The first press conference of the 2024 Cannes Lions kicked off on the 17th of June with the Pharma, Health & Wellness Lions and Lions Health Grand Prix for Good categories unveiling the Grand Prix winners from each, and giving us a behind the scenes look at the judges’ room and the deliberation process. The conference brought together Collette Douaihy, chief creative officer at dentsu health; Wendy Chan, health creative lead, Asia Pacific at Edelman; and David Ohana, chief communications and marketing officer at the United Nations Foundation.
The second press conference looked at the winners from the Audio & Radio, Print & Publishing and Outdoor categories, and the jury presidents discussed the need to judge commerciality alongside creativity, whether the industry is entering a ‘post purpose’ phase, and what makes print ads iconic. Speaking for their respective categories were Simon Vicars, chief creative officer at Colenso BBDO; John Raúl Forero, president and chief creative officer at DDB Colombia; and Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe France.
Together, the jury presidents discussed the trends that materialised amid the judging like the emergence of humour, the drive towards simplicity, and the value of craft.
Pharma, Health & Wellness, and Health for Good Lions
Pharma Lions
Jury president: Collette Douaihy, chief creative officer at dentsu health
For Collette, the judging process was defined by the diverse perspectives in the room as judges from all around the globe gathered to award the winners. Everyone took the time to collaborate and understand the cultural nuances at hand while judging the slightly smaller than usual amount of entries (224) in the category.
“We saw some great trends in the work when we put our notes together. We noted the rise of product innovation. There was a time when pharma was front and centre of the work but now we’re seeing technology taking centre stage. The rise of innovation comes with certain responsibilities; it still has to help the patient and bring positive outcomes. We see that opening up the aperture to creativity in a highly regulated industry. The second trend was inclusivity. Tackling racial disparity to ensure that people have access to diagnostic tools, increasing access to travel for people with rare diseases, and closing the gender gap for women. The third, and probably strongest theme, is the rise of customer experience. Whether we’re talking about patients or carers, customer experience is really important because it has a phenomenal impact on patients’ lives.”
Speaking about the Grand Prix winner, ‘Magnetic Stories’ by Siemens Healthineers, Colette said: “This is storytelling at its best. There’s innovation behind the customer experience with the right insight and data helping to tell the story. It’s important to think about every aspect of the healthcare journey. An MRI can be very daunting especially for children and this work precisely thought through every moment in that MRI machine, all the noises, and applied exciting moments to that throughout the stories. It’s a really beautiful piece that exemplifies the best of the best.”
Health & Wellness Lions
Jury president: Wendy Chan, health creative lead, Edelman
Wendy noted that there is an increased quantity and quality of entries into the category in recent years with a bigger number of brands tapping into the category. “Everything is health and health is everything,” she says.
“This category has grown to become highly competitive and even getting on the shortlist is a huge achievement. In this category, having purpose is a given so we’re looking beyond that. We’re looking for work that can make a change, inspire, and push the category of healthcare. We’re looking for work that can push the boundaries and showcase how a brand, no matter what size, can cut through the noise of the crowded market.”
Commenting on the Grand Prix winner and the category trends that it captures, Dramamine’s ‘The Last Barf Bag’, Wendy said: “It’s humorous and brings a smile to people’s faces. We’re seeing a trend where brands aren’t taking themselves too seriously, they’re more lighthearted and are tapping into the culture. It’s empowering people to take better care of themselves by using action to show care for the consumer, not just try to sell them something. More non-health brands are tapping into the industry and we’re more than happy that people are doing that for people’s lives but we’re also careful to make sure that the intention is to bring benefits - physical, mental, well being - to people’s lives. We are looking forward to seeing solutions on a larger scale in the future.”
Lions Health Grand Prix for Good
Jury president: David Ohana, chief communications and marketing officer at the United Nations Foundation
David witnessed a couple of firsts during the deliberation. Not only was this a very short deliberation, according to him, the Grand Prix winner was also unanimously decided which he says points to the quality of the work.
“The process and the decision was unusually hard and easy at the same time hard, because sometimes it's difficult to know just how much impact a single idea has had on a massive issue versus surrounding factors. It was easy because the work’s impact was profound. What really hit home for me is that the Grand Prix winner has no special effects, no celebrities, no fancy AI; just a really simple inexpensive idea and a classic example of the right message to the right audience at the right time. Throughout my career, I've seen simple ideas and individual actions that can have the biggest impact and lead to breakthroughs.”
‘Child Wedding Cards’ for UN Women won and David said: “I think this vote was a bit of a vote for humanity and that incremental, small wins are possible against seemingly intractable problems. The jury talked a little bit about how no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.”
Audio & Radio, Print & Publishing and Outdoor Lions
Audio & Radio
Jury president: Simon Vicars, chief creative officer, Colenso BBDO
For Simon, it was important to set expectations before judging could begin. Celebrating commercial creativity was in, as was questioning purpose - it was to be celebrated but also interrogated. Vitally, audio had to be fundamental to the idea, recalled Simon. “The other thing we looked for as a jury is commitment to creativity; work that really commits, brands, creators, and production partners.”
The Grand Prix winner, Specsavers’ ‘The Misheard Version’, demonstrated the kind of commitment and commercial results that Simon was hoping to see. He commented: “I could see an easy way of doing that but they chose the hard way. And, again, commercial creativity has proven that it amplifies business results. The expected targets were 5% and they got a 60% increase in inquiries. It also busted into culture. It started in culture, as an observation, and busted into culture with 20 million views in eight hours. A hearing test in disguise. It was creative at its core and just recklessly ambitious in execution.
Print & Publishing
Jury president: John Raúl Forero, president and chief creative officer, DDB Colombia
With print in decline, John’s jury was concerned with “the whole possibility” of the category to move beyond the idea that it’s just a “picture with a headline”. The jury looked for a few distinct characteristics in the winner: something that can be defined as classic and iconic, greatness, use of technology, and storytelling.
Coca Cola’s ‘Recycle Me’ was awarded the top prize with John highlighting the work’s “simplicity and purity”. He said: “It’s a big brand going back to its roots and I’m sure that everyone will remember it in years to come. There were debates and three or four pieces of work were fighting it out but we decided that this had the most potential to be iconic over time.”
Outdoor
Jury president: Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe France
In this category, Marco and his jury had the option of awarding a Grand Prix to two pieces of work, which they indeed did. The process was defined by adopting a “split brain” approach that looked for something more classic at heart and something that progressive and innovative in the category. And while “everyone was expecting a year dominated by GenAI,” says Marco, he was pleasantly surprised to see the fear go unfounded. He also drew attention to the need for purpose to connect with sales, saying that we need to remember that “selling is okay”; it was a big topic of discussion among his jury with many saying that the industry might now be ‘post purpose’ at large.
‘Adoptable’ by Pedigree was the first winner demonstrating a big brand making a big commitment. “Our decision here was very simple. AI was used to make the impossible happen, it didn’t replace the craft so it’s not tech for tech’s sake. The work is connecting the two worlds of commerciality and creativity, but really business is at the heart because adopted dogs create new customers.”
Magnum’s ‘Find Your Summer’ took home the second Grand Prix with Marco noting that it’s a unique campaign that works beautifully as a print poster. “For context, the sale of ice cream in the UK drops in the winter. They found a very powerful insight, the desire for summer, and a very artistic, beautiful way to represent it. So it’s based on this insightful human need for daylight. And it didn’t stop at that: people in London could see the exact place and time that they could go and catch some light.”
