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Cannes Lions Special Section

#CannesLions2017: “A great idea always stands out” - Adam Howard

SA's craft and production industry proved itself at the annual Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Here, Adam Howard, owner of Howard Audio, shares his views from behind the scenes.

Howard Audio was responsible for the sound and composition work on Cadbury Pre-Joy pre-roll campaign, which picked up a Gold Lion for Ogilvy Joburg in the Film category at the Cannes Lions.

The work also shone at the D&AD Awards earlier this year and last year’s Loeries. On whether international success like this stands us in good stead for local accolades, Howard says yes, as a great idea always stands out, and if well-crafted that idea will stand up against judging panels across the globe.

Impressive stuff. I pinned down Howard for his views on SA’s performance at Cannes Lions 2017, the calibre of the SA craft and production scene and more…

BizcommunityShare your views on SA’s performance at Cannes Lions 2017 and how this ties in with our already impressive wins at D&AD and One Show earlier this year.

SA's performance this year was outstanding and the grand prix win for Egg Films and the Adidas campaign is confirmation that we have world-class talent in our industry, especially as the campaign was headed by South African talent, too, in creative director Wes Phelan.

BizcommunityExplain your involvement in the Cannes campaigns that did SA proud.

I handled the final mix and small musical contributions to the project. The campaign was based on a simple but brilliant idea: The team selected several viral online clips that had racked-up millions of views on YouTube, and created a series of five-second pre-rolls that appear as if they’re actually part of the original videos.

We had to make sure our up-front audio exactly matched the subsequent content – a tricky task as the audio quality on the Youtube clips was terrible! We spent hours crafting the audio to match the low-grade sound. It really was a challenge!

BizcommunityThat ties in with my next question, on the calibre of the SA craft and production scene – where do we shine and where do we need to buff and bulk up our muscle?
Again, SA’s performance at Cannes proves (not that we need to) that we are up there with the very best in advertising worldwide. I congratulate all South African creatives, production companies and agencies who continue to push boundaries and want to make work that inspires.

As do we.

Click here to visit Howard Audio’s press office, here for my previous interview with Howard and be sure to follow Howard Audio on the follow social media channels: Youtube| Facebook

About Leigh Andrews

Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
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