Australia had a solid presence on days three and four of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Days one and two of the awards saw Australia and New Zealand bring home several bronze, silver and gold awards, as well as a couple of Grand Prix titles across the Health & Wellness, Outdoor, Film Craft, Industry Craft, and Design categories.
Among the Aussie contingency who took home awards were VML Sydney, The Ministry for Communication & The Arts, Supermassive, Finch, LEO and DDB Sydney across Social Behaviour, Breakthrough on a Budget, PR Effectiveness, Creative Business Transformation, Creative Strategy and Brand Experience & Activation categories.
Cannes Lions: Day Three
Campaigns in the media and PR categories got the spotlight on day three of the festival and Australia bagged some precious metal in recognition of excellent work.
VML Sydney was awarded Silver Lion in the Media category in Social Behaviour for its Legacy Lager campaign for Legacy Australia, which sees dry taps installed alongside other beer taps in pubs and clubs across NSW in partnership.
The dry taps are equipped with RFID technology, allowing patrons to thank their fallen veterans by buying them a symbolic beer with a simple tap of their phone or credit card. Each donation directly supports veterans’ families, providing them crucial financial, social, and emotional assistance.
The Ministry for Communication & The Arts won a Bronze Lion in Breakthrough on a Budget for the Time to Live campaign on behalf of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.
The harrowing exhibition at Sydney’s Carriageworks featured Emily, 31, from Victoria, who was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive cancer with an average prognosis period of just six to nine months.
She has auctioned off pieces of her time to the public for the exhibition, which saw members of the public pay for one-on-one interactions with her.
Each interaction was set against the backdrop of a giant projected timer, counting down each participant’s three-minute visit. The raw, intimate and fleeting encounter underscored the emotional and psychological weight of living with or being connected to someone with a terminal diagnosis.
In the PR Effectiveness category, Supermassive and Finch were the only Australian winners in the PR category and won a Silver Lion for the 36 Months campaign to raise the minimum age of social media.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said of day three: “Huge congratulations to all our Lion winners, whose groundbreaking work demonstrates how powerful creativity can be to transform data into insights, communications into movements, and ideas into cultural impact.”
Cannes Lions: Day Four
Day four was another cracker for Australia at the Cannes Lions Festival with our awards across the Creative Business Transformation, Creative Strategy, and Brand Experience & Activation categories.
LEO Sydney’s Building a More Resilient Australia campaign for Suncorp Insurance was among one of the seven Lions awarded in the Creative Business Transformation category.
VML Sydney took home a Bronze Lion for The Hidden Eye Test for 1001 Optometry in the Creative Strategy category, which received 902 entries.
The Brand Experience & Activation category received 2337 entries which saw 69 Lions awarded. Australian agencies were well represented in the category with DDB Sydney winning a Silver Lion for Volkswagen’s Roo Badge and The Ministry for Communication & The Arts taking home a Bronze Lion for its Time to Live campaign.
The festival also awarded the Regional Network of the Year award, the Asia region was won by Ogilvy while DDB Worldwide won Pacific.
LIONS CEO Cook said of day four: “The brilliant winners of these Lions exemplify how game-changing the power of creativity and strategic thinking can be as they help to reshape business models and customer experiences.
“Congratulations to all the winners on achieving this recognition, and a heartfelt thank you to our fantastic Juries.”
Simon Cook
Top image: Cannes Lions gold