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Jun 28, 2018
In case you didn’t feel or hear the waves by now, last week was a wild, wild time. Cannes Lions 2018 Festival took place and the greatest people in the industry came together in the most beautiful location, listened to some great talks, visited some cool beaches and partied together to refresh those brilliant minds of theirs.
On top of all that, each evening we were all there to congratulate each others’ work and witness the awards handed to the best of the best. Each awards show came with great ideas and cool surprises. But the best news for you and me is that 65th Cannes Lions 2018 edition came with a great addition to their award categories: Social & Influencer Lions.
We can only see that as another validation that social media can no longer be ignored or considered just another way to push the message out. So congratulations, you’re in the right place at the right time.
2018’s Cannes Lions festival is now over and after 5 days spent in the sun, near the beaches, with a rose in our hands at any given time, we’re now all back in the office finding our way back to inbox zero and day-dreaming about June 2019.
Source: Cannes Lions Facebook Page
But before drowning in self-pity, we think about those of us less tanned that didn’t make it to the festival this year. Firstly, don’t worry about it, you’ll be there next year and it will be even more amazing. Secondly, we’ve got you covered with a snapshot of the social awards at Cannes Lions this year!
The Social & Influencer Lions were focused in this first edition to award creative social thinking and strategic influencer marketing solutions. Participants had to submit their work showing how engagement, reach and brand ambassadors helped and led to commercial success. The category had:
But until then, let’s enjoy the Grand Prix and the Gold Lions together. Here’s the list, the briefs, the results and the awesome executions:
Grand Prix in Social & Influencer Lions (Excellence in Social & Influencer) – Multi-platform Social Campaign
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Social Insights and Engagement) – Audience Targeting / Engagement Strategies
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Social Insights and Engagement) –
2018 | NIKE | WIEDEN+KENNEDY London
The great teams from Nike and Wieden + Kenedy looked around London and realized that youth is struggling with a lot and they face a large number of challenges. However, what makes them so cool is that they use these struggles as a source of energy to fight more.
From that great insight, the lightbulb popped and the idea came to life. “Nothing beats a Londoner” is a mobile-first campaign that wanted to celebrate youth. It was about giving them a creative way to vent in a form that they would relate to. As a result, the mobile-first campaign launched on Instagram with grime legend Skepta that complained about needing to cycle to get to someplace.
From there it went wild. Everyone started to top the previous story with a bigger struggle and the campaign went viral. It all ended with an amazing movie that hit #1 on trending and of course it came with great results. See them below:
If you want to see all the details about the campaign, see the Cannes Lions Case Study.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Sectors) – Food & Drink
2018 · MARS · DDB CHICAGO
Skittles and DDB Chicago gave it all this time. As much hype as Super Bowl brings for marketers, as much noise it creates and it’s as difficult to get through. So in that battle to jump on the wave and start the buzz, Skittles decided to go another way. And the craziest idea brought them just that.
The team realized that they want to concentrate on making ONE SINGLE fan happy, not the entire population. So that’s what they did. Marcos Menendez, a real Skittles fan, was chosen. Marcos Menendez was analyzed and researched. Marcos Menendez got an entire Super Bowl campaign just for him. Skittles got the buzz from that crazy idea.
It was focused around stealing all the Super Bowl attention so they firstly released a movie introducing Marcos and the idea. They followed-up with four teasers starring David Schwimmer and asked people to guess which was an actual scene from the ad. Lastly, during Super Bowl, they made a viral out of a Facebook Live with Marcos watching the ad with and about him. The ad was so customized, that they hired an actor to play him, they filmed in his house and included his mom and best friend in the show.
Marcos really dropped his jaw and was very impressed with it. How about the rest of the world?
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Sectors) – Travel
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Content Marketing) – Reach & Impact
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Excellence in Social & Influencer) – Multi-platform Social Campaign
2018 · TOURISM AUSTRALIA · DROGA5 New York
Advertising pranks are not easy to pull off. They’re incredibly hard to control and the outcome could range between unbelievably succesfull to horific failure. That risk is what made this campaign so awesome.
DROGA5 and Australia Tourism put their minds together and found a way to point everyone in Australia’s direction for their next holiday. They created a fake movie, released it on IMDB, its own pages and press, exactly like the real thing. Several trailers were created and released that looked very legit. Amazing actors could only guarantee the success and we’re talking American Danny McBride, Chris Hemsworth and an all Australian supporting cast including Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Ruby Rose, Liam Hemsworth and Isla Fisher.
It sounds like an amazing movie, right? Everyone thought so and couldn’t wait for the final release. Until.. the final release came during the Super Bowl with a surprising announcement – it had been a tourism ad all along. BA-DUM-TSSS
By phasing the campaign the way we did, we drove more organic PR and engagement than any other brand pre-Super Bowl (Amobee), and as a result Dundee became the #1 Most-Viewed Super Bowl Campaign (AdAge/Visible Measures).
But our objectives weren’t just PR; we needed to make Australia:
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Sectors) – Leisure
2018 · EA GAMES · adam&eveDDB London
One of the purposes of the virtual world is to reflect reality as accurately as possible. Due to that, what happens in real life always impacts and is reflected in its virtual version. FIFA is one of the games that was always keen on being up to date and reflect the latest industry news.
This time, EA Sports wanted to test whether it could be the other way around. Together with DDB London for the new FIFA18 launch, they tested whether changes in the game could impact reality. So they introduced a new move called ‘El Tornado’ and hid it in the game. Its discovery created lots of waves in the gamers community and it soon hit the football culture.
The greatest part about it was that pro footballers began to demand that their in-game players do the trick so they launched ‘El Tornado Certified’ – if real players could do the move, their virtual doppelgangers could copy.
If you want to view the entire campaign view the Cannes Lions Case Study.
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions Innovation (Innovation in Social) – Emerging Platforms
2018 · BURGER KING · DAVID Miami
This is the story of how Burger Kind trolled Google. And it’s a good story. They hacked the 15 seconds video ads system by activating Amazon Alexa via people’s speakers. The ad asked Amazon Alexa to continue the ad by sharing information on what is the Whopper.
It was brilliant. Simply perfect. Such troll can only be admired. They obviously got trolled back along the way: people changed the Wikipedia page, Google blocked the specific audio clip but Burger King made it happen by reacting just as fast.
They changed the voice over and over again and fought the Wikipedia troll just as creatively. Burger Kind and David Miami were fearless and true risk-takers in this ad so the Whopper deserved to win.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Content Marketing) – Content Creation
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Content Marketing) – Social Video
2018 · AUDI · CANDIDE THOVEX
Did you ever get tired of seeing the exact same automotive ad? “Cool car drives fast through here, on here and oh-look-it’s there!”
Audi and its marketers were just as sick of it. The cars can perform in any type of condition, so let’s show the cars in any type of condition, right? Wrong.
They wanted more so together with the legendary skier Candide Thovex, they did more. Audi designed special skis and took Candide to 30 different locations in 10 countries to show that all conditions are perfect conditions. It was an amazing film launched on social media and the results were as impressive as the execution.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Content Marketing) – Content Placement
2018 · GREENPEACE · OGILVY POLAND Warsaw
Bialowieza Forest is a beautiful 700 square kilometers forest in Poland that is being killed. In an effort to stop that, Greenpeace and Ogilvy Poland recreated the forest at 1:1 scale in Minecraft.
It started as a game that everyone loved, especially the youth. But the real impact came afterward. The campaign went on for 3 weeks but after the map attracted as many young people as possible, they replaced it with a new version where they left only one last tree – The Last Tree Standing.
The message came across stronger than ever and every player understood the impact of what was going on.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions (Content Marketing) – Co-creation & User Generated Content
2018 · APPLE · TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles
iPhone photographers are all the rage now and Apple is making it possible while Instagram is making it visible.
Apple wanted to be even a bigger part of that so together with TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles they launched a new Instagram handle. At first, they promoted amateur photographers and as soon as the community was ready – they introduced challenges (“community briefs).
Creativity is everywhere on Instagram but giving themes inspire the community. Apple made it easier by giving everyone a theme to focus on. The outcome didn’t disappoint.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
Gold Lion · Social & Influencer Lions. (Social Insights & Engagement) – Community Building & Management
2018 · WENDY’S · VML Kansas City
Ever got roasted? Ever wanted to get roasted? How about wanting to get roasted by Wendy’s? Welcome to the club.
After the craziness that a user started when he asked what he needed to do to get free chicken nuggets for life, Wendy’s decided to beat it.
Wendy’s realized that they created an amazing brand on social but mainly from grabbing opportunities that came to them. This time they decided to create their own opportunity with a holiday. The NationalRoastDay holiday and it went crazy. I seriously doubt that there was ever another time when tens of thousands of people wanted to be roasted all at once as bad as they wanted during National Roast Day. Wendy’s doing social media right.
If you want to view the entire campaign see the Cannes Lions Case Study
That’s a wrap of the Social & Influencer Lions of this edition. The first awards at Cannes Lions focused on social started great and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
Miruna Dragomir, CMO @Planable, ex Social Media Comms Manager @Oracle & ex Marketing Coordinator @Uber. 9 years of experience in social media and marketing. Built Planable’s brand and reputation and helped grow it from 50 customers to over 6.5K. Social media fanatic, tech geek & a sucker for learning.
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