Cannes 2015: Delia Liu on judging for Mobile Lions

Key takeaways from Liu:

• In the Mobile category, the jury rewarded the best work that fitted the medium’s inherently dual nature of utility and play. The idea's usefulness, and Liu's criterion was whether the mobile application or technology in question will be used by the judges themselves. There was no debate about Google Cardboard; the jury, including Liu, was very decided on it as the Grand Prix winner. Some of the Mobile category ideas are not really significantly "new-new", but the "amazing thing" to Liu is how the idea can really help people to connect with one another, and how straightforward the user experience is. 

• Off camera, Liu shared that the Chinese entries may have been held back by cultural differences in storytelling. The Chinese tendency to lay out all the details of the background, explain the history and even logistics involved in the piece of work before spelling out the insight and idea, was its own worst enemy during the judging process. Case in point was the Voice Donor Project which was well-regarded within mainland China, but the emphasis on the technological features of WeChat and the participation of local celebrities in producing the audiobooks did not impress the judges enough to even get shortlisted. If the emphasis was on the interaction between the voice donors and the blind, or the resulting emotional benefit, it will be a different story today, revealed Liu.

Hear words of wisdom from the other judges:

• Jean Lin (video), global CEO of Isobar as well as Cyber Lions jury president

• Yanyan Yang (text), creative director of Baidu, on the Cyber Lions

• Jimmy Lam (video), vice chairman & chief creative officer at DDB China, on the Direct Lions

• Kitty Lun (video), chairman and chief executive officer of Lowe China, on the Press Lions
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• Anna Chitty (video), managing director of PHD China, on the Media Lions

• Johnny Tan (video), chief creative officer of BBH China, on the Design Lions

• Graham Fink (video), chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather China, on the Titanium and Integrated Lions

Catch up on Campaign Asia-Pacific's Cannes coverage at campaignasia.com/cannes2015 and coverage by the entire Campaign global team at cannes.campaignlive.co.uk.