CANNES 1
WHAT’S THIS
ALL ABOUT? Every June, for 65 years running, the most creative minds in communication from all over the globe gather in the sunny Southern Riviera town of Cannes, France. This is where best-in-class judges recognize the world’s best advertising, design, PR, digital, media and innovation ideas. Winners receive the coveted “Cannes Lion” award given out at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. The Grand Prix Lion is considered the ultimate creative award in the business. While amazing creative gets you on the short list, impressive results are what it takes to pass the scrutinizing demands of the jury. It takes a lot of work to produce creative that gets results. Anybody who works that hard tends to party hard too. So Cannes is notorious for the champagne, late nights and outrageous yacht parties. However, clients also come to be inspired and validate the importance of breakthrough creative ideas to move their brands forward. This year, Trozzolo was not at Cannes. But we wanted to celebrate the event our way, with this book authored by 16 of our most creative partners. Each author chose a category and wrote why the jury chose the Grand Prix in their respective category. Then they themselves became a ”juror” and wrote about another great contender that should have won, or could have won, in their opinion. I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we enjoyed creating it and that you appreciate the diversity of opinions inside. See you in Cannes soon!
Paul Behnen
04 06 08 10 CYBER
CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS
DESIGN
DIGTIAL CRAFT
12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 DIRECT
PRODUCT DESIGN
INTEGRATED
MEDIA
OUTDOORS
FILM
PROMO & ACTIVATION
PUBLIC RELATIONS
RADIO
INNOVATION
HEALTH WELLNESS
3
CYBER : LORI BENNETT
GRAND PRIX WINNER The Cyber category was so full of inspirational work that the judges couldn’t narrow the choice to just one, so they awarded two Grand Prix winners – “Justino,” a multi platform campaign created by Leo Burnett for the Loterias y Apuestas del Estado (Spanish Christmas Lottery); and “The Next Rembrandt,” created by J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam for banking client ING. “The Next Rembrandt” is a fascinating merging of creativity and technology. The team at J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam taught a computer to paint like Rembrandt by entering amounts of data about his paintings – geometry structures, composition patterns, even 3-D mapping the height of the brush strokes off the canvas – and using learning algorithms and facial recognition techniques to get the computer to recognize different patterns. The resulting painting is a completely new portrait, not a replica. The detail of the resulting painting is breathtaking and looks remarkably like an original Rembrandt.
The conversation was joined by a hundred million people, with many asking the same question, “Could machines ever be as creative as humans?” “Justino” launched with a delightful short film telling the story of a lonely night-shift janitor at a mannequin factory who surprises and delights the daytime staff by placing the mannequins in amusing poses. Justino was then brought to life through his own Facebook and Instagram pages, where he would post selfies with the posed mannequins, generating 100,000 followers on Instagram. Real events like the Star Wars premiere were even woven into the content. The campaign was a huge success and became the No. 1 trending topic in Spain and the fifth worldwide. Spanish Christmas lottery sales increased to an average of 55.42 euros per person. Justino became so beloved by his followers that when it was time for the campaign to close there were pleas on social media for Justino to stay.
The project won 16 Lions at Cannes last week, including two Grand Prix (in Cyber and Creative Data) and a coveted Innovation Lion. Since the painting’s unveiling in Amsterdam earlier this year, more than 1,400 articles have been written about the project, generating 1.8 billion media impressions and 12.5 million euros in earned media value.
WHAT COULD’VE WON The Syrian refugee debate continues to rage on throughout the world, but one group of voices is never heard – those of the more than 8 million refugee children. Through a series of webisodes, Cannes Lion Gold winner 180LA brought these stories to light for client Unicef to show the world that not all stories have a happy ending. From The Huffington Post, “It drives home just how vulnerable the youngest victims are.” The brilliant use of animation while telling the stories of real-life child refugees in their own words humanizes the crisis. Over half a billion people heard their stories across 176 countries, raising awareness and encouraging them to take action. The combination of beautiful fairytale-like animation and music juxtaposed with the tragic stories of the children is both heart-wrenching and memorable. I feel that creativity at its best can bring social change, which is why I feel that the Unfairy Tales could have been a Grand Prix winner.
5
REATIVE EFFECTIVENES
GRAND PRIX WINNER
WHAT COULD’VE WON
“Monty’s Christmas,” a TV-led campaign for John Lewis by adam&eveDDB in London, won the Grand Prix in the Creative Effectiveness category. John Lewis is a 46-store retailer in England. This year, the brand continued its campaign theme of “Giving someone you love that special gift for Christmas.” In a beautifully produced, emotionally complex TV ad, we are told the story of a small boy and his friend Monty the penguin, who are inseparable as they both live their lives together.
A campaign in the India market, developed by BBDO/India, for Procter & Gamble’s Ariel Detergent #ShareTheLoad won a bronze lion in the Creative Effectiveness category. In India, women do all of the household chores, including laundry. Historically, India has deep gender inequalities and stereotypes that go back many centuries.
John Lewis began by partnering with the WWF so Monty could build support for the Antarctica-based Adélie penguin. Teasers and social media around #MontyThePenguin generated great anticipation before the video launched. Success was enhanced by a cover of a John Lennon song by Tom Odell that rose to the top of the iTunes charts, an e-book for kids, and special Monty “adoption toys” that sold out of the stores in three days. Monty the penguin made his debut online with a special Gogglebox premiere. It had 32 million views online, 6.9 million in the first 24 hours before the ad even ran on TV. John Lewis had record-breaking sales for the holiday season. The incredible sales results demonstrated the power of emotional brand engagement during the highly competitive season. It was the complete opposite of what most retailers do – quick and hardhitting promotional messages. Cannes Jury President Andrew Robertson, CEO of BBDO Worldwide, stated, “We were looking for real impact. Real proof, not just of sales effect, but profit effect. We all agreed on what the Grand Prix should be. It stands for creativity that drives exceptional results. It was beautiful, emotional work for a retail brand, and it proved that it drove a profit ROI of 8:1. If that isn’t creative effectiveness, I’m not sure what is.
This campaign started with a provocative and humorous TV campaign asking, “Is laundry only a woman’s job?” Viewers were asked to join the conversation at #ShareTheLoad. The debate exploded on social media and news coverage in India. Ariel went on to create “His & Her” laundry tips on its packaging and a brilliant connection with clothing manufacturers. The inside laundry instruction label with #ShareTheLoad informed the owner that this garment could be washed by men and women. Ariel’s impact on the Indian society was felt on popular social dating sites, with a matchup question asking “Will you share the household chores with your partner?” This campaign had tremendous results. One and a half million men pledged to share the load. Ariel received $9.5 million worth of free PR, and the campaign garnered 1.6 billion free earned impressions. And sales of Ariel shot up an amazing 60 percent! I feel this campaign could have won the Grand Prix. The COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, called this campaign one of the most powerful she has ever seen. The sales results speak for themselves. However, #ShareTheLoad is not just an ad campaign, it’s a movement for change. It held a mirror to Indian men and women and asked for self-examination, realization and reconciliation. This campaign created a social movement that could result in empowering women and creating social equality in India. Changing the world is harder to quantify in the snapshot of a marketing effort, but a Grand Prix would have encouraged other marketers in India to follow suit.
CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS : PAUL BEHNEN
7
THE JUDGES APPEAR TO HAVE HAD AN IDEA OF WHAT THE WINNER WOULD LOOK LIKE, AND PANASONIC WAS THE HOT BLONDE THEY HAD IN MIND. DESIGN : LINDSY DUGAN
GRAND PRIX WINNER Life Is Electric was entered in the Communication Design > Brand Collateral category of Design. It’s a series of films asking, “Is it possible to ‘see’ electricity?” In an effort to prove you can, they showed the amount of energy charged to a single Panasonic battery through a series of small experiments – a kitten sleeping in the sun (17.2 percent charge), citrus power (2.28 percent charge), mixing a cocktail, shaken not stirred (.43 percent charge), and more. “This piece for all of us is very special because it managed, through the power of design, to change the perception of a product that has become a commodity by bringing storytelling to every space where the brand is in contact with the consumer,” said Jury President Tristan Macherel, executive creative director at Landor, France. “It managed to combine both cleverness and beautiful craft, what we believe design should do today.” Macherel added that the jury wanted to make a statement with the Grand Prix choice. “It celebrates, first, a big, international brand,” he said. “That was important to us, to give a message about how design can be a holistic, media-agnostic force for brands. We wanted to give the Grand Prix to a big brand that has been brave, because we are also awarding the clients and brands, not just the agencies.” Much like someone perusing online dating profiles, the judges appear to have had an idea of what the winner would look like, and Panasonic was the hot blonde they had in mind.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Don’t get me wrong – the Panasonic execution is lovely. I just see little more to it than a blue-ribbon science fair winner. The design category is huge, and filled with fantastic ideas and execution across every medium you can imagine, and there are many worthy winners … but the Printed by Somerset – Printed Website spoke to me like no other, and it will likely not come as a surprise to anyone that I chose it. The campaign was entered in the Rebranding category of design, and I think they nailed it. It’s not easy to rebrand a process that’s over 550 years old, and the breakthrough design brought analogue printing uniquely to life in the digital world. They set out to replicate the experience of touching and feeling a beautifully printed piece online, to showcase their specialty printing capabilities, as well as capture their quality. The first step was to design a printed website, featuring over 20 printing techniques on one page, foils, perforation, scanination, etc. They then shot each feature in use and in detail. The website loads with an envelope opening to reveal the printed website. Stop-motion animation then brings the features of the printed site to life. Your mouse can be used in a scratchable address box, lift perforations, pull tabs and more. The website experienced over 7,500 percent increased traffic from unique visitors in the first four months of launch. There was a huge social media reaction and over 2,000 requests for printed websites. Unlike the Panasonic winner, it was immediately clear to me how The Printed Website defined its strategy, executed it, and relished the rewards of its success.
9
IGITAL CRAF
GRAND PRIX WINNER “ Because Recollection,” led by French agency 84.Paris for record label Because Music, won the Digital Craft Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions festival. The digital craft category was new this year and honored the best digital campaigns. In 2015, independent music label Because Music celebrated its 10th anniversary. The label approached 84.Paris to develop a campaign that celebrated 10 years of music, videos, album art and indie artists. 84.Paris created an interactive and immersive website experience, bringing to life a decade of iconic album cover art and songs from celebrated artists. The site allowed fans to interact with their favorite songs and uncover hidden imagery in the once-static art-triggering animations and music with a swipe or button tap. This site is everything a website should be. The level of interactivity and discovery deepens the relationship with the audience. Jury president Wesley ter Haar, founder and COO of MediaMonks, said at a press conference announcing the winners, “It’s highly
interactive. Digital craft comes from a place where interactivity is key. It is work that combines some of the best sound design we’ve seen, some of the best use of imagery we’ve seen. It does something that only digital can do – bringing a collection to life of this magnitude, and allowing you to interact with it in such a playful way. It’s the definition of what our jury should be awarding.” And, it’s just so cool. The label’s brand embodies discovery and the wonders of individuality and authenticity. This gorgeous campaign digitized those core brand values and displayed a level of technical artistry that is rarely seen in marketing today. As a strategist, I like to try and reconstruct the brief and insight that inspired a successful campaign. It’s clear the team deeply understood the brand’s essence and the relationship with its core audience. They knew what was required and did not dilute the creative vision. Razor-sharp focus delivered an experience that not only drove eyeballs and engagement, it drove affinity.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Ted Williams must be stirring in his cryo-chamber. J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam and ING used data and technology to bring one of the world’s most iconic painters back to life ... kind of. JWT designed a program that analyzed Rembrandt’s painting style, allowing the computer to create a 3-D printed “Rembrandt” painting that could fool the most discerning art historian. Jury president Chloe Gottlieb, executive creative director at R/GA, said at a press conference, “The quality of work was of such a level that its digital nature disappeared. It becomes invisible. You don’t even know it’s there. It’s like magic,” she said.“What we love about this idea is that the data isn’t the output of the creativity, the data is the beginning of the creativity. The data is the source for creativity,” Gottlieb said. “It’s something that’s coming from the digital world and creating a physical thing in the real world.” So, in a sense, it’s the opposite trajectory from work that we were judging in Cyber even just a few years ago. It’s a blurring of the lines between what is Cyber and what is real.” The Next Rembrandt campaign picked up two Grand Prix awards, one in the Cyber Lions and one in the Creative Data Lions, and a gold in the Digital Craft category. I feel like this campaign could have taken home a Grand Prix hat trick. This campaign embodied the concept of combining art and science, leveraging data to fuel the creative idea. It’s also controversial. The line between technology and creativity so blurred it makes me think about where we are headed. AI vs. Humans. Fascinating.
DIGITAL CRAFT : COURTNEY ROL
11
IREC
GRAND PRIX WINNER Better than 867-5309, this Swedish Tourism campaign allowed you to talk to random strangers for advice and a good time. And what better place than a country in which everybody can speak their mind? An official telephone number for the country allowed anyone in the world to call and have a conversation with a random Swede. You could talk about anything at any time. Celebrate 250 years of free speech by talking about fishing, dancing, shopping, drinking, or anything you care to gab about. The jury said it was refreshing to see a campaign that unites 9 million brand ambassadors with the world through the most direct communication form, which is speaking. With 253 solid days of call time and over 9 billion media impressions, this honest campaign was very pure and refreshing.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Everyone has thought about what it would be like to live like a musician or an artist. The Art Institute of Chicago, Airbnb and Leo Burnett gave you a chance to sleep like one. An 1888 bedroom painting was recreated and made available to everyone to stay in for the night. So you can live like Vincent van Gogh without the tortured soul or the urge to chop off any body parts. This not only created an amazing experience and sold out within minutes, but it also told the world that van Gogh’s bedrooms had come to the Art Institute of Chicago. The brilliance in this art piece/ad was not just that they made a truly interactive experience (not on our phones). They also attracted an entirely new audience to visit the art museum.
DIRECT : RYAN DILLON
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6 9 4 7 + 16 7 7 33 THE SWEDISH NUMBER
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RODUCT DESIG
GRAND PRIX WINNER Everyone loves a winner, don’t they? You know what everyone also loves? Jackets that have touch connectivity with your smartphone, allowing you to play your favorite song or make dinner reservations with the touch of a sleeve, all while weaving through traffic on your bicycle. Enter Project Jacquard by Google, the Grand Prix winner for this year’s Cannes Lion Award for Product Design. It’s a simple idea, in a world where people at all times (especially in their cars) are buried in their smartphones. Driving a high-speed vehicle, whether that is a bike or a car, combined with the distraction of a phone, is a danger that has fueled a new hundreds of campaigns against texting and driving. However, instead of promoting a “Put Your Phone Down” or “Stop Texting” campaign depicting tragic and horrific deaths of distracted teens or innocent bystanders, Google decided to do what it always does – create something that would meet our multitasking needs while allowing us to keep our eyes on the road. Through the use of conductive yarns (called Jacquard Yarns) that allow for sensor circuit grids to be woven into the fabric, users can now interact with their smartphone by simply touching their clothes. Basically, your smartphone is now in the fabric of your Levi’s jacket. Speaking of Levi’s, Google has partnered with the clothing company to produce their first denim jacket using the Jacquard technology. This is bound to be the first of many products like this to come, maximizing the relationship between these two innovative giants. It’s a fantastic design, and has implications to change the world around us forever, the obvious elements needed to win a Grand Prix.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Now it’s on to my winner. In choosing a product that was not only useful to the world around us, an invention that could not only save lives, but innovate the way we use a product forever, I chose a product that did not even win its category. For shame. So I will go ahead and present the first ever Stoner-Cannes Golden Lion Grand Prix Award for Product Design to SHACKLETON Madrid for its campaign of the ONEMI Radio. The radio, developed by Chile’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, looks like nothing more than a cardboard table tent you would see at any restaurant. But its unique design, matched with its use of photovoltaic cells (that’s solar technology; I looked it up!), allows it to broadcast anywhere in the world without batteries or electricity.
No more clunky radio in your storm shelter, no more battery bricks that are unreliable in times of emergency. Overall, what won me over was the pragmatic difference it makes to countries affected by natural disasters. Chile remains one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world and owns 30 percent of the world’s seismic energy. Reliability is a must in emergencies and the ONEMI radio is small enough that it can be mass-produced and transferred across the world to nations that have an ill-prepared infrastructure and are prone to natural disasters. Its function, design and innovation are why it’s the first ever Stoner-Cannes Golden Lion Award Winner.
PRODUCT DESIGN : ZACH STONER
BASICALLY, YOUR SMARTPHONE IS NOW IN THE FABRIC OF YOUR LEVI’S JACKET. 15
INNOVATION : JACOB MCGRODER
GRAND PRIX WINNER
WHAT COULD’VE WON
The Innovation category, despite being in only its third year, hosts some of the most exciting work at Cannes. Lions are given based on the merit of genuine advancement and progress in technology and creativity. Previous winners include a smart-watch for the blind and socks that can monitor a baby’s health, so it’s safe to say that this category is wide open.
We Believers of New York worked with Entelequia, a biodegradables company in Mexico, to create biodegradable six-pack rings that are also edible for marine wildlife. While the Cannes 2016 Innovation jury awarded them a Lion, in my opinion their work has the merits to be a Grand Prix contender.
This year’s Grand Prix was given to Google DeepMind in London for the computer program AlphaGo. The program is designed to play the immensely complex game of Go. With more possible board configurations than atoms in the observable universe (no kidding), the game of Go requires more than strategic research and logical application. It requires a capacity that is uniquely human: intuition. By its nature, Go is the ultimate test of any artificial intelligence program. Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo team created a program that operates very closely to human intuition, and is clearly the next step in developing artificial intelligence. In March 2016 AlphaGo handily beat Lee Sedol, who is widely accepted as the greatest Go player of modern times. As of right now the program is only capable of winning at board games, but the technology behind it could be developed for any number of challenges. From intelligent digital interaction to pollution management to personalized medical care, the possibilities are virtually endless. Innovation president Emad Tahtouh gave his thoughts on the winner, “Innovation is about improvement. A computer that plays games has been around for years. It’s about switching from brute force to deep learning. AlphaGo by any measure – complexity, simplicity, potential use, success – is incredible.”
The Innovation jury takes a long list of qualities into consideration when evaluating an idea, but these are the ones that stand out for me: necessity, social impact, practical application and potential. We Believers answered the call of each with this idea. We are in need of immediate solutions to our pollution issue. As necessity breeds innovation, I think we will see viable ideas like this one gaining even more steam in coming years. The edible six-pack ring is currently in production, on shelves and taking a small chunk out of our waste contribution. Most importantly, this idea has massive potential. As we saw with the Grand Prix selection of AlphaGo, this is a quality that really hits home in the Innovation category. Edible six-pack rings are only the first application of marine edible plastic substitutes, and the more widely they are produced, the more costeffective they become. With the beer industry serving as an example of its effectiveness, this innovation could be applied across any number of industries. Edible six-pack rings have the potential to help us change our course, clean up our mess and save some lives.
17
EALTH & WELLNES
GRAND PRIX WINNER
WHAT COULD’VE WON
Manboobs. One word, two mammaries. Or shall we say, manmories? The joke doesn’t get old. Especially at this year’s Cannes, where judges found the social media-centered campaign too clever to pass up.
Over the past 10 years there’s been a sharp decline in the number of new blood donors. Partnering with Engine, London, NHS Blood and Transplant set out to buck this trend.
Winner of the Grand Prix for Good in the Lions Health and Wellness category, Manboobs was conceived and executed by David, Buenos Aires. Its genesis? Sixty-seven percent of women don’t self-exam for signs of breast cancer. What they do examine is their social media. At an average clip of 110 times per day. Add to this the fact that most social media platforms censor women’s boobs – in particular their nipples – and you can see where this is going.
The solution was simple and the execution brilliant. Partnering with major retailers and cities, NHS Blood and Transplant expressed the lack of blood donations by removing the three letters of the main blood types, A, O and B. Signs and logos throughout Great Britain began to appear with these letters mysteriously missing. All told, over 1,000 organizations participated in removing letters to support the effort.
“Henry,” an overweight, faceless, manboob-strutting torso, donates himself to the cause. In a humorous video demonstration, Henry allows the censored woman he steps in front of to demonstrate how a real breast self-examination is done. Step by (rather disgusting) step. This is why Manboobs stole the Grand Prix. It’s appalling and shocking. And a rather genius way to skirt the social media nipple rule. It’s also an empowering FU to those that would censor women’s health and wellness awareness.
Results were staggering. #MissingType became a trending topic on BuzzFeed and Twitter, and the campaign generated a social media audience of 178 million. It inspired individuals to give up their A’s, O’s and B’s in their social media names. It reached over 2 billion individuals with its message. And it paid off, with a 1,000 percent increase in visits to the website within just two days of its launch. In 10 days, more than 30,000 people had signed up to give blood – positively impacting the lives of up to 100,000.
During its first week, Manboobs reached 49 million views, 193 million impressions on social media, over 700,000 shares and more than 17 million dollars’ worth of earned media. #Manboobs4Boobs was a trending topic, and it sparked a debate on censorship.
Here’s why this campaign should have won the Grand Prix. While Manboobs was attention-getting, clever and funny, Missing Type has one major advantage over it: It doesn’t rely on a cheap joke at the expense of overweight men. That fact alone would tip the scales in Missing Type’s favor. But it was also a hell of an execution. Getting 1,000 major brands and organizations to remove type from their logos is no small feat. It’s a logistical nightmare, in fact. Hats off to them for pulling it off and executing it flawlessly. Sure, I got a kick and a chuckle out of the middle finger Manboobs sent to social media censors, but this campaign wins on intelligence.
HEALTH & WELLNESS : BRAD HAMILTON
MANBOOBS. ONE WORD, TWO MAMMARIES. OR SHALL WE SAY, MANMORIES?
19
REI PULLED THE ULTIMATE CONTRARIAN MOVE THIS PAST BLACK FRIDAY WHEN THEY OSTENSIBLY SAID: NAH, WE’RE GOOD. INTEGRATED : BRENDAN KENNEDY
GRAND PRIX WINNER In a year in which the political climate has more closely resembled an exhibit of chimpanzees throwing feces at one another, creating a campaign that one-upped one of the most entertaining shows on television (the GOP debate) would seem like a tall task. But that’s exactly what BBH New York did for their client, Netflix. And all by telling America that come this election, to say F.U. The election in this case was for Netflix’s standout show, ‘House of Cards,’ in which – spoiler alert! – Interim President Frank Underwood is currently running for re-election. So how did BBH go about it? It started with a brilliant media placement. The decision to run a TV spot in the middle of the GOP debate is a perfect example of a brand inserting itself into a highly relevant, ongoing conversation. It wasn’t just the placement that won them the Grand Prix. It was the seamless integration that started with bringing the show’s main theme to life (Underwood’s re-election) by literally running a spot for Underwood’s re-election.
The fictional campaign spot immediately dominated social, with the hashtag #FU2016 topping social media during the debate. In addition, a campaign microsite allowed users to further engage by exploring the fictitious nominee’s campaign platform (which presumably did not include murder cover-up) as well as the ability to add ‘FU’ graphic overlays to a host of America’s issues including student loans, racism and the true scourge of our country – Martin Shkreli. While all that alone would’ve made for a buzzworthy campaign, BBH upped the ante even further by creating #FU2016 gear that could be purchased through the website, as well as a host of activations strategically placed throughout South Carolina (Underwood’s home state in the show). As a result, the campaign attracted gobs of national attention, getting covered by everyone from Rolling Stone to the Huffington Post, Variety and the Wall Street Journal. It also racked up enough media impressions – 6.6 billion to be exact – to make David Ogilvy’s head explode.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Enter: Venables Bell & Partners’ ‘Opt Outside’ campaign for their client, REI. The brand for outdoor enthusiasts pulled the ultimate contrarian move this past Thanksgiving when, for the ever-popular trend of stores opening earlier and earlier for Black Friday, they ostensibly said: NAH, WE’RE GOOD. REI told people that instead of playing a game of minivan Frogger in the parking lot of their stores, to #OptOutside. When marketing budgets (and jobs for that matter) are so often driven by ROI, KPIs and other acronyms people hate, REI’s campaign was, while maybe not the most creatively breathtaking of Cannes, easily the most strategically ballsy. So did closing their stores (and website orders) pay off? Oh yeah. Marketers have spent years trying to quantify the value of PR or social traction. And while an actual figure remains difficult to measure, there’s no doubt that REI’s decision to leave retail dollars on the table in favor of buzz was very much worth it in the attention it garnered for the brand. Every media outlet talked about it. The hashtag crushed Black Friday. PR impressions reached 2.7 billion with social mentions rising by 7,000 percent in just 24 hours. And perhaps most importantly, the campaign sparked a movement – leading to more than 170 other retailers to follow suit. The most important thing REI achieved was that they got their audience to do something more than just love the brand. They lived it. They used the #OptOutside app to document their adventures, they posted panoramas from atop mountains to Instagram. Basically, they engaged – something brands spend kajillions on every year trying to accomplish. And how did they create engagement? By disengaging.
21
GRAND PRIX WINNER The battle of the burger. This year’s Grand Prix in Media went to Burger King’s “McWhopper” campaign by Y&R New Zealand. Starting with a simple print ad that ran in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, Burger King invited McDonald’s to join together for one day to create and sell the McWhopper – a culinary mashup of the Big Mac and the Whopper – with all proceeds going to the nonprofit Peace One Day to aid in its effort to establish a globally recognized annual Peace Day.
EDI
The proposal, presented in full on the landing page mcwhopper.com, was for the two burger chains to meet for one day in Atlanta and sell the McWhopper at a pop-up shop. McDonald’s declined the offer via Facebook, garnering a relatively negative social media response. Following that, four other burger chains offered to team up with Burger King to raise awareness for Peace Day, together creating the Peace Day Burger, which was sold on September 21, 2015. “This is a case of a big brand taking on an even bigger competitor, moving quickly, being bold, acting within the brand, acting cheekily, reacting to events, bringing consumers in,” stated jury president Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific. “None of this could have happened without a brilliant use of media. It would not have created such amazing momentum, such a storm, without a brilliant use of media.” While the McWhopper campaign started as a trifecta of print, landing page and social media post, the campaign’s media coverage was tremendous. Trending globally on Facebook and Twitter, the social media response proved a true connection to the consumer. The campaign garnered coverage across most major media outlets with more than $138 million in earned media and 8.9 billion impressions, increasing Peace Day awareness by 40 percent. Peace.
WHAT COULD’VE WON A stroke of genius. One of the most unique contenders for the 2016 Media category was the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Van Gogh Airbnb,” brought to life by Chicago agency Leo Burnett. The Art Institute of Chicago created an Airbnb space that depicts the room painted in Van Gogh’s “The Bedroom.” On the Airbnb posting, Van Gogh was listed as the host and the public was invited to stay a night for only ten dollars. From the post-impressionist brushstrokes covering nearly everything, to the colors, to the artistic angles of the furniture, the room brought the painting to life. “What better way to give people a glimpse into his mind than to create an immersive, one-of-a-kind experience?” asked associate creative director Pete Lefebvre.
Airbnb realized the opportunity and launched their ‘Night At’ platform, with their co-founder stating, “What we want to do is turn this into a platform, and we want to invite any creative or brand to create something just like the popular Van Gogh piece.” Did it work? In one week the stunt gained significant media coverage in over 100 countries, generating more than $6 million in earned media and 632 million impressions. When the posting went live, it took only five minutes for all nights in the room to sell out. As for the exhibit, presale ticket sales were up 250 percent and over 200,000 people attended in six weeks, making “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” the Art Institute of Chicago’s highest-attended exhibit in about fifteen years.
This campaign highlights the collaboration between brands and new media platforms, breaking through the more traditional use of media seen by other entries in this category.
MEDIA : JAMIE KEITH
23
WHAT COULD’VE WON Wing New York’s series of outdoor billboards and posters aimed to raise acceptance of immigrants, specifically Mexican immigrants, in the U.S. in the wake of a certain politician’s recent attacks on them. The outdoor pieces use Donald Trump quotes about Mexican immigrants juxtaposed over images of Americans behaving badly in Mexico, to grab the viewer’s attention and consider the “shoe on the other foot” thought process. The quote from Trump “The only thing that will stop them from coming are walls. We can’t let them in.” is overlaid on an image of an assumed young American binge drinking.
UTDOO
GRAND PRIX WINNER
Heineken’s ‘Brewtroleum’ outdoor campaign by Colenso BBDO took a byproduct of beer production and sold it as a way to save the world, literally. Colenso BBDO worked with New Zealand brewery DB Export to take leftover yeast and grain from the brewing process and create an ethanol-based fuel that could power any gas vehicle. The high-octane biofuel produced 8 percent less carbon emissions than gasoline, eliminating an estimated half a million tons of carbon emissions. BBDO marketed drinking more Heineken as a way to save the world and consumers latched on. Through outdoor and transportation wraps, news stories, TV and print, Brewtroleum took New Zealand by storm. The biofuel was sold at 60 stations around New Zealand, with lines for the product wrapping around the pumps. Heineken’s sales increased by 10 percent, with 8.6 million beers sold and DB Export becoming New Zealand’s fastest-growing brewery. Not only did ‘Brewtroleum” raise sales and propel growth for DB Export, it inspired 50 of the largest breweries to take part and prompted DB Export to propose rolling out the new biofuel on a global scale in coming years. Cannes jury president Ricardo John, chief creative officer of J. Walter Thompson Brazil, said, “When you speak about outdoor work, your mindset is ready to see a billboard. That’s no longer true. Our Grand Prix solves a real business problem for a big brand. This is a Grand Prix that will make the category go even larger.” As a fan of craft beer and a lover of nature and the outdoors, I enjoyed this because it accomplished raising the client’s sales and producing a product that really could make an impact on the environment. A win-win, in my opinion.
Another piece quotes, “They’re sending people that have a lot of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime.” juxtaposed over an image of a girl holding a beer and flashing the camera. The call to action “We don’t judge you when you are in Mexico. Don’t judge us.”questions a double standard of behavior expected when visiting or living in another country. The hashtag #improudtobemexican calls for engagement on social media. In light of recent issues surrounding immigration reform and the stated building of literal walls, this campaign had the potential to win big. The images put the painfully proverbial shoe on the other foot and forced viewers to consider their own behavior and opinions when seeing images of “people like them” on these posters and billboards. This idea could have even been used worldwide for the millions of Syrian refugees that in many European countries are facing similar criticism and backlash. While results and statistics were not available for this campaign, I believe its message was important and had the potential to inspire social change.
OUTDOOR : DIANE ROUSSIN-LONG
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THIS CAMPAIGN SPEAKS TO ALL THE VISUAL ARTISTS OUT THERE WHO’VE HEARD THIS: THERE’S NO BUDGET FOR A PHOTO SHOOT, USE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY INSTEAD.’ PRINT : COREY SHULDA
GRAND PRIX WINNER Burger King seized the Grand Prix in the Print & Publishing category with its invitation to make peace with competitor McDonald’s. The idea was to unite and create a new product, the McWhopper, launch a pop-up business for a day and spark conversation about World Peace Day. This resulted in one of the most talked-about campaigns of 2015, delivering over $100 million worth of free media in the U.S. alone, $8.9 billion in media impressions, $138 million in earned media, a 25 percent increase in Burger King purchase consideration and a 40 percent increase in Peace Day awareness. Jeremy Gilley, Peace One Day founder, said, “The thing I love about the McWhopper project is it walks the walk. It leads by example and demonstrates the genuine commitment to Peace Day and a more peaceful and sustainable world. Corporate activation on this scale creates mass awareness, and awareness creates action and action saves lives. We hope you get on board, McDonald’s.” Y&R NZ said, “We were overwhelmed by the response from other QSR brands across the globe. We accepted these offers and created the ‘Peace Day Burger,’ a hybrid burger available for one day only, World Peace Day, and would go on to become the second-most talked-about burger of the year.” “While the campaign results were great for both Burger King and World Peace Day, print advertising, once the most important medium for marketing messages, is going through an awkward phase,” said Jury President Joji Jacob, group executive creative director of DDB Group Singapore. The jury had a “massive debate” over what a successful print ad should be – something that had great visuals and copy or something that had an “actual impact.”
WHAT COULD’VE WON It’s difficult to compete with a global mass awareness of peace, like the McWhopper campaign. And the target audience for Getty Images is a lot smaller – mostly advertising, marketing and other visual professionals. Brazilian agency AlmapBBDO created something with the Getty Images campaign “Millions of Images. Endless Possibilities,” for all of us to aspire to – taking stock photography out of the stock photo box – while also showing the depth of Getty’s extensive collection. This campaign featured famous faces such as Angela Merkel, Prince Charles, the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, painstakingly reconstructed with images from Getty Images. “Four months of extensive research and testing were spent, without using any editorial images, to produce the result,” said Benjamin Yung Jr., creative director of AlmapBBDO. At the time of this Cannes Lions entry, the campaign website received more than 2,000 visits, a 34 percent increase in those entering the Getty Images site, and a 20 percent increase in image sales compared to previous month. The campaign spread on several marketing and advertising websites, raising the impact on their main target. This campaign speaks to all of the visual artists out there who’ve ever heard this, “There’s no budget for a photo shoot, use stock photography instead.” It’s a great reminder that creativity is versatile. How we use it defines who we are as creatives, and how we can continue to create, achieve and prosper in almost everything that we do.
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GRAND PRIX WINNER A film for Harvey Nichols, “Shoplifter.” from adam&eveDDB in London, won the Grand Prix in the Film category. Harvey Nichols is a British department store chain. The film stars actual shoplifters, using real CCTV footage of thieves in action to promote the Harvey Nichols Rewards app.
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The film begins with footage of the shoplifters practicing their craft, sometimes brazenly, in Harvey Nichols’ flagship Knightsbridge store. However, their faces are obscured by emoji-like animations, complete with black masks with eye slits. It continues as they leave the store and are chased down the street, caught and detained in holding rooms. It ends with the tagline, “Love freebies? Get them legally.” Much of the power of the film is how it manages to turn one of the retailer’s major problems into a funny and unexpected film. By adding goofy villain animations to the shoplifters, the effect of voyeuristically watching surveillance footage is transferred from sinister to amusing. It’s “a perfectly executed film,” said Joe Alexander, jury president of the Film category and chief operating officer at The Martin Agency. “The music, the animation, the edit, the copy – flawless,” he said. “And it’s the kind of film that works just as well in paid media as unpaid, a quality that all the best films today must absolutely have.”
WHAT COULD’VE WON Forsman & Bodenfors won a Gold Lion. It is a continuation of Volvo’s “Live Test Series,” which was featured on Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Epic Splits.” Volvo and the agency rigged an FMX truck, which they bill as the “toughest truck we ever built,” to be remotely controlled. The driver was 4-year-old Sophie. She had full control over the steering, accelerator, gearshift and brakes of the 18-ton truck. “To show what the truck can do, we wanted to give it a real challenge. What test driver is more reckless than an unpredictable 4-year-old?” asks Ricard Fritz, vice president of Volvo Trucks. Sophie gleefully runs it through an abandoned gravel pit course, including marshlands, deep ditches and moving obstacles. Her utter joy at driving the truck through a concrete building is matched when she is distracted by a camera drone and lets the truck 360 down a steep embankment, only to watch it land back on the wheels and drive on. This film could easily have won the Grand Prix. It is an extreme product demonstration showing how easily the truck copes with the most demanding of environments. It does it with spectacular action, an adorable main character and light-handed production, delivering a thoroughly entertaining film. And it even manages to call out specific product attributes.
FILM : RICK GORMAN
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ROMO & ACTIVATIO
GRAND PRIX WINNER
WHAT COULD’VE WON
“I think it’s important for brands to always be true to who they are and, for us, encouraging people to get outside … we believe that is an important message,” Jerry Stritzke, CEO of REI. Not all countries in the world celebrate Thanksgiving, but most know about Black Friday. Arguably the unholiest, massconsumerist day of the year. A day when sales upon sales create bloodbaths in the jammed aisles of every major retailer in the country. In 2015, one retailer opted to step out of the madness for the sake of its brand, its employees and its customers. Outdoor enthusiast retailer REI shut down its locations and its website on Black Friday, paid its employees and encouraged its customers to “do what they love most – be outside.”
There are few social media campaigns that raise awareness, are funny and shed light on a double standard in social media censorship. MACMA’s Manboobs4Boobs did that when it launched its breast cancer prevention and awareness campaign. Approximately 1 in 8 American women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime, but sadly 67 percent of women don’t perform regular breast checks. MACMA wanted to educate women on performing a self-exam, but Facebook and Instagram censor women’s breasts.
The campaign launched in October and immediately started trending at the top of three major social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Social media mentions rose 7,000 percent, with 2.7 billion PR impressions within 24 hours. It sparked a conversation about what Black Friday had become and said, we don’t need more stuff, we don’t need to stand in forever lines, we need to get back to our roots as a brand and as people and do the thing that makes us happy: being outdoors. The #OptOutside campaign not only won the Grand Prix prize for Promotion & Activation but also took home the Grand Prix prize in the festival’s final Titanium Lions category. “We loved it because it took Black Friday, this day when people are driven to spend even more money, and REI decided to do the opposite and close its stores, asking everyone and its staff to go outside and have a good time,” said jury president and BBH founder Sir John Hegarty.
These informational videos are censored on social media because they’re viewed as “inappropriate displays of nudity.” MACMA’s Manboobs produced the important message in a hilariously informative video using “Henry’s” manboobs instead. The video shows “Henry’s” naked chest as female arms perform and instruct how to give a proper self-exam. Created by David Buenos Aires, the campaign raised awareness and garnered immense attention for its clever way around the censorship issue while sparking debate about those policies on social media. In the first week, the video received 48 million views, 193 million social media impressions, 700,000 shares and over 17 million dollars’ worth of earned media. The video is the most shared self-examination video ever. It’s a successful campaign because it took a serious subject matter and turned it into an entertaining educational commercial for its audience without preaching. Also, it sparked conversation about censorship on social media and taboo subject matters. For me, that gives it an edge, and another option for the Grand Prix Lion in Promo & Activation.
The true success of this campaign was the realization that a brand can be authentic and successful, even if that means not following the crowd. REI found success in being a brand that was empathetic to both its customers and itself. PROMO & ACTIVATION : MARIE BALDWIN
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THE ORGANIC EFFECT IS CYNICAL MISDIRECTION DESIGNED TO SELL OVERPRICED ZUCCHINI. PUBLIC RELATIONS : SARA SMITH
GRAND PRIX WINNER You know what makes things grow? Bullshit. This year’s PR Grand Prix winner, Swedish supermarket chain Coop’s viral video “The Organic Effect,” followed a beautiful blond family of five in Sweden as they switched to only organic foods for two weeks. The family’s urine was tested at the beginning of the experiment and after, with the dreaded, scary, “disgusting!” pesticides in their systems vanishing down to undetectable levels. The 1:35 video, in which the grocery chain swore to support organic farming, did indeed get more people in the aisles at Coop, with the chain reporting some of its best weeks ever. I’m going to go ahead and call this video a pile of organic fertilizer. It was designed to appeal to concerned parents who are long on concern and short on skepticism. There are a lot of those parents about – and I understand the instinct – but “The Organic Effect” is cynical misdirection designed to sell overpriced zucchini.
I’m not alone. Journalists agree with me. Take this account from Forbes, published on June 6: “Along with conveniently not covering the list of pesticides used in organic farming, the video fails to mention that the levels detected in the experiment pose no known risk. Most of the audience and people sharing the video, which went viral, wouldn’t have realized that the tiny sample size of one family of five renders the results practically worthless for anything more than a marketing tactic.” To make matters worse, Coop is being sued for the video by a Swedish consortium of pesticide producers. The suit calls the entire campaign unethical and illegal, and also demands that Coop stop using the video or pay two million Swedish crowns. Can’t we sell organic apples without getting sued? I think we can.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Saltwater Brewery earned itself about a bazillion dollars in free air time with this brilliant concept. It wasn’t about slick production, nobody found a new way to use social media, and no one had to take a urine test. Basically, Saltwater came up with a way to make its six-pack rings into something positive for the environment. Most plastic rings end up in the ocean, where they wreak havoc with wildlife. Saltwater found a way to make them from their unused beer byproducts. Animals can eat them safely and they’re 100 percent biodegradable. There’s some great emotional manipulation at work: The images of turtles misshapen by the plastic rings, juxtaposed with a happy turtle noshing on a healthy piece of trash made from beer leftovers. Win-win. We Believers in New York got Saltwater 1.8 million Facebook shares and 3.5 billion global impressions in five days. It’s about the idea.
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GRAND PRIX WINNER
ADI
Ogilvy & Mather’s Johannesburg office picked up a Grand Prix in the Radio category for its ‘Everyman Meal’ campaign for KFC South Africa. The series of radio ads challenge what it means to be a man. Featuring voices of men from all walks of life, the campaign highlights that you can still be manly even though enjoying things that are not traditionally considered manly – like lip balms, cocktails and Barbara Streisand. Jury president Tom Eymundson, CEO and director at Pirate Group, Canada, said. ”It’s very strong, that’s the beauty of radio. It’s naked. You can’t hide anything. You have to touch somebody out of the gate and hold them there and make them want to come back for more. The spots are for a major brand, not a small boutique shop that gets away with some of the braver ideas. So, I applaud both the agency and the client for having the balls to actually step up and point out the struggles that men have determining if they’re still men while doing some not-so-manly things.” After steady declines in recent years, KFC sales have now increased for six straight quarters, thanks to its “re-Colonelization” campaign and new brand persona.
WHAT COULD’VE WON Ogilvy & Mather’s London office picked up Gold, but should have received Grand Prix in the Radio category for its ‘Self-Esteem’ campaign. The series of radio ads is an honest, stripped-down approach to a media that generally uses “noise” to convey a message. Featuring a voice of a woman, she speaks to the audience, encouraging them to pay attention to the finest details of their body. Something as simple as breathing. You can’t help but get encapsulated by the conversation she is having with you to relate to what girls go through every day. The beauty of this campaign is that it doesn’t matter if you are a man, woman or cyborg, you will pay attention to this campaign and you will listen to EVERY word. I found myself playing along to an “interactive” radio ad. No emotional music. No sound effects. Just words, as honest as the Dove brand has become over time. In recent years, Unilever CMO Keith Weed said the practice of pumping marketing dollars into social causes has become more than just a way to shore up the image of Unilever brands. It’s also having a major impact on the company’s bottom line. The sustainable living brand’s portfolio grew faster in 2015 than it did the previous year, and 30 percent faster than the rest of Unilever’s portfolio. In fact, the group of brands now accounts for nearly half of the company’s growth.
RADIO : ROSS WUETHERICH
THE CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS THAT YOU CAN STILL BE MANLY EVEN WHEN ENJOYING THINGS THAT ARE NOT TRADITIONALLY MANLY — LIKE LIP BALM AND COCKTAILS. 35