A social peek into The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

Cannes Lions reputation as the advertising industry’s equivalent of the Oscars shows no signs of abating if this year’s festival was anything to go by. It’s a chance for creative from all over the globe to be held under the same harsh lens and judged accordingly. There are only 16 categories from which to win a coveted Grand Prix Lion and with over 37 thousand entries; competition was as fierce as ever.

So who were the lucky few and what did well? Campaign's with a cause really cut through this year and more often than not, social media was right at the heart of this success. Whether it was Lucky Iron Fish’s campaign, using a simple low-tech yet innovative idea to avert a public health crisis (won Grand Prix for Product Design) or Volvo’s Life Paint, which showcased a reflective paint to help cyclists be more visible on the roads (won two Grand Prix awards: Promotion & Activation and Design); campaign's that were bigger than the sum of their parts made a real impact at the festival, reflecting the increasing role advertising is taking in doing good in the wider world.

If there was one cause that got more attention (and awards) than all of the others it was female empowerment; and unsurprisingly a lot of these campaigns included a strong social element. The three that stood out above the rest were ‘I Will I Want’, ‘Like a Girl’ and ‘Red Light App’.

A series of films made for sports brand Under Armour by Droga5 called ‘I Will I Want’ won the Cyber Lion Grand Prix. Arguably the most digitally innovative film from the campaign features model Giselle Bündchen as she lets rip on a punch bag. A specially created website was used to pull in real-time social media insults that were then projected around her, demonstrating the strength and will power required to block out negative noise that surrounds her. The campaign successfully combines technology and creativity, leading to 1.5 billion media impressions; $15 million in earned media and saw a 28% sales increase for the brand.

Leo Burnett’s ‘Like a Girl’ campaign for P&G turned the negative connotations of the phrase “Like a Girl” on its head with a simple approach, using talking heads to create a moving and impactful film. The campaign then asked women to share their stories on social media using the #LikeAGirl hashtag to help drive empowerment and with over 50 million impressions on YouTube and over 30 million views on other sites, the campaigns success and Grand Prix award in the PR category speaks for itself.

Vodaphone and Y&R Team Red Istanbul came up with the idea for an app to help victims of domestic abuse in Turkey, which ended up taking the Grand Prix for Media award. Registered as ‘Red Light’ to maintain the projects anonymity from men, the app allows women to alert friends secretly when abuse is taking place by shaking their phones. What really impresses is how the app has been promoted (again covertly), in gender specific locations; from YouTube beauty tutorials to women’s bathrooms. The results are stunning, over 250 thousand downloads of the app (1/4 of all female mobile users within Turkey) and activated a disturbing 103 thousand times.

Also of note was BBDO India’s ‘Touch the Pickle’ campaign which bagged a Bronze Lion and at the Grand Audi stage, Samantha Morton and Jefferson Hack gave a very stirring talk about the ‘Female Firsts; Film Fund’, which aims to help more female directors get funding for their first feature films.

Other trends

Everyday over Viral

According to Twitter’s Chris Moody, in his session “The Power of Now”, brands should look for everyday events to really connect with their audience. Many marketers see ‘going viral’ as the advertising equivalent of the Holy Grail, but Moody argues that in preferring to chasing these rare and unpredictable lightning strikes marketers miss out.

“As an advertising community we become infatuated with achieving cut-through at major events such as the Super Bowl where Tweets peak at 50,000 an hour. But it’s everyday moments that produce more energy over time. It’s these moments that generate the real power and if the right creative is applied, we can harness the true power of now.” Chris Moody, V.P. Data Strategy, Twitter

Data and Creativity

The uncontested winner of the Cannes buzzword Top Trumps was without doubt ‘Data’. Again and again speakers made references to data being the key to creating emotional content. They urged further and closer collaboration between tech and creative industries to ensure work keeps hitting the emotional sweet spots with audiences. Professor Brian Cox succinctly summed up this successful working dynamic: “Every creative person needs data to keep them rooted in reality.”

Periscope

If someone in 2014 had said non-delegates of this year’s Cannes Lions would have been able to get a real-time snapshot of Sir Martin Sorrell and Al Gore in Debussy, many would have seriously questioned their rosé consumption. What a difference a year makes. The success of Periscope (6th most popular destination link for tweets to the Cannes Lions hashtag) at this year’s Cannes is not only testament to the scope of the platform, but how quickly advances in social media are moving from emergence to mainstream.

Twitter Grand Prix

There is one story that really stood out for me at Cannes. It centers around the most re-tweeted tweet and has David and Goliath-like parallels. Ogilvy (166K followers) sent out this tweet and it received 17,577 RTs. Kim Kardashian (33 million + followers), who also attended the festival tweeted “Just landed in Cannes! Love that my mom and Kylie are here too!” – which generated a mere 1,447 re-tweets. Given Kardashian’s follower count, this single comparison demonstrates the advertising communities laser focus for all things related to creativity - niche to some but not to us ad folk.

There is an interesting dichotomy here though. Whilst we know and love our industry, it’s a tiny slice of life. Further Moody’s point, it’s up to us to remember our audience and what matters in their lives, ensuring we embrace the everyday and creative worlds with equal attention and affection.

Ella Clay

Thunderhead

Brand Engagement Manager