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Cannes Lions 2017: The Last Big Winners

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Now that the sun has set on the Cannes Lions 2017, we're looking back over the weekend at the big winners that were announced at the climax of this year's tumultuous, exhausting but reliably satisfying festival of creativity. There's been no shortage of drama and gossip this year, but, as ever, it's the work that's really stood out above all else. Campaigns of the year (at least in terms of sheers awards hauls) have to be Meet Graham by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and Fearless Girl by McCann New York, but that's not to say this was little more than a story of two campaigns. Below you'll find rundowns of the final awards given out at the tail end of last week, but to read more, be sure to check out the Creativepool Magazine for all of last week's news and keep checking back for more Cannes content as the week progresses and we all being to reacclimatise.

Agency/Network of the Year

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BDDO Worldwide has been named Network of the Year at Cannes Lions for a record sixth time, with Clemenger BBDO Melbourne winning Agency of the Year. The special awards, given at the end of the week-long International Festival of Creativity, also saw WPP win the top prize for most creative parent company for a seventh year in a row. Nineteen BBDO agencies won a combined 144 Lions across 24 categories, while Clemenger BBDO Melbourne won 56 Lions, including two Grand Prix for “Meet Graham,” its awareness campaign for Transport Accident Commission of Victoria. “Meet Graham” won 29 Lions in total, including 8 golds. The Australian agency also took home 21 Lions, including six golds, for Snickers’ “Hungerithm.”

It is the second year in a row that a BBDO agency has been named Agency of the Year at Cannes, after Brazil’s Almap BBDO took home the coveted prize last year. Andrew Robertson, president and chief executive of BBDO Worldwide, said: “Let me put it simply: clients are interested in work that works. There is plenty of data to confirm the correlation between spectacular award-winning work and spectacular effects. I am very proud of, and grateful to, of all of our award-winning agencies, but I do want to single out Clemenger BBDO’s work. ‘Meet Graham’ is literally unforgettable and saved lives. Snickers ‘Hungerithm’ creatively leverages a powerful platform, smart use of data, and retail integration to deliver spectacular results.”

Whilst WPP was awarded the top holding company prize, however, after collecting the highest number of points out of the major advertising parent groups, Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and chief executive of WPP, did not shy away from pointing out the industry’s criticisms of the festival. He said: “In the year of our seventh successive win, the industry appears to be experiencing a collective seven-year itch in terms of its relationship with Cannes. The importance of recognising the outstanding creativity of our people and the work they do for clients is not in doubt. The question is whether the festival does that in the most effective way, and we look forward to playing our part in finding the best solution.”

Integrated

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Channel 4's Paralympics campaign has won a gold Integrated Lion at Cannes tonight for the broadcaster, its in-house creative team, and media agency OMD UK. Celebrating its coverage of The Paralympic Games, the campaign is led with the three-minute film “We’re the superhumans,” which showcases a range of paralympic athletes alongside disabled people from all walks of life in a colourful journey set to a rendition of Sammy Davis Jr’s Yes I Can. The film, directed by Dougal Wilson, features people with various disabilities performing tasks from the mundane to the outstanding – brushing teeth, performing drum solos, eating breakfast and flying planes. It is Channel 4’s first gold win at Cannes Lions this year, after winning two silver in Media and a bronze in Entertainment earlier in the week.

The Grand Prix for Integrated Lions went to 180LA for Boost Mobile’s “Boost your voice,” its political campaign in which mobile phone shops were turned into voting stations. No US agencies won gold, but three were awarded silver: Wieden & Kennedy Portland for Nike’s “Time is precious,” Goodby Silverstein & Partners for Cheetos’ “Cheetos museum,” and Saatchi & Saatchi New York for Tide’s “Bradshaw stain.” Crispin Porter & Bogusky Boulder also picked up a bronze for Kraft Heinz’s “New and not improved.”

Digital Craft

A VR experience music video that places the audience within the singer Björk's world of Vulnicura earned VFX agency Analog and W&N Studio the UK's first Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Lions. The Digital Craft's top prize-winner allows the viewer to explore the landscape and encounter Björk in her avatar form as mist and entities react to the viewer’s actions and responses. For the VR experience, Björk recorded a new performance of Notget that was recorded for the project at London motion-capture studio Imaginarium, transforming her into an avatar. Using this as a starting point, Analog modelled the landscape and character designs in Houdini and 3DS Max, and applied photo-realistic details and textures developed in-house.

Two other VR experiences brought home Digital Craft Lions for the UK, including “BBC Home: a VR spacewalk” by the BBC and digital production studio Rewind, which were jointly awarded a silver Lion. A bronze Lion also went to Google Creative Lab London for “Back to life in virtual reality: Rhomaleosaurus & Giraffatitan.” The UK’s final bronze Lion in Digital Craft went to Possible London and Iris WorldWide London for “Breaking the pattern with Adidas Glitch.” Three US companies were awarded gold Digital Craft Lions, including Google’s Tilt Brush which also up a silver Lion. The other gold Lion winners were TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles for “G Active Gatorade” and Ogilvy & Mather Chicago's “The one moment” for Morton Salt. US agencies earned a further four silver Lions and seven bronze Lions.

Film Craft

As well as taking gold in the Integrated category, Channel 4's “We're the superhumans” campaign also took home two gold Lions for Film Craft. The ad, which was produced by Blink Productions and created by Channel 4’s in-house agency, 4Creative, was the UK’s most shortlisted campaign in the category. It also won three silver Lions for Film Craft. The Grand Prix went to Territory, directed by French duo The Blaze and produced by Iconoclast. The music video, which depicts a man’s homecoming in Algiers, was also spotlighted during the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase on Thursday.

Samsung’s “Ostrich” ad, produced by MPC London and MJZ Los Angeles and created by Leo Burnett Chicago, scooped three gold Lions and a silver in the category. Other UK honours went to Save the Children’s “Still the most shocking second a day,” produced by Stink London, which won one gold Lion for Film Craft. A gold Lion also went to Sampha’s music video for Process, produced by Pulse Films London.

Film

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4Creative capped off a highly successful week at Cannes by taking the top prize in the Film Lions for its Paralympics campaign. “We’re the superhumans” had already won three golds: two in the Film Craft category, and one in Entertainment. It added a fourth gold at the end of the week in the Integrated category. The Grand Prix for Film was jointly awarded to 4Creative and Blink Productions. None of the 14 gold Lion winners were from the UK, but Adam & Eve/DDB picked up a silver for its John Lewis campaign “Buster the boxer.” The Omnicom agency also took two bronzes, for H&M Christmas film “Come together,” directed by Wes Anderson, and Volkswagen film “Alien.” There were four more bronze awards for UK agencies, one each for Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Galaxy, “Chase”; Brothers and Sisters, Pearl and Dean, “Tumbleweed”; MPC Creative and Palace Skateboards, “Palace Reebok Classics: Jonah Hill”; and Pulse Films, DJ Shadow ft. Run the Jewels, “Nobody Speak.”

Four US agencies won gold Lions. Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, won a gold Lion for Old Spice, “5 Year Plan”, and a gold Lion Campaign for Nike, “Unlimited courage.” Gold Lions also went to BBDO New York for Sandy Hook Promise, “Evan”; The Martin Agency, Richmond, for Donate Life, “The world’s biggest asshole”; and Droga5 New York, for The New York Times, “The truth is hard to fin: hicks.” US agencies won 13 silvers: three for W&K, and one each for The Richmond Agency, Droga5 New York, 72andSunny Los Angeles/Google, BBDO New York, DDB New York, Leo Burnett Chicago, MJZ LA/Black Frame New York, Pereira & O’Dell NY, Radical Media New York and Saatchi & Saatchi New York.

Creative Effectiveness

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A campaign offering art lovers the chance to spend a night in Vincent van Gogh's bedroom has earned Leo Burnett Chicago the Grand Prix at Cannes for Creative Effectiveness. To promote the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2016 van Gogh exhibit, Leo Burnett built a full-scale model of the Dutch master’s bedroom and listed it on Airbnb as a place for people to stay the night. The room was built as a physical version of van Gogh’s famous bedroom in Arles and featured the tagline “Let yourself in.” The campaign was also awarded a silver Lion. Adam & Eve/DDB picked up two of the three Lions given to UK agencies this year, including a silver for John Lewis’ 2015 Christmas ad, “The man on the moon.” The Omnicom agency was also awarded a bronze for “Tiny dancer" its cute spot for John Lewis Insurance in which a young girl dances around the house.

Engine picked up a bronze too for “Missing type,” its multi-channel campaign created by WCRS in which brands agreed to drop letters from their logos in order to encourage people to give blood for NHS Blood and Transplant. Lion-winning US agencies included Johannes Leonardo, which picked up a bronze for Adidas Original’ “Your future is not mine,” and Energy BBDO which also won bronze for Wrigleys Extra’s “Sarah & Juan.”

Radio

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Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg won the top prize in the Radio category for a trio of ads lamenting KFC's decision to take its Double Down burger off the market. The three ads, “Repeat the punchline,” “Long red thin shape,” “and No one cheerses,” feature a number of men revealing their saddest moments, after each of which another man with a soothing, breathy voice, replies, “that is so sad” or “it makes me sad.” The moments include things like “when the toilet paper tears up instead of across” and "”when you get in an elevator that’s going down, but you’re going up.” The agency also won a gold Lion Campaign for the same work, along with a bronze Lion Campaign for a separate KFC campaign. Ogilvy & Mather’s Johannesburg WPP colleagues, Grey Africa, were among five other agencies to win a gold, along with ones from Brazil, Peru, Spain and The Philippines.

The best result from the UK was for Global Media and Entertainment, which won silver for “Mills and Boon 3D audio – immersive erotica for the ears,” for Harper Collins. There were bronze Lions for Grey London, for Tate Britain, “Gin Lane,” and Lucky Generals, for its “Craig Inglis” ad for Radiocentre, which spoofed the signature John Lewis ad music style. Adam & Eve DDB jointly won a bronze with DDB Germany for Telekom Deutschland, “The magic advent calendar.” There were five awards for US agencies: two silvers for Campfire at SapientRazorfish, New York; two bronzes for FCB Chicago; and one bronze for BBDO New York.

Titanium

McCann New York won its fourth Grand Prix in the Titanium Lions, at this year's Cannes for its “Fearless girl” statue on Wall Street. The work, for State Street Global Advisors, had already picked up the top prize in the Glass Lions, PR Lions, and Outdoor Lions – alongside Twitter in the case of the latter. The Titanium Lions celebrates “game-changers,” specifying: “Entries will need to break new ground in branded communications; that is, provocative, boundary-busting, envy-inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry and moves it forward.”

There were three other winners in the category, in which there are no gold, silver and bronze awards. All three are US agencies: 180LA for Boost Mobile, “Boost your voice”; Ogilvy New York for Amnesty International, “The refugee nation”; and MJZ Los Angeles with Black Frame New York, for Kenzo Parfums, “My mutant brain.”

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