As the Cannes Lions announced its final winners as the 62nd International Festival of Creativity draws to a close, Australia’s DDB, Traffik and M&C were the trio that prevailed across Branded Content and Entertainment and Titanium and Integrated categories.
However, despite the lack of Grand Prix or gold for Aussies in these final two awards, homegrown advertising executive David Droga scooped Independent Agency of the Year for Droga5, but for its New York outfit - not the Sydney shop sadly.
In the Branded Content and Entertainment there were 63 Lions, yet a Grand Prix was not awarded as no content warranted such a merit.
Jury president, David Lubars, who is chief creative officer at BBDO Worldwide, said that this year the jury had been unable to find “a unique element that we will still be talking about in 10 years’ time,” which he attributed to the developing nature of the discipline.
“The lack of Grand Prix demonstrates that this is a maturing industry where advertisers and agencies are still learning how to make credible branded content.”
Despite the lack of a Grand Prix, Samsung Australia, working with Clemenger-owned Traffik Sydney, and production house Antonym Sydney, did earn a Silver Lion for the Samsung SlideLiner work for its curved TV range.
“In a less than forgiving landscape, with consumer confidence trending towards GFC levels and unemployment at decade-long highs, we were tasked with launching Samsung’s premium-priced Curved UHDTV Range,” Traffik said on its website.
“Our response was the Samsung SlideLiner, a world-first idea that existed somewhere in between sofa, rollercoaster, digital activation, and promotion.”
It garnered the brand a staggering $101,806,202 in earned media, drove $8.6m in sales and grew its UHDTV market share by 7.5% – all at a time when the category was in its third consecutive year of declining sales.
DDB Melbourne, working with production house Exit Films Melbourne too home a Bronze in the category for their work with Pz Cussons on the Radiant washing powder. Radiant wanted to prove how good its products were at keeping colours looking newer for longer. To do that it created a series of tests. In each one it bought some clothes, tortured them, washed them and then tried to return them.
The film below is an overview of the entire project.
Titanium and Integrated category
A total of 16 Titanium and Integrated Lions were also presented with only one Australian shop winning a Titanium Lion.
The one win went to M&C for its Optus Clever Buoy work. It’s not the first win for the campaign with the creative agency picking up many awards across a scattering of categories – check out AdNews tomorrow (June 29) for the full wrap up.
The Titanium Grand Prix went to CP+B Boulder for Domino’s “Emoji Ordering”, while the Integrated Grand Prix was collected by Wieden+Kennedy New York for Jordan Brand, “RE2PECT”.
The Titanium and Integrated Jury was also responsible for selecting The ALS Association’s “Ice Bucket Challenge” as the Grand Prix for Good from amongst gold Lion-winning charitable, public service or not-for-profit work that was not eligible for a Grand Prix in other entry sections.
During the ceremony, Bob Greenberg, founder, chairman and CEO at R/GA, was also named this year’s Lion of St. Mark in recognition of his outstanding contribution to creativity in advertising and communications.
Former US Vice-President Al Gore was given the Lion Heart Award for his work in bringing environmental issues to the attention of the world. And the Creative Marketer of the Year trophy was given to Heineken, collected by Jan Derck van Karnebeek, chief commercial officer.
See the full list of Titanium winners here.
Other awards presented at the final ceremony were:
- Agency of the Year was given to R/GA New York. Grey New York came second and Ogilvy Brasil, São Paulo third.
- Independent Agency of the Year went to Droga5, New York. Second place Wieden+Kennedy, Portland and third to Wieden+Kennedy, London.
- The Palme d’Or, given to the most awarded production company, was presented to Smuggler USA. Blink UK came second and Somesuch UK third.
- The Network of the Year award was presented to Ogilvy & Mather with BBDO Worldwide taking second place and Grey in third.
- Also awarded was the Holding Company of the Year which went to WPP. Omnicom took second place and Publicis Groupe third.
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