THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED
Monday was a very good day for Canada in Cannes.
A year ago, after the first awards show of the Festival, Canada was left empty-handed (it was winless after day two, as well).
Tonight after the Press, Direct, Promo & Activation and Mobile winners were handed out, eight Lions are coming back to Canada, three of them Gold. Last year, Canada won just 14 Lions in total.
Leading the way in 2015 is Leo Burnett for P&G’s “#LikeAGirl,” which won four Lions in total: a gold and silver in Direct, as well as a gold and bronze in Promo & Activation. Many may have missed the Promo & Activation gold win since it wasn’t announced with the other Promo & Activation winners. Festival organizers said the gold was not announced during the Promo & Activation part of the show to save time, and was instead mentioned with the gold win in the Direct Lions later in the evening.
The Promo & Activation competition also saw a gold going to Grey Canada’s “Groceries Not Guns” for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The same campaign won silver in the Direct competition.
The other Canadian wins came in the Press Lions with LG2 winning a silver for it’s campaign for Farnham Ale & Lager, while DDB Canada’s Vancouver office won a bronze for a Netflix campaign.
Promo & Activation
Discussing the Grand Prix at the morning press conference to announce the winners, Promo & Activation jury president Matt Eastwood, worldwide chief creative officer from J. Walter Thompson, said football (a.k.a. soccer) was a huge trend in the winning work (it was a World Cup year, after all) as was a lot of work about animals. “It was a very good year to be a shelter pet,” he joked.
The Grand Prix, however, was a perfect example of the work he asked his jury to look for. It had to lift creativity to a new level, he said. “But also [be] work that lifted society as well.”
The winner was Volvo and Grey London for “LifePaint.” Introduced in the U.K. earlier this year, LifePaint improves safety for cyclists by increasing their visibility at night. The washable spray, which lasts for approximately one week after application, glows brightly in the glare of a car’s headlights, but is invisible otherwise.
“It made the brand [seem] like it cared about humanity,” said Eastwood.
There were two other contenders for Grand Prix, and both similarly represented brands doing “important things,” he said. “Nivea Doll” from FCB Brasil and Proud Whopper for Burger King by David Miami.
Rene Rouleau, creative director at Proximity in Toronto, said the jury loved the gold-winning “#LikeAGirl,” but saw one important factor keeping it from contention for Grand Prix. “Some of the debate was around how promotional it was,” he said. “I think it would have had to push the product a bit more.”
Conversely, with Grey’s “Groceries Not Guns,” there was little discussion or debate about its worthiness for gold. “Everyone just said it’s great,” he said.
Direct
Direct jury president Judy John, Leo Burnett Canada’s CEO and chief creative officer, said her group hotly debated the Grand Prix winner, finally choosing Volvo’s “Interception” by Grey New York after she sent everyone out for a walk to cool down well after midnight. “It was like a scene from 12 Angry Men and nobody was willing to let go,” she said.
While other automakers blew big budgets on Super Bowl spots, Volvo used Twitter to ask fans to tweet #VolvoContest during other brands’ television commercials to nominate friends or family for the chance to win a free XC crossover.
“The jury picked it because it was smart, it was creative and it was real time,” said John. While other car brands were focused on traditional Super Bowl TV ad spending, Volvo “zagged by creating a new conversation,” she said.
The biggest challenger for the Grand Prix spot was “#Handsoff” from French online porn company Marc Dorsel. “Apparently you can get porn for free [online], I don’t know, I’ve never been,” said John, to the amused industry journalists.
Dorsel gave visitors free access to his “high quality” online porn site, so long as they kept their hands on the keyboard at all times. “It was so ingenious,” said John.
“#LikeAGirl,” which just won Best of Show at the 2015 Marketing Awards, seeks to redefine the phrase “like a girl” to mean something strong and powerful and start an online conversation by inviting girls from around the world to share what they do like a girl using the campaign hashtag.
The silver for Grey’s work for Moms Demand Action challenged Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., to stop allowing the open carrying of guns in its stores. It was a great example of direct that activated a community, said John.
“Every corporations’ worst nightmare is when you have your fan base start to rebel against you,” said John. The work was popular with the jury, but was stitting at the bronze level until one jurist lobbied to elevate it to silver, she said.
According to the award submission, the effort generated more than 350 million earned media impressions, 360,000 petition signatures and 16,000 complaint calls.
Press
Just like the Direct competition, the Press jury struggled to settle on its Grand Prix, said jury president Pablo Del Campo, worldwide creative director of Saatchi and Saatchi.
The ultimate winner was the City of Buenos Aires and its agency The Community/La Comunidad Miami for a campaign to promote the city’s around-the-clock automatic bicycle system.
Using the tagline “Never Stop Riding,” the posters showed stylized bicycles with the wheels transformed into metaphors for motion and pursuit: a squirrel (the rear wheel) chasing a nut (the front wheel), a dog chasing his tail, a baby chasing a breast and moths chasing a light bulb.
The other contender for Grand Prix was Ogilvy Paris’s “Together Peace/Love” ads for Coca-Cola (at right).
“We thought this one was a little more challenging, a little further away from the comfort zone,” said Del Campo, of the decision to go with the Buenos Aires work.
The Silver Lion for LG2 (pictured above) was for two print executions for Farnham Ale & Lager that playfully depicted how the beer was “Just a Bit Bitter.”
DDB’s bronze win was for three ads for Netflix that drove home the brand’s “You Gotta Get It To Get It” tagline that gave only a glimpse of iconic images from the movies they promote. For instance, the top of Stay Puft’s head can be seen poking out from between two city buildings in the “Ghostbusters” execution (lower right).
Mobile
Joanna Monteiro, vice-president and creative director at FCB Brazil, said there was “a lot of heated discussion” about the Grand Prix before the jury settled on Google’s “Cardboard.”
“We believe it is a game-changer,” said Monteiro of the choice.
Google turned everyday smartphones into virtual reality devices with an easy-to-assemble cardboard shell that pairs with a specific companion app.
More than 500 developers have created Cardboard-compatible apps since the product launch last June, and brands such as Volvo and Converse have used the viewer as part of larger campaigns. “It really democratizes VR [virtual reality] technology… It makes the technology available for a lot of categories,” Monteiro said.
No Canadian work was shortlisted in the Mobile competition.
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