Vice World News' ”Unfiltered History Tour,” which took viewers into the history of disputed artifacts in the British Museum via augmented reality and immersive audio, has won the Grand Prix for Brand Experience and Activation at Cannes Lions.

The campaign, from Dentsu Creative's India office, allowed viewers to explore the museum and used Instagram AR filters to reveal the provenance of the pieces and the countries from which they were questionably “acquired.” Users scanned the artifacts, such as the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon marbles, unlocking an augmented reality feature that took them back into the time when they were acquired. Visitors could then listen to podcasts from experts hailing from the countries from which they were taken. 

This is the second Grand Prix win for the campaign which also won the Grand Prix for Audio and Radio.

Why it won

“First and foremost there must be relevancy and consistency of the brand experience,” said Yasuharu Sasaki, Dentsu Japan’s chief creative officer and the jury president for the category. The use of technology to connect the “digital and the real world” and the work's ability to impact human emotions and have a lasting effect all factored into the decision, Sasaki said.

“Brands are trying to make essential changes in the product environment, politics or culture by strongly moving people with people's emotions through strong experience brand work,” Sasaki added. "It cannot be done one way; new collaborations and partners are needed and new connections are being made between people, brands, and society.”

The work overall was seen in more than 100,000 tours and garnered 18 million impressions. As a result, the brand saw a 40% rise in TikTok followers, gained 2 million earned video views on the platform, and registered a 49% increase in total impressions on Instagram. 

Controversy or clear winner?

Mojo Supermarket’s "DojaCode" campaign for Girls Who Code, which featured a codable Doja Cat music video to educate interested women about the skill, won two Gold Lions in the category and was one of the pieces of work in close contention for the Grand Prix, according to Sasaki.

“We discussed it a lot about 'DojaCode' and its social impact,” Sasaki said. “'DojaCode' is really nice, but I'm a coder.  For me, the experience was actually basic to me, but I'm not the target [audience]. But the experience can have a reach ... and create a bigger impact.”