The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which saw some of the best minds in advertising congregate last week at the picturesque French Riviera, is nothing short of a carnival of ideas and impactful campaigns. This year saw a total of 26,900 award entries submitted from 96 countries. But there is no clear formula for a winning campaign, as observers and jury members often tell us.
Some campaigns captivated juries with their simplicity, while some others stood out for their clever use of technology. One common factor across most winning campaigns this year was the element of purpose. Whether it was tackling serious issues like plastic pollution or domestic violence or even addressing dangerous hacks in a fast-paced digital world, purpose-driven work continued to be applauded on the Cannes stage.
It’s not just the agencies and the creative minds behind these campaigns that bask in the spotlight, but also the brands. These are companies that took risks in backing initiatives that could improve people’s lives and transform initiatives, from helping women with low self-esteem or introducing new captioning technology that transforms the movie experience for the deaf.
Brandwagon identified four campaigns out of the many winners at Cannes Lions, which won big and made headlines for all the right reasons.
Campaign: Three Words
Agency: Publicis Conseil Paris
Brand: AXA
One of the most awarded campaigns at Cannes this year, Three Words highlighted a change in the brand’s home insurance policies to support women affected by domestic violence. This work took home the prestigious Dan Wieden Titanium Grand Prix Lion. Publicis Conseil Paris was also named Agency of the Year.
Campaign: Plastic Blood
Agency: DM9 Sao Paulo
Brand: OKA Biotech
The campaign, which visualised microplastics found in human blood, bagged 28 Lions for its work in highlighting the issue of microplastic pollution. By extracting microplastics from discarded blood bags and 3D-printing them into everyday objects, this work demonstrated that there is enough plastic in human blood to reproduce everyday household items.
Campaign: Caption with Intention
Agency: FCB Chicago
Brand: Chicago Hearing Society and Rakish Entertainment
This initiative is a caption design system to provide a more enjoyable movie-watching experience for the deaf and hard of hearing community. This work underscored the impact of empathy-driven creativity by making movie-watching more inclusive with marginalised communities at the centre of it. By turning captions into emotionally expressive tools, the campaign wowed Cannes jurors and bagged a Titanium Lion and three Grand Prix.
Campaign: Vaseline Verified
Agency: Ogilvy Singapore
Brand: Vaseline
When Vaseline discovered its petroleum jelly was at the centre of numerous viral hacks – from preventing hair dye stains to creating a soft-focus lens effect – it stepped in to test these hacks in its labs. The ones that passed earned the Vaseline Verified stamp and a custom trophy, while the misleading ones were called out in outdoor ads. The campaign won the Grand Prix in two categories.