Three Grand Prix honors were bestowed today in the Cyber competition at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., earned its Cyber Grand Prix on the strength of the Old Spice “Responses” initiative, which featured 186 personalized YouTube response videos from “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” (played by Isaiah Mustafa) to Old Spice fans who commented on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, 4chan and other sites. The campaign pushed the boundaries of what it means to be “interactive” and became an Internet sensation, generating some 52 million views on YouTube.
Also earning Cyber Grand Prix distinction was “The Wilderness Downtown,” an interactive music video created by @radical.media director Chris Milk and Google’s Aaron Koblin for Arcade Fire’s single “We Used To Wait” from their latest album The Suburbs. With digital work done by B-Reel Films and deploying Google Maps and Street-view for Google Chrome Experiments, the music video takes a personalized approach by enabling users to input an address from their childhood which then places them at the center of the film’s story. Viewers see themselves in the film as they run through the streets of their old neighborhood and finally reach their childhood home. This is tied very closely to the song’s lyrics to make for a powerful emotional experience.
And rounding out the Cyber Grand Prix winners’ circle was R/GA‘s “Pay With a Tweet” which has become a business model unto itself for various vendors. The premise was that a consumer could get a product in exchange for tweeting or Facebooking about that product to social network friends and followers. Consider it a new form of social currency.
Design, Press
Meanwhile taking the Design Grand Prix was Digital Kitchen, Chicago for its interior design work at The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. Digital displays installed throughout the hotel constituted the centerpiece of the interior design.
On a separate front, history was made with what’s believed to be China’s first Grand Prix win. JWT Shanghai copped the Press Grand Prix for a Samsonite Cosmolite suitcase print ad which focused on the product’s durability in a heaven or hell scenario–heaven being what airline passengers up front in the first class section enjoy while hell is what the suitcase must endure in the plane’s cargo hold.
