What if you could "do good" by betting on the 2015 Cannes Lions?

For those who don’t already know, the 2015 Cannes Lions Festival is just around the corner, and it’s the largest annual meeting in Communication & Advertising worldwide, during which the greatest campaigns of the year are rewarded.

For those of us who follow the Cannes Lions every year, we can all admit to making predictions and placing bets with friends on what ads and which agencies we think will take home the Grand Prix or the most Golds. It’s quite customary.

But what if you could do a good deed by placing small bets on potential winners? This year marks the start of a brand new initiative called Guess The Lions. Created by Mehdi Boussouis, Jérémy Froideval and Matthieu Etienne, it's a platform that allows you to place micro-bets of just 1 dollar on the campaigns you think will win, and the profits go to the Act Responsible association’s GOOD ACT program, whose goal is to raise funds and spread awareness on charity campaigns. Plus, if your predictions are correct, you could win prizes from the operation’s partners, i.e. subscriptions to Shots, Spotify, Google goodies, Fotolia accounts, or even Uber rides. So not only are you verifying whether your creative judgment is world-class, you’re also doing good – by donating to a good cause.

For some guidance, you can check out the Top 5 picks of these accomplished advertising gurus: Exequiel Rodríguez, Founder & Chief Creative Officer of RG2; Pascal Nessim, Co-CEO of Marcel (Publicis Groupe); Peter Ampe, Executive Creative Director of DDB Brussels; Nicolas Thiboutot, Creative Director of Lost Boys Paris (DigitasLBi); Katrien Bottez, ECD of Famous Brussels; Olivier Altmann, co-founder of the creative agency ALTMANN + PACREAU; Geoffrey Hantson, Chief Creative Officer of Happiness; Humberto Polar, CEO of FCB Latin America; and Jacques Séguéla, Havas Group Chairman. More advertising experts will be publishing their predictions and favorite ads of the year everyday up until the opening of the festival.

As a sponsor of the operation, I selected my Top 5 favorites campaigns of this past year from the Film category, viewable here:

Amongst TBWA\Paris' productions, I also placed bets on McDonald’s, Aides and DAN Paris’ OPI. 

Peter Ampe, Olivier Altmann and myself have high hopes for P&G’s Like A Girl (see above), which I strongly believe will take home this year’s Grand Prix for its brilliant insight and beautifully honest demonstrative power.

Katrien Bottez and I both agree that John Lewis’ Monty The Penguin’s (by Adam & Eve DDB) heartwarming message deserves a Gold, if not for its great soundtrack and its ability to awake the inner child in all of us.

Honda’s The Other Side (by Wieden+Kennedy) also appears in several of these Top 5 lists of the year...

So, what makes up your Top 5?

To make a bet (and donation), go to www.guessthelions.com and choose your favorites from the campaigns listed, or submit a campaign that’s not already there. To do so, simply slide your predictions into your ‘Cart’ and pay via Paypal or Visa. 

Start gambling, it’s for a good cause!