A pop-up pawn shop that used Skittles as currency won Canada a Bronze Media Lion in Cannes Wednesday night.
The stunt from MediaCom Toronto and Wrigley Canada, with BBDO Toronto as the creative agency, offered consumers who were unsatisfied with their gifts last Christmas a chance to trade them at “The Skittles Holiday Pawn Shop” in exchange for bags of the rainbow coloured candies.
It was one of four made-in-Canada submissions to make the shortlist, but the only one to win a trophy.
“Skittles was a great campaign,” said Ann Stewart, president of Maxus Canada and one of the Media judges. “It showed everything we looked for in the judging: a key insight of consumer about gifts you hate; an activation which was brave and innovative (and new for the brand and category); and had some great results.”
The Media Grand Prix went to Burger King’s “McWhopper”—a cheeky peace offering extended to McDonald’s that played out across traditional channels and caught fire in digital ones. McWhopper won Grand Prix in the Print & Publishing competition earlier in the week.
Jury president Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, Asia Pacific, said media professionals today are still struggling with an excess of options. “The most important part of the job we as an industry have to do is decide what we should do,” he said. “There is a million and one things we could do, but we have to decide what we should do, what is the right thing.” That was the lense he asked his jury to look through as they reviewed all 2,986 submissions.
He also said, in recent years, the industry had been experimenting a lot with the “shiny object” of data. But, reflecting on the winning submissions, Waters said he detected a distinct improvement this year in the overall quality of the work. It seems like the industry has come through the experimentation phase and has a better understanding of how to marry data, technology and creativity in the right balance, he said.
“This year the biggest trend was brands and agencies actually using the data,” added Stewart. “Finally data is being used in interesting relevant ways to reach consumers when and where it’s relevant.”
Turning to the Grand Prix, Waters said McWhopper, from Y&R NZ Auckland, Y&R Media NZ Auckland and David Miami, was to be lauded for quick actions and reactions of the teams responsible for the campaign.
“This is a case of a big brand. And a big brand sometimes finds it difficult to move quickly,” he said. “This is a big brand taking on an even bigger competitor, moving quickly, being involved, acting within the brand, …reacting to events, bringing consumers in and critically, none of this would have happened without a brilliant use of media.”
Waters also took time during the press conference—with a room full of trade journalists—to touch upon the negative stories arising from the recent Association of National Advertisers report that concluded cash rebates and other non-transparent practices were common place in U.S. media.
“All of us found the last week a really affirming process about what a brilliant industry we operate in,” he said, referring to the media jury. “The quality of thinking the brilliance of what we have seen from all over the world serves as a great reminder of the incredible talent there is in our business and an amazing force for good.”
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