Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has yesterday tonight revealed the latest Lion winners setting the global benchmark for creativity and effectiveness in the branded communications industry.
Reviewed by international juries, the Lions were awarded for the Experience Track, Impact Track, Innovation Track and Communication Track.
In the Brand Experience & Activation Lions (Experience Track) celebrating creative, comprehensive brand building through the next level use of experience design, activation, immersive, retail and 360° customer engagement, of the 2,532 entries, a total of 70 Lions were awarded by the jury, presided by Jaime Mandelbaum, Chief Creative Officer, VMLY&R Europe: 1 Grand Prix, 9 Gold, 23 Silver and 37 Bronze Lions.
The Grand Prix was awarded to McCann New York for ‘Changing The Game’ for Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller, a project for accessible technology that levels the playing field and creates opportunity for all.
Of the 300 entries submitted to the Creative eCommerce Lions (Experience Track), celebrating creative, commercial ecommerce, payment solutions and innovation, the jury selected 9 winners: 1Grand Prix, 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 5 Bronze Lions.
RBK Communication, Stockholm won the Grand Prix for ‘Do Black – The Carbon Limit Credit Card’ for Doconomy, the world’s first credit card which helps users track their climate impact and meet the target of reducing consumption related CO2 to protect the planet.
Jury President, Daniel Bonner, Global Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman, commented: “The Grand Prix we chose is truly innovative and ambitious. A signal and future of responsible consumerism that is doable in the present. A unique idea that no doubt will be copied and leveraged by businesses all over the world – and full of creativity for sustainability, in terms of the platform, the production and design, the enterprise and the potential impact for everyone”.
In the Creative Effectiveness Lions (Impact Track) celebrating the measurable impact of creativity, 227 entries were received. The jury, chaired by John Seifert, Chief Executive Officer, Worldwide, Ogilvy, awarded 12 Lions: 1 Grand Prix, 3 Gold, 3 Silver, 5 Bronze Lions.
Marcel Paris was awarded the Grand Prix for hypermarket chain Carrefour, which defied the law, to change the law, with ‘Black Supermarket’ a place to sell illegal fruits and vegetables and defend biodiversity.
A total 187 entries were submitted to the Innovation Lions category (Innovation Track) honouring ground-breaking innovation, technology and problem solving. The jury awarded 7 Lions: 1 Grand Prix, 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze Lions.
The Grand Prix was awarded to Area 23, an FCB Health network company in New York, for ‘See Sound’, for Wavio, which built a smart home device powered with machine learning to identify sounds around the home and notify the user through a mobile app. Wavio’s Avela Hendrix interpreted live sign language from the stage.
Commenting on the Grand Prix, Jury President, Bill Yom, Global Creative Director, Cheil Worldwide, said: “This was one of the most courageous and simplest solutions we’ve seen which solves a problem for the deaf and hard of hearing community that has not been addressed enough before. What’s also important is that it utilizes machine learning technology in a genius creative way – basically ‘hacking’ YouTube to train a sound database with limited resources – to essentially, save lives”.
Mobile Lions (Communication Track) which celebrate device-driven creativity, received 866entries. Ari Weiss, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Worldwide, North America chaired the jury, which awarded 42 Lions: 1 Grand Prix, 10 Gold, 11 Silver and 20 Bronze Lions.
FCB New York won a second Grand Prix for Burger King’s ‘The Whopper Detour’, which also picked up a Grand Prix in the Direct Lions this week. The app enabled people within 600 feet of one of the 14,000 McDonald’s locations in America to unlock a deal for a 1-cent Whopper.
Finally, in Radio and Audio Lions (Communications Track) celebrating creativity for the airwaves and audio content, received 996 entries. 34 Lions were awarded: 1 Grand Prix, 4 Gold, 9 Silver and 20 Bronze Lions were awarded.
360i, New York won the Grand Prix for HBO’s ‘Westworld: The Maze’, an immersive Alexa game.
Presiding over the jury, Jose Miguel Sokoloff, Global President, Creative Council and Chief Creative Officer UK, MullenLowe London, said: “We are defining the category of radio and audio, not only moving it forward, but also finding its north star, isolating an idea that is rooted in audio.”
The Entertainment Person of the Year award was also presented to Lorne Michaels, Emmy Award-winning producer.