A worldwide digital search for the pages of Jay-Z’s autobiography won the Integrated Grand Prix for Droga5 and Bing Saturday at the closing awards show of the 58th International Festival of Creativity. “Decode Jay-Z with Bing” won an Outdoor Grand Prix earlier in the week.
Titanium & Integrated Jury president and DDB worldwide chairman Bob Scarpelli said the Grand Prix went to Droga5 because the campaign was so bold.
“We all agreed we were looking for the bravest ideas,” he said. “But also was it an idea that made you go, ‘Whoa. I wish I had done that.’”
The campaign for Microsoft search engine Bing saw every page from Jay-Z’s then unreleased book posted in unusual settings around the world – inside Gucci coats, at the bottom of a swimming pool, on plates and so on – and encouraged fans to use Bing’s mapping and search tools to track down all of the pages to compile the entire biography online.
“It’s creating media,” said Scarpelli.
In total, just 16 awards were given out in the competition from 480 entries. There was no Titanium Grand Prix and just three Titanium Lions were awarded, one of which went to “Decode Jay-Z.” The other two went to “American Rom,” also a Grand Prix winner in both the Direct and Promo competitions, and “The Speed Camera Lottery” from DDB Stockholm that saw drivers who obeyed the speed limit photographed by a traffic camera and entered into a lottery. The prize money came from the fines paid by speeding drivers who were snapped by the same camera. It was part of Volkswagen’s “Fun Theory” campaign.
Three Gold Integrated Lions were also awarded to “American Rom,” Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and Nike’s “Write the Future.”
Scarpelli referred to his judges as “the most important jury in the most important competition in the world,” but also acknowledged that while increasingly important in the minds of many, Titanium & Integrated remains ill-defined.
There was lots of discussion about what is Titanium and what is Integrated, said Scarpelli.
BBDO‘s Skittles campaign, a Gold winner in Film, was also shortlisted in the Titanium and Integrated competition. Taxi founder and Titanium & Integrated judge Paul Lavoie said while Skittles did not win a Lion, it came very close.
While the jury “unanimously” thought the work was well-written and on-strategy, they doubted it would go on to become “the next big thing,” which is what the Titanium & Integrated seeks to identify.
Lavoie said many Integrated entries disappointed because agencies used media as “matching luggage,” and didn’t adapt strategies to make the most of each.
However, “Decode” invented much of their own media and utilized existing types to the fullest. “Now, integration really is integration. It’s not about looking at matching luggage. It’s looking at how the work is connecting with culture and how that then leads itself to a much bigger result.”
