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Aside from big wins in Creative Data and Creative Strategy, Canada won two more Silver and three Bronze Lions in Cannes Wednesday night. McCann Toronto also won a Silver and a Bronze in Direct that will officially go down as American wins since the work was a multi-office project entered by the network’s Casanova/McCann office in Costa Mesa, CA.
Social & Influencer Lions
In the Social & Influencer Lions, Grey Toronto and Proctor & Gamble won a Silver for “First Shave,” while Cossette and Sick Kids Foundation also won a Bronze for “Sick Kids VS: Crews.”
FCB/Six and Black & Abroad‘s “Go Back to Africa” campaign earned a Bronze Lion to go along with a Creative Data Grand Prix.
Jury president PJ Pereira, founder and creative chairman of Pereira & O’Dell, said the winners in Social & Influencer demonstrate how quickly the discipline is changing and growing.
“Brands are really managing to develop a very clear sense of voice in a space that used to be a community manager doing something on his own or her own in a corner,” he said. “Now there’s a much bigger concern about developing that voice [and] most have done an amazing job of creating that personality.”
The Grand Prix in the Social & Influencer Lions went to “Keeping Fortnite Fresh” by VMLY&R Kansas City for Wendy’s (see the case video below).
“What really stood out and made this become the Grand Prix is that there’s a clear movement happening in terms of creating purpose around the world,” said Pereira. But Wendys wasn’t doing that with “Keeping Fortnite Fresh.” “It’s very product centric, and does what we need to do as an industry,” he said.
Media Lions
In the Media Lions competition, FCB/Six and Initiative won a Silver award for “Go Back to Africa” on behalf of Black & Abroad, while Unilever and Ogilvy Canada Toronto won a Bronze for “Hellman’s Real Food Rescue” (pictured), which used grocery store food that was destined to be thrown away to feed fans at Toronto’s BMO Field. Mindshare, Edelman, Spy Films and MLSE were also included on the credits list.
Jury president Karen Blackett, WPP UK country manager and MediaCom Chairwoman UK & Ireland, said they saw a lack of clear media support behind some big creative ideas, while data also emerged as an important issue.
“What was really important was making sure that data was used responsibly,” she said. “Data was used for real purpose to help the entry, rather than the data showboating. And we saw some great examples where data was being used responsibly, which enhanced the entry.”
The Grand Prix went to Nike’s “Air Max Grafiti Stores” by AKQA Sao Paulo, which worked with Sao Paulo graffiti artists who painted new Air Max shoes on their paintings—a new drop each week. To get the shoes on pre-sale, people had to visit the walls and access Nike.com in order to obtain the shoes using geo-location.
“What we loved about this entry, is that it absolutely tapped into the cultural fabric of the city,” said Blackett. “It is easy for brands to sort of associate themselves with sports personalities or influencers to get a message heard, but this is a brilliant example where a brand was brave, and actually tapped into something which was already part of culture in the city—and then transformed it and used it, and made sure it remained part of the fabric of the city.”
Direct Lions
While Canada was officially shut out of the Direct Lions competition, Direct judge and lg2 creative director Nellie Kim made sure to point out that McCann Toronto will be adding a Silver and a Bronze Lion to its trophy cabinet for its involvement with “Second Chances,” an organ donation campaign for Donate Life California.
The campaign saw police officers giving a “second chance” to motorists registered as organ donors whenever they made a routine traffic stop.
The Direct Grand Prix went to FCB New York for “The Whopper Detour” for Burger King. “They used data and targeting actually to make people feel something,” said jury president Nicky Bullard, chairwoman and chief creative officer, MRM McCann. “They actually asked you to do something and millions of people did. It was actually answering a business problem.”
PR Lions
While no official Canadian entry made the PR Lions winners list on Wednesday, McCann Toronto did share a Gold Lion with California-based Casanova/McCann for the “Second Chances” program.
The PR Grand Prix went to Berlin agency Scholz & Friends for “The Tampon Book: A Book Against Tax Discrimination” for client The Female Company, an online store for feminine hygiene products.
In an effort to circumvent the 19% “luxury tax” placed on feminine hygiene products—higher than the tax rate for true luxury items, such as caviar—The Female Company sold tampons packaged as a book, which is subject to only 7% sales tax. The book contained 15 tampons and 40 pages of information about a woman’s period.
