“The Breakaway” brought home its second Grand Prix today in the PR Lions. The campaign, which scored the Creative Strategy Grand Prix earlier in the week, was selected unanimously by the PR jury for being “a movement, not a moment,” according to Jury President Judy John, global chief creative officer of Edelman.
'The Breakaway' wins second Grand Prix—this time for PR
The BBDO Belgium campaign for sporting goods company Decathlon equipped a group of six Oudenaarde prison inmates with standing bikes and equipment to train for a virtual race. The group was followed via platform Zwift by fellow bikers around the globe in an inspirational communal experience, even winning attention from the prime minister of Belgium. The campaign culminated in a final race, streamed on Facebook, against judges, prison guards, police officers and members of the Belgian Department of Justice. The event was such a success that it will expand to prisons across the country for future iterations.
Why it won
The jury found many items on their list checked by “The Breakaway.” It was scalable beyond just the first group and “it was creating this bridge between real and the metaverse for prisoners,” said John. “This idea hit on so many of the issues and topics that people care about today and that’s inclusion, accessibility, mental and physical health.”
But not only has “The Breakaway” expanded across Belgium, it has become an inspiration for other places to potentially launch similar programs. John called it “a sustainable idea” that will “change how we look at the prison system and how we can help rehabilitation.”
Controversy or clear winner?
John said that “The Breakaway” wasn’t an immediate choice for the top prize.
“This was one snuck that up on us,” she said. “Every time we saw it, there were nuances, it got deeper, it just had this incredible complexity to all the problems that it’s solving and how companies and brands can show up in the world.”
Trends and themes
John sees a trend that has crossed all of the work submitted at the festival being a “craving for companies and brands to take a stand and drive action.” The Grand Prix winner is an example of how to rise above words and affect meaningful change to a system.
Another commonality among the PR submissions was “ideas that are modern in thought, expression and execution,” which John describes as uniting all of the categories through a demand for “utility, entertainment or education.” The marriage between the physical and virtual in “The Breakaway” campaign, combined with its social purpose, created a combination of the year’s themes.
“The last trend I’d like to say,” said John, “is we think that PR is the next trend.”
However, when the press conference opened for questions, one audience member asked, “Should the PR industry be worried that there aren’t more PR agencies listed in the PR Lions winners?”
“No, I don’t think they should be worried,” responded Lucy Harvey, a member of the PR Lions jury and managing director of Middle East, Turkey, India and Africa at Hill+Knowlton Strategies. “I hope that everyone will be inspired. I’m from H&K and I was incredibly inspired by this list, but I also know—I’ve seen that we’ve won something in another category. I see Edelman, Ketchum, many members of the team that I’ve spent time with that are also cross-winning in the PR category, winning in the social category and going outside of the boxes that you might have thought a PR agency would sit in.”