Cannes Lions Underpaid Campaigns
Image cresit: Zdeněk Macháček via Unsplash
The Cannes Lions ended a few weeks ago now...
Creatives from around the world have returned to their agencies to work on six-second formats or other delights. Some with their arms loaded with golden Lions, others with their tails between their legs.
So, you must have surely read all the possible recaps of the best campaigns in the world based on Women's Football, Everyday Tactician, or Handshake Hunt... But this year, I decided to look elsewhere than towards the Grand Prix!
I started digging into the shortlists to try to find the campaigns that we'll call the underpaid ones... Quality campaigns that left empty-handed. Because yes, even though everyone keeps telling us that Shortlist is the new Bronze, a shortlist doesn't decorate an office like a nice lion!
Feel free to give me your opinion on these campaigns and especially to unearth your gems of loss in the comments, I would be delighted to discover them because with 25,000 entries, my brain doesn't yet have the capacity to analyse everything in two weeks!
1. XBOX FIELD TRIPS - XBOX - McCann London - two shortlists
Xbox starts from the point that video games are not just entertainment but can play an educational role. This starting point has already been addressed many times, but the way Field Trips does it is interesting. Relying on education experts, Xbox focused on its existing games to extract all the elements that can nourish an educational discourse. Once these elements were identified, the brand turned them into podcasts to listen to during games. An original and immersive way to discover the history of pirates while playing Sea of Thieves, for example.
What I like is primarily the fact of starting from the game, from its DNA to enrich it through these podcasts and show that in any game, there are things to learn. Unfortunately, the case craft and the subject of video games/education already treated many times probably did not help go beyond the Shortlist.
2. F1 BUTTON - WHATSAPP - CREATIVE X - one shortlist
At Cannes, sometimes, (often?) the way the case is crafted weighs heavily in the final result. On this idea, I feel like this is the case (got it ?).
F1 Button, more than a marketing campaign, is a stroke of genius to demonstrate a product and its USP.
WhatsApp is the most secure and instant messaging? Perfect... Let’s use it to communicate a Formula 1 driver with his box during a race, one of the most secret conversations there is. Through a very clever product placement on the drivers' steering wheels, WhatsApp clearly took possession of the moment and usage, which, in my eyes, is one of the best partnership cases I've seen this year. We all know how complex and full of constraints reconciling partnership and sports can be, and the fact of touching a driver's holy of holies, his steering wheel, is brilliant.
A campaign that would probably have deserved better in the Sports Jury especially with the excellence in brand partnership category.
3. Sketchy Animals - Zoo de Grandby - LG2 - 2 shortlists
In the kingdom of outdoor and print, ghosts are kings. In this original exercise of advertising, there are plenty of candidates, but while strolling through the Palais des Festivals, I stumbled upon this Quebec campaign imagined by the LG2 agency for the Granby Zoo. There is little rationale behind this favourite pick, but with only two shortlists, I think this campaign was underpaid. Ok, the craft is not incredible. And I'm not talking about the craft of the 3-year-old Quebec child who drew the tiger, but more about the typography, the rigor in details, etc...
But still! In terms of impact, in terms of message, we have something extremely powerful. How to understand that at the Zoo, we discover animals and therefore can better protect or defend them? The answer is right in front of you.
Too bad for LG2, it deserved at least a bronze... Maybe they should have drawn a lion.
4. Trip my Pic - Halcón Viajes - DDB Spain - six shortlists
Sometimes, there are campaigns that accumulate shortlists but are unable to convert them. We could compare them to a team that plays a final every year without ever managing to win the trophy... Why? Often a mystery or maybe mental.
This is a bit the case with this Spanish campaign, conceived by DDB. Halcón Viajes is a local travel agency with not much budget. And no budget means you have to be smart. And this campaign is above all a clever idea that uses AI, a 2024 Cannes buzzword, wisely.
Since Halcón offers trips to the most beautiful destinations in the world, the brand had the idea to hack all the other advertisements that are often filmed in magnificent places to its advantage. We already knew the Google tool to identify your favourite stars' outfit in a photo, now it's TripMyPic to identify (and book) vacations in the wonderful places of your favourite ads.
What I like is the clever and useful use of AI as a tool and not as an end in itself.
Why doesn't it win more? Surely a question of scale (yes, scale often has all the answers in Cannes), but also maybe results. If this idea had been implemented by Corona and David Madrid, I think we would have seen it scoop up at least three metals.
5. You can buy a media - La Gran Loteria Uruguaya - Havas Worldwide Gurisa
So yes, it's Havas and yes, you're going to tell me I'm corporate... But still! If I were CCO in Montevideo, I would eat my hat. Grand Prix at the Clios, Shortlist at the D&AD... Nothing at Cannes. A campaign full of humour, in the year when humour was supposed to be celebrated in Cannes. Social media, influence, media... There were ingredients to win, yet not even a shortlist for this Uruguayan UFO. Yet, this campaign is a little gem to modernize the image of the lottery and create a real storytelling around it. Is it the fact that there is absolutely 0 purpose that penalised this case? Is Uruguay too small to get a room full of judges on board with its craziness? Mystery, but honestly, we would have gladly given a few lions to this little treat.
And you? What's your favourite loser?
