Cannes Lions 2023 Grand Prix Winners in Creative Business Transformation, Commerce, Effectiveness and Strategy, Brand Experience & Activation, Innovation, and Mobile
With the fourth day of Cannes 2023, there has been a truly international spread of Grand Prix winners across the Creative Business Transformation Lions, Creative Commerce Lions, Creative Effectiveness Lions, Creative Strategy Lions, Brand Experience & Activation Lions, Innovation Lions, and Mobile Lions categories.
Microsoft digitised a dying language to win a Grand Prix, food delivery service Hungerstation and Cadbury both utilised machine learning to create innovative campaigns, and Renault made an Airbnb for electric charging - all in the ‘creative’ categories.
Elsewhere, EA Sports and Apple collaborated to bring a fictional sports team to life in 'FIFA 23', Augmental made things a little easier for people with spinal cord injuries and PedidosYa sent a fake notification to users, to encourage Argentina to celebrate its patriotism as they won the World Cup.
Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said: “It’s inspiring to see new countries enter and win Lions to raise the creative bar on the global stage. Saudi Arabia won its first Grand Prix in Creative Commerce, and there were also wins for Germany, Mexico, Japan and China in the Creative Business Transformation Lions for the first time. Congratulations to all of our Lion winners, and those shortlisted, who are driving progress for people, businesses and society."
Check out the winning picks here:
Creative Business Transformation Lions
Microsoft - ADLaM - An Alphabet to Preserve a Culture
“90% of today’s spoken languages will become extinct by the end of this century.” With this in mind, within the Falani community of West Africa, two brothers were determined to keep their language alive, but there was a problem - they didn’t have an alphabet. Working together with Microsoft and McCann New York, the language was alphabetised, ensuring it and culture would not be lost in the future. Handwritten script turned into digital lettering, and the language, ADLaM, has now become an officially recognised.
Commenting on the work, Creative Business Transformation Lions jury president, Justin Peyton, chief transformation officer, Wunderman Thompson, APAC, said: "It challenges us to think about the impact not just on the brand’s business, but on all of the stakeholders and communities with whom they engage. The work created new opportunities for an otherwise marginalised people, and in so doing, provided access to a whole new audience, while also creating a blueprint that could be replicated to reach other similar groups.”
Creative Commerce Lions
Hungerstation - The Subconscious Order
‘Choice overload' – when we have too many options and can’t quite decide on what to do, or in this case, order. As Saudi Arabia’s online food ordering website HungerStation set out to tackle the 132 hours of endless scrolling, it collaborated with Wunderman Thompson Saudi Arabia to develop a technology that orders for you. Recognising your scrolling, it gives you options and tracks your gaze to narrow down the options and tell you exactly what your subconscious mind wants to eat.
Creative Commerce Lions jury president, Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, chief creative officer, FCB, Canada, added: “Some work brilliantly showed us what is possible today in creative commerce, but this idea showed us what is possible tomorrow. It sets a new standard for commerce and shows the way forward in how brands can remove pain points in a moment of purchase, while adding meaningful value to it. We hope that this work shows what can happen when brands get the value exchange right for their customers and use fresh creativity to drive engagement."
Creative Effectiveness Lions
Cadbury Celebrations - Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad
With small businesses feeling the brunt of post-pandemic financial struggles, confectionery company Cadbury was determined to support the underdogs. Enlisting machine learning through a collaboration with Wavemaker India, the face and voice of acclaimed Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan were altered to mention and recommend several different retailers. Taking it one step further, depending on the viewing location of the ad, local businesses were recommended to have even more of an impact.
Creative Strategy Lions
Renault - Plug Inn
With one million electric cars on the streets of France and only 80,000 charging stations, electric vehicles are facing a major challenge. With the lack of resources to charge, car brand Renault, with the help of Publicis Sapient Paris, created an Airbnb equivalent for cars called ‘Plug Inn’. The app allows people to open up their homes as points for electricity, generate an income, and support electric car drivers as they travel across the country. With 31,000 people adopting the scheme, there is now more access than ever before.
Creative Strategy Lions jury president, Amrita Randhawa, CEO, Publicis Groupe, Singapore & Southeast Asia, added: “There is creative strategy that results in the movement of consumer, culture, and business results. And then there is creative strategy that redefines the product category, opens entirely new revenue models for brands, delivers real value for consumers, solves infrastructural problems and is globally scalable – that is our Grand Prix winner. An obvious contender from the get-go, it became our North Star for the very definition of the future of creative strategy and its ability to deliver transformational brand building.”
Brand Experience & Activation Lions
EA Sports x Apple - FIFA 23 x Ted Lasso
As 'Ted Lasso' blew up and the fictional team of AFC Richmond was created, the show’s social media accounts decided to treat it as a serious football team - conducting post match interviews, posting on social media accounts with updates and creating a buzz for the TV show’s fans. To take this one step further, the show partnered with EA Sports and Apple to bring the fake team into the biggest football game there is, FIFA. Launching the first-ever fictional team onto the platform, 'FIFA 23' encouraged gamers to interact with the show differently, making it the 17th most played team out of 700 to choose from.
Brand Experience & Activation Lions jury president, Ari Weiss, global chief creative officer, DDB Worldwide, said: “Provide enough value and consumers will go out of their way to spend time with your brand. This idea transcended advertising and became intellectual property. Never mind six seconds - fans went out of their way to play with this idea 90 minutes at a time. It also touched on the power of collaboration. Two brands, both genius at doing what they do, came together to create an experience better than either of them could have created alone.”
Innovation Lions
Augmental - MouthPad
Using machine learning to support people with spinal cord injuries, technology company Augmental developed a unique tongue-driven interface. The project was supported by the Wunderman Thompson team in Peru who provided brand support and brand experience, working with Wunderman Thompson’s Inclusive Experience Practice. MouthPad, with the ability control computers, smartphones, or tablets via Bluetooth by tongue, leverages the latest advancements in 3D printing, electronic encapsulation, and dental materials. Using the roof of the user's mouth as a touchpad, it gives users the ability to have more autonomy over their interactions and allows for wireless connectivity.
Innovation Lions jury president, Grace Francis, global chief creative and design officer, WONGDOODY, Global, commented: “As a jury, we spoke about the concept of ‘not going back’; innovations so significant that the world is changed enough that future generations will find it hard to imagine returning to the time before. Assistive technology is often reduced to essentials, but 'MouthPad' goes far beyond that, enabling a paralysed person to operate a wheelchair, play a video game, send a text privately (rather than using voice activation), perform a computer-based job, operate a sex toy and hundreds of other things able bodied people take for granted.”
Mobile Lions
PedidosYa - World Cup Delivery
When Argentina won the World Cup, food delivery service PedidosYa tricked Argentinians with a notification which would end up trending higher than Messi on Twitter. With the help of GUT Buenos Aires, a fake push notification was sent out to 6 million users, claiming their delivery was on the way – but no one ordered anything. As it turns out, in line with national pride, the delivery service didn’t mean that food was on the way, but that the World Cup was making its way from Qatar to the new champions’ home. Swelling with national pride, the campaign reached more than half the country with an investment of $0.
