With The 2020 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity canceled, a spokesperson for the festival is saying all work submitted thus far will automatically be moved to 2021, and those who already entered will be able to amend their work if they want. Additionally, all registrants for 2020 will have their passes deferred to 2021. The passes will be moved automatically, requiring no action on the part of pass holders, according to the spokesperson.

Still, as the industry saw with SXSW this week, there still may be events or elements of the festival brought online to some extent—whether it’s the right time for those sort of celebrations will likely be left up to individual sponsors, advertisers and supporters.

Creatives band together to deliver appropriate marketing messages

Agencies including Interpublic Group of Cos.' FCB and R/GA have built a platform, globalcreativereview.com, that will work as an open-sourced global council for assessing whether an idea in the age of COVID-19 will “resonate globally,” the companies say. The project follows a global brief issued to creatives worldwide by The United Nations looking for ways to help tackle health and awareness during COVID-19.

Creatives have agreed to join forces to share ideas on the platform “that resonate across continents” including Susan Credle, FCB Global chief creative officer; Andre Le Masurier, chief creative officer of Europe, Middle East and Africa, R/GA; Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, DDB New Zealand and Australia; Owen Lee, chief creative officer, FCB Inferno; Liz Taylor, Leo Burnett chief creative officer; Britt Nolan, DDB North America chief creative officer; Marie Ronn, group creative director, Spotify; and Ronald Ing, chief creative officer, Isobar. Other agencies involved are 72andSunny, GUT, Cheil Worldwide, Wunderman Thompson, Dentsu, BBDO, Havas and more. The platform works by connecting a creative with three agency executives from different continents to discuss their idea and ensure they are appropriate for the current environment. Creative submissions opened up today.

Tag, you're it

As parents everywhere right now can attest, working at home with children is no walk in the park (ah, to walk in a park again). To help its working parents, Duncan Channon introduced the “Tag Out Time” program giving parents “full permission to ‘tag out’ when they need some time, and ask someone on their team to ‘tag in’ on their behalf,” the agency says. For example, Duncan Channon Chief Experience Officer Amy Cotteleer, who has daughters ages 8 and 10, tags out daily from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. to set her kids up with their virtual school lessons. The agency says some parents of toddlers are “spontaneously” tagging out for such things as soothing a meltdown. Duncan Channon says 30 percent of its staff are parents with children at home. The shop says this isn’t about shifting their time so parents are working after their kids are asleep; this is about trusting the work will get done by others stepping in to help their working-parent colleagues while they take necessary time to be with their families.

FCB scores a win

Ad Age's E.J. Schultz reports that FCB New York has picked up the creative account for Mike’s Hard Lemonade outside the U.S., where the flavored malt beverage is controlled by Anheuser-Busch InBev, according to the agency. Markets include China, Columbia, Peru, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina  and South Africa. FCB already handled the brand in Canada. Mark Anthony Brands owns Mike’s Hard in the U.S., where Havas handles the business.

Stay home, folks

Zulu Alpha Kilo created a website to encourage people in America and Canada to #STAYHOME. In partnership with UM and The French Shop in Quebec, Zulu Alpha Kilo deployed various assets for broadcast, out-of-home and social executions through the project including “invitations” for housewarmings and baby showers that the shop warns could be deadly right now—the invites twist the meaning of RSVP into “rethink social visits please.” Hero spots, produced by Tattoo Sound & Music, transform images of the Canadian and American flags—replacing the maple leaf and stars on the flags into houses, with the message of course being #STAYHOME—as “O Canada” and “Star-Spangled Banner” play in the background. Additionally, the agency is in the process of developing an interactive video game on social distancing—players will face decisions that may lead to “Game Over” based on their actions.

Tune into today's Sofa Sets

Wunderman Thompson partnered with Glassnote Records and Salesforce to launch Sofa Sets, a first-of-its-kind data-driven virtual music festival. Broadcast from 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. today, artists Jade Bird, Mansionair, Hamilton Leithauser and Taylor Janzen will take part in a live-streaming festival event where they will play exclusive “sofa sets” from the safety of their own living rooms. Meanwhile, as the event is live-streamed, Sofa Sets will use viewers’ location data to create real-time visualization maps illustrating the number of hospital stays prevented, ventilators freed up and lives saved in their viewer's areas. Viewers can also share their individual contributions to “flattening the curve” in their hometowns and cities and invite friends to “join each Sofa Set via tailored calendar invites,” according to the companies. “If we can help highlight the importance of social distancing and reduce the spread of coronavirus by even the smallest amount, we will be proud and humbled to have played a part,” says Wunderman Thompson North America CEO Shane Atchison.

Media made simple

Media buying platform Adwanted Group announced today that it has acquired SRDS (Standard Rate & Data Service) from consulting firm Kantar in an all-cash agreement. Specific terms were not disclosed. Adwanted Group CEO Emmanuel Debuyck says the acquisition “is designed to create a critical mass marketplace where media planners and buyers can engage in automated, one-stop planning and buying for traditional media on a single platform. Merging SRDS with Adwanted creates a compelling new product where customers can not only select and compare media opportunities, but now they can also purchase media quickly with just a few clicks,” Debuyck adds. He notes that the marketplace is “a simpler, more efficient way to plan and buy” that is “particularly accommodating to scores of media planners, buyers and sellers now working from home.”