How hard is it to win a Lion?

It's damn hard. My recent trip to Cannes for the 2007 Lions gave me a hard dose of reality. The Lions are a collection of pure creative genius. It was a week of yummy brain candy (with a chaser of gutter bar of course).

When we were short-listed in the media category for our NFL project, I was estatic. OK, so it's not a cyber-lion, but a lion is a lion, no???



The work I saw at Cannes was a mixed bowl of insights, strategy, creative and media... served up fresh. NOT various pieces of creative that look and feel alike. It's how they work together to form a collective whole. In terms of our NFL project - maybe we weren't worthy (if we were, I'd have a shiny lion on my desk rather than this stinkin' souvenir mouse-pad). But being shortlisted is still a big deal, right?

Well, this got the left side of my brain going (since the right side is currently full). I decided to do a little digging into the odds. Of the 25,660 entries received for the 2007 Lions, only 2,812 were shortlisted - and 795 Lions awarded (not including agency of the year and young creative awards). 169 Gold. Check out the numbers (these are not official numbers by the way... Tom Eslinger, if you're reading this, I would be HAPPY to update my info *wink*):