Cold winter weather often spells bad news and poor sales for Canadian retailers, with consumers more inclined to hibernate in their warm homes than venture out to shop.
But, last winter, Mark’s and Touché Montréal figured out how to use cold weather as an incentive to send shoppers into Mark’s stores. “The Colder it Gets” offered in-store discounts linked to the days temperatures—the lower the temperature, the deeper the discount.
The clever idea won Mark’s and Touche (along with creative agency Sid Lee) a Bronze Creative Data Lion, the first for a Canadian company in the now two-year-old competition.
Winning in the Use of Real-Time Data category, “The Colder it Gets” used data delivered through a partnership with the Weather Network to post discounts on traditional outdoor, social and programmatic channels, and even update in-store cashier systems.
“We were looking for work that would be inspiring to other people, work that delivered simplicity out of complexity and critically work where data and creativity are intrinsically linked,” said jury president Tash Whitmey, group chief executive officer, Havas Helia global, of the 40 Lion-winning submissions this year. “And we found that.”
The Grand Prix went to one of the more successful pieces of work in Cannes this week, “The Next Rembrandt.” Developed by J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam for banking brand ING, “The Next Rembrandt” used multiple different data points to create a painting which replicated one that would be created by the famed artist himself.
“It is a beacon for this category. It shows how to take many, many complex sources of data and fuse them with creativity in a way that we found inspiring and a little scary,” she said.
“It raises some questions that made us feel uncomfortable around humanity versus machines and about what is the art of the possible in the future.”
Anomaly, Rethink and Cossette were also shortlisted in the Creative Data Lions, which were introduced last year as part of the Innovation Lions, a specialist stream festival-within-the-festival, along with the Innovation Lions.
In total, there were 715 Creative Data submissions up from 619 in its inaugural year, and 73 made the shortlist.
Want the latest news and winners from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity? Here’s how:
