Deloitte Australia has scored its first Cannes Lions shortlist nominations ever for its 2017 work on the Great Barrier Reef.
Nominated in both the Titanium and Innovation category, the initiative leveraged Deloitte's economics team to find the value of the Great Barrier Reef.
It arrived at the $56 billion figure after an extensive six-month analysis that drew on research from dozens of economic and scientific sources, as well as a survey of 1500 people from 10 countries.
The initiative gave the Australian government 56 billion reasons to protect the reef and showed how natural assets can be valued.
It's a major milestone for Deloitte Australia, which last year ransacked McCann for its top talent, including Adrian Mills, David Phillips and Matt Lawson.
Since then, it has been on a mission to prove its creative capabilities to the industry and this shortlist does just that, Mills tells AdNews.
"Deloitte is much more a creative company than people realise," he says.
"We are trying to reframe what consultancies do and there are a lot of people who will see this shortlist and have their minds changed.
"Everything up until this moment has been speculation and that is the reason that we want to win at Cannes, so we have have recognition that we can be genuinely creative."
While the McCann trio didn't work on this specific initiative, Mills reveals that it has entered other work that he hopes to see shortlisted in coming days.
When Mills first joined Deloitte, he told AdNews raising the creative profile of the consultancy was big focus within the organisation.
With the Titanium and Innovation categories the "heart categories of Cannes", Mills says his chances are only as good as 50/50, up against Droga5's Tourism Australia work, Wieden + Kennedy's Nike 'Londoner' spot and KFC's 'FCK' ad from Mother.
Deloitte is one of only two Australian finalists in the Titanium category, with Host/Havas also being shortlisted for its Palau Pledge work. In the Innovation category BWM Dentsu Sydney was shortlisted for its work for ALS.
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