45777

Agency Colenso BBDO Auckland New Zealand
Client Mars Snickers
Title Don't App When You're Hungry

IDEA

People do stupid things when they're hungry, especially when they're glued to their mobile phones. So Snickers built three of the world's dumbest apps, apps that were actually Snickers vouchers in disguise. When the consumer opened the app and turned on its functionality, they were told not to app while hungry and given a mobile voucher for a free Snickers.

RESULTS

2,500 people downloaded the apps in the first week. News spread and soon the world's dumbest apps had reached 2.5 million mobile users, and 80% of all New Zealanders on Facebook.

OUR THOUGHTS

The creative idea that keeps on giving. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHmP4nEOlEk

Agency Edelman Deportivo Stockholm
Client IQ
Title The Sexometer

IDEA

The Sexometer was an interactive film designed to show young Swedes the drastic effects of alcohol. Viewers could increase or decrease the alcohol levels and see how the couple behaved differently.

RESULTS

Around 50,000 unique visitors had interacted with the film before the holidays. Media attention helped reach an audience of 12 million. Not bad for a country with a population of 10 million.

OUR THOUGHTS

An irresistible idea. You instantly want to click on the sliders and see what happens. And though what happens isn't pretty you know it's true. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJkOtwLK85k

Agency FCB Greater China
Client Prudential
Title Relationship Reconnect

IDEA

People in Singapore were becoming detached from each other. Psychologist Arthur Aron had discovered that by staring into each other's eyes, people could connect emotionally. All 4,000 employees of Prudential in the region were invited to try the 'Stare Experiment' before rolling it out to customers. 12 films were made and uploaded to YouTube.

RESULTS

14 million views, 320,000 shares and 25,000 positive comments.

OUR THOUGHTS

Try it with a partner. Four minutes just staring into each other's eyes. Extraordinary what happens. Really, it turns out an ad can improve your marriage. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsojBgHqeg4

Agency HAKUHODO Kettle, Tokyo
Client Matsumoto Apple Association
Title Dentapple

IDEA

Apple sales had fallen. The answer was an app, which asked a series of questions when you bit into a Matsumoto apple to diagnose the health of your teeth and let you know if you needed dental treatment.

RESULTS

Media exposure was worth $5M. The sales volume for Matsumoto Apple Association marked an increase of 155% from the previous year

OUR THOUGHTS

Must be worth an award in the new Lions Health section at Cannes. www.adfest.com/winnersdetails2016.php?id=DM06_012&category=3

Agency Leo Burnett Beirut
Client P&G Always
Title What Girls Can Do

IDEA

Young Arab girls believe there is nothing they can't do. Until they reach puberty, when their confidence drains away. The experiment showed how women limit themselves and through the hashtag #GirlsCan encouraged them to share stories and inspire each other.

RESULTS

Though not part of the objectives, purchase intent of Always was up 6%. 11.7 million unique views of the video, 160 million social impressions, 96% positive sentiment.

OUR THOUGHTS

A powerful side-by-side comparison between what a young girl thinks she can do with her life and what an older girl thinks. Which makes you think. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIgA1mu5t_8

Agency M&C Saatchi Melbourne
Client Bottlemart
Title Brandmart

IDEA

Bottlemart leased its name to XXXX, one of Australia's best-selling beers. For a month all Bottlemart stores became XXXmarts. Sales were up, awareness was up.

RESULTS

SummerBright sales were up 101% against the previous year. After XXXmart came Carltonmart, when sales of Carlton Draught increased by 82%.

OUR THOUGHTS

Ideas don't get simpler. And what a great demonstration of the power of partnerships. Expect to see more brands working together like this.

Agency McCann Worldgroup London
Client Zürich Insurance
Title True Love Maps

IDEA

For Valentine's Day, you could go to truelovemaps. com and find the spot in Google Maps where you and your partner first met or kissed and leave an engraving there of your initials and a heart. Then send the unique video. The campaign launched with a short documentary about Spain's oldest married couple.

RESULTS

Not known.

OUR THOUGHTS

I did it, went to Mirabel Road, where we used to live, and created a message which I sent as a short video to the missus. A charming idea that makes you feel more warmly towards the insurance giant. www.truelovemaps.com Documentary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Ue4-fmLcM

Agency MRM/McCann Worldgroup Stockholm
Client Vattenfall
Title The Banner Ad That Can See What You See

IDEA

Vattenfall is the biggest energy company in Sweden. They also sell a range of products to help people control their consumption of electricity. On the property website hemnet.se, their messages in the banner ads changed in real time to reflect what visitors were looking at.

OUR THOUGHTS

Must be a contender in the creative use of data category. Bit by bit creatives are getting to understand what they can do with Programmatic.

Agency Plan.Net Campaign
Client Plan.Net Group
Title German On WhatsApp

IDEA

To help refugees arriving in Germany learn the language, three courses provided one lesson a day with text, emojis and explanations. This was all on the WhatsApp platform, which they were already using to stay in touch with home.

RESULTS

80,000 refugees registered within six weeks and more are joining every day.

OUR THOUGHTS

An agency wanting to do some good. And providing really practical help. Simple, useful, bravo.

Outdoor

Agency Air
Client Visit Brussels
Title Call Brussels

IDEA

After the Paris attacks in November 2015, tourist numbers to Brussels dropped steeply. Banner ads across Europe ran inviting people to make a free call to ask a resident of Brussels what it was like. Three billboards were set up in the city with phones. Passers-by answered the phones and in livestream video could connect with the caller.

RESULTS

12,688 calls made in five days. People from 154 countries rang Brussels.

OUR THOUGHTS

The campaign was running before Brussels itself got bombed in March 2016. Bravely, Visit Brussels kept the campaign running because "we will never give up our values of openness and tolerance." A great idea for a proud city. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJBcbdPaL-U

Agency Impact BBDO Cairo
Client Pepsico Egypt
Title 90 Million Smiles

IDEA

To cheer Egyptians up, Chipsy packs were printed with great big smiles. It was a promotion in which the reward was instant, the moment you bought a pack and shared a cheesy grin.

RESULTS

Packs flew off the shelves leading to millions of interactions and impressions as people sent photos to each other, from school-kids to grandparents, rival football team to rival team.

OUR THOUGHTS

All too often we forget that the pack itself is valuable media. I love this. Not sure why it isn't in the main part of the magazine. So human, so shareable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XunRetNujA

Agency Impact BBDO Dubai
Client Loto Libanaise
Title #skipfriday13th

IDEA

Friday 13th is said to be an unlucky day. Not a day you want to play the lottery. So the Loto website's IP was routed through 24 different servers around the world. Every hour of Friday 13th in Lebanon, the site was hosted in a different country in a different time zone. So people could play from New York on Thursday 12th or from Japan on Saturday 14th.

RESULTS

Still to early for numbers.

OUR THOUGHTS

What we love about this is it doesn't try to sell a dream or talk about the millions to be won. They know you know all that. The idea is simply about luck and how can you minimize your bad luck to give your good luck a chance.

Agency HAKUHODO Kettle / HAKUHODO
Client SUUMO
Title Shell We Move?

IDEA

Japan's largest real estate agent designed and built sturdy but ecologically-friendly new homes for thousands of hermit crabs. They were light and roomy and painted SUUMO green. Details of the project were presented at the Japan Oceanographic Society.

RESULTS

The project gained 50 million + impressions. Social media mentions of SUUMO were up 480% within two weeks and purchase intention scores increased to 112% from the previous year.

OUR THOUGHTS

Delightful proof that SUUMO can find a home to suit absolutely anyone. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yto7DKq2ieQ

Agency Shackleton, Spain
Client Baby Deli
Title Invisible Box

IDEA

Baby Deli wanted parents to buy their kids' Christmas presents early to avoid queues and disappointment. The problem was the kids would find their presents and the surprise spoiled. Unless those presents were in boxes that made them look totally uninteresting. A racing car in a spinach box, for instance.

RESULTS

There was a sales hike of 20% with Invisible Boxes running out in two weeks.

OUR THOUGHTS

See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBMJXaDzV80

Integrated Campaigns

Agency BBDO New York
Client Mars Chocolate North America
Title Snickers Crisper Campaign

IDEA

How do you differentiate a new brand extension, Snickers Crisper, from the original without totally re-inventing the 'You're not you when you're hungry' thought? You create TV and online ads about a new vocabulary describing how you feel when you're hungry. Confulish (confused and foolish), hangry (so hungry you're angry) and so on.

RESULTS

People got into the spirit of the idea, creating their own words. 1500 people followed the Starving Artists playlist on Spotify, people actually bought the ridiculous Hunger Innovations products on Ebay and in total 197 million PR impressions were obtained. A lot of chocolate was sold.

OUR THOUGHTS

Damn clenny. (Clever and funny). www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIvmbz-yeh8

Agency Grey London
Client P&G Fairy
Title FAIR

IDEA

Fairy wanted to use its presence in 70% of all UK homes to make a point about gender equality. All they did was drop the 'y' from their name to get people chatting about how the division of housework is usually not at all fair.

RESULTS

The FAIR challenge reached three million people via Facebook alone.

OUR THOUGHTS

They should have changed the label on the packaging first rather than as an afterthought. Still, don't mean to carp. Still a lovely idea from one of the few brands with permission to raise the subject. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTOjSD2tRIM

Agency Lavender, Sydney
Client Bupa Pet Insurance
Title Sun Rescue Dogs

IDEA

With the help of dog trainer Steve Austin, the Bupa Sun Rescue Dogs identified people not wearing sunscreen and delivered the potentially life-saving product to them.

Their interactions were recorded with beachgoers, kids playing outdoors and commuters, creating shareable content for the campaign. The thought was, they protect you, don't forget to protect them.

RESULTS

1.2 million Facebook impressions, 330,000 YouTube views and 17% of Australian dog owners reached.

OUR THOUGHTS

This is how to get people sharing content. A plausible idea that's fresh and fun. And involves animals. A winner. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Sgfr_W3fg

Agency Leo Burnett Tailormade, Brazil
Client Clube Sangue Bom
Title #DonateForPriscilla

IDEA

The insight here was that people only give blood when someone close to them is in need. Who is close to millions of Brazilians? Priscilla, a character in one of the country's most popular soap operas.

RESULTS

Campaign still in progress.

OUR THOUGHTS

This would have taken a year of planning and a heck of a lot of persuasion – to get the production company to write the storyline and the TV station to run it. A great creative idea that needed great account management to make it happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgjsaEiERl0

Innovation

Agency Shackleton, Spain
Client Shackleton, Spain
Title Silent Night

IDEA

To demonstrate the agency's appetite for innovation, an app was created specially for the Christmas season. Because the holiday was dangerously close to the general election, voice-recognition technology picked up words like 'independence' and 'vote'. All the user had to do was download the app and place his/her mobile on the table. When it picked up un-Christmassy words, 'Trump', for instance, the phone buzzed and a voice changed the subject.

RESULTS

No.1 in the App Store over Christmas, 65,000 downloads in four days, over 2,500 mentions in news media online and offline reaching 5.2 million people.

OUR THOUGHTS

I have always thought Christmas is a great opportunity for agencies to show what they can do. And here's Shackleton showing they can do digital experiences as well as anyone in the world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUMbRoISxU