Droga5 New York took the Cyber Grand Prix honor this evening for Under Armour’s “Gisele Bundchen–I Will What I Want.” The integrated initiative included a spot showing the supermodel working out on a heavy bag, kicking and punching it athletically as actual comments from social media appeared on the gym walls surrounding her. The online experience was similar except it enabled viewers to see the social media posts–positive and negative–as they were happening in real time.
Cyber Jury president Jean Lin, global CEO of Isobar, described the Under Armour work as an example of how a powerful brand narrative enabled by technology could thrive in a multi-screen digital environment that is social by nature and real-time by design. “It demonstrates how well-crafted digital experiences create the uplifting impact to bring a brand closer to its people, from the point of engagement to the point of transaction. It demonstrates how real-time data enhances creativity and tells a beautiful human story to empower its audience.”
Cyber judges found only the Under Armour campaign as worthy of Grand Prix distinction. The Cyber jury can award up to three Grand Prix honors in the categories Cyber Craft and the Web, Social, and Branded Games/Branded Tech/Integrated Multi-Platform Campaign. In the eyes of the jury, no other work rose to the level of “Gisele Bundchen–I Will What I Want.”
Meanwhile Grey London’s “Lifepaint” for Volvo scored its second Grand Prix, adding the top Design honor to its Promo & Activation Grand Prix win a couple of days earlier.
Lifepaint is a reflective spray that can be applied to bicycles–thus making them safer to drive at night–as well as clothes, shoes, baby strollers, backpacks, dog leashes and collars. Lifepaint was developed by Grey and Swedish company Albedo100 with Volvo in mind, continuing the automakers safety legacy. The campaign showed Lifepaint as increasing cyclists’ visibility when headlights are shone upon them.
Design Jury president Andy Payne, global chief creative officer of Interbrand, said that “Lifepaint” impacted culture, had the potential for greater scale, was tied to brand purpose and went to the heart of the problem-solving role of design. “Our job is to make things better,” he said. “Understand the status quo, challenge the status quo, change the status quo. That’s what design is.”
Product Design, Radio
Taking the Product Design Grand Prix was Geometry Global, Dubai for “The Lucky Iron Fish Project.” Cooking with one little iron fish can infuse foods with iron, addressing the high rate of iron deficiency among the general population in Cambodia, for example. One Lucky Iron Fish can provide a family with up to 75 percent of their daily iron intake for up to five years. After using the product in Cambodia for just nine months, there was a 50 percent decrease in incidents of clinical iron deficiency anemia, and an increase in users’ iron levels. People were feeling better as a result.
Product Design Jury president Dan Formosa cited “The Lucky Iron Fish Project” as an example of the wave of “bottom-up thinking” that had returned product design to its roots in user-experience. “Cannes Lions contains outstanding examples of our ability to use high-tech tools to output the best in creative video, digital and print. Yet at the basis, what really makes it work, is our ability to understand people and to communicate. The fact that the Product Design jury selected a low-tech product, using a manufacturing process that has been in place for centuries, in the end, surprised even us. Yet, we were unanimous in our decision.”
And rounding out the evening’s Grand Prix winners was the Radio competition topper, SoundCloud’s “The Berlin Wall of Sound–The Most Unbearable Radio Ad” from Grey Germany Dusseldorf/Grey Germany Berlin.
Additionally honored on stage tonight was Sy Lau, sr. executive VP of Tencent and president of its Online Media Group. Lau was named Cannes Lions Media Person of the Year. Terry Savage, chairman of the Lions Festivals, said that Lau’s “foresight and vision had contributed to a journey that had built Tencent into the largest integrated Internet service company in Asia.”
