Also known as the home of great ideas, Cannes Lions is perhaps the highest honor forcreative excellence in advertising, each year inspiringa global community of brands, visionaries and advertising specialists.
This year at the 62nd Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity,117 Lions were awardedfrom a total of 3,196 entries in the Promo & Activation category.Wetake a closer look and chronicle the reasons behind the success of some of these experiential campaigns.
One of the biggest wins of Cannes Lions this year was The Grand Prix being bagged by Grey London for Volvo UK for their product, “Lifepaint” which, as per Jury President Matt Eastwood, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of J. Walter Thompson, had not only raised the bar creatively, but also made a positive contribution to humanity. Eastwood said, “It reinforces a life-long commitment to a strategy of safety and then elegantly turns that to a guiding purpose not just for the cars, but for all of society. It’s a simple, easy to apply solution that will genuinely save lives.”
As established from the promo this highly reflective spray paint was developed to extend the brand’s commitment to safety, helping to make cyclists easier for drivers to spot on the roads at night. One of the main highlights of the campaign was not only of how it was designed but also because how it was executed. The thought process of coming up with something that promotes safety on the roads for passionate cyclists is indeed a noble idea but the cheery on the cake is how the promo begins with cyclists describing the problems that they face on the roads and the constant fear of an accident always lurking around the corner. With the sentiments of cyclists driving the qualities of the product, this campaign was bound to win all the accolades it received.
Another big winner from the night was the Burger King Proud Whopper campaign which took home a Gold.The experiential campaign was all about how brands with small initiatives can make huge differences. Raising the issue of homosexuality and delivering a powerful sentimental message with such ease was something that has never been attempted by any other brand before. It is a classic example of sometimes how too little becomes too much and how a brand has the power of positively influencing the society with a simple sincere thought. This one is certain to go down in the memory lane as one of the simplest yet most effective experiential campaign ever.
Nivea Doll for Nivea in Brazil, was another experiential campaign which bagged the Gold Lion for its innovative thinking and execution. The experience designed by FCB Brazil reminded kids of the reasons for applying sunscreen through a smartly thought of doll activity. An important message which was simplified for kids and taught to them in the manner they would easily understand and deliver for life. This campaign was already in the news for enhancing the sales figure for Nivea as a brand in Brazil and the simplicity and uniqueness of the campaign makes it a worthy winner of the coveted honor.
Further worthy and world-enhancing Gold winners included Mexican Red Cross’ SOS SMS, an alarming campaign to motivate and instigate safety among people by the Red Cross society of Mexico. The campaign proved to be a big success as it makes the best use of technology that we all take for granted. The execution was crucial as it needed active participation from the citizens however this campaign proved that you can never go wrong if a sincere efforts are made to bring social awareness to the masses.
