The big winners, in a nutshell: Ad Age runs down all the Grand Prix honorees from the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Terre des Hommes "Sweetie": Grand Prix for Good
Created out of Dutch agency Lemz, this innovative online campaign used an extremely lifelike digital avatar of a young Filipino girl to lure and identify patrons of online child porn for charity organization Terre des Hommes. The campaign earned numerous Golds throughout the festival but was ineligible for the top prize in the general categories, which require that Grand Prix be awarded to paid clients. It wasn't surprising, then, that it picked up the Grand Prix for Good on the festival's final night, for which pro-bono and charity campaigns are eligible.
Volvo's Epic Split: Cyber Grand Prix and Film Grand Prix
Going into the festival, Volvo's "Epic Split" from Forsman & Bodenfors was an industry favorite. It ended up winning two top awards, for Cyber in the "Social" subcategory and for Film in the "Other Screens" subcategory. Film juror Al Mosely, CCO of 180 Amsterdam noted, "It kind of had everything. It had the product at the heart of the story, it was a fantastic demo. But it was more than that. It was a spiritual meditation, had a huge emotional punch as well as the product message, which we found extraordinary.
Honda "Sound of Honda -- Ayrton Senna 1989": Titanium Grand Prix
Honda and Dentsu took an unusual approach to storytelling in this Titanium Grand Prix-awarded campaign, which used 1989 data pulled from Honda's Internavi telemetry navigation system during one of F1 driver Ayrton Senna's record breaking laps to recreate his drive in a dazzling light and sound-filled installation and online experience. Jury President Prasoon Joshi, chairman/CEO/CCO India/South Asia, McCann Worldgroup, called the idea "really remarkable" and praised it for transforming dry data into something truly emotional. "It connects with you on a very human level and it also talks about legacy and the future at the same time, which is not easy to do."
Chipotle "The Scarecrow": PR, Cyber Grand Prix
Chipotle and CAA Marketing pulled a repeat this year, during this year's PR and Cyber shows Grand Prix for "The Scarecrow," the follow up to the multi-awarded "Back to the Start." Cyber juror Joe Alexander from The Martin Agency noted during the Cyber press conference that the campaign, which included both a short film and a game, "met the industry standard of Pixar." While the accompanying game also "reinforced the brand message and took it to another level."
Harvey Nichols, Sorry, I Spent it on Myself: Promo/Activation, Press, Integrated, Film Grand Prix
Created out of Adam & Eve DDB London, Harvey Nichols' holiday campaign took a decidedly different tack from what retailers typically do during their busiest selling season with this unabashedly bold embrace of consumerism. The campaign included film, print and line of products that encouraged shoppers to save their precious dollars to buy what they really want, while allowing them to adorn their loved ones with cheap Harvey Nichols-branded goods. In the case of film, the Cannes jury awarded the work foremost for its "bravery." Juror Pete Favat, CCO at Deutsch, L.A., explained during the Film press conference, "They flew in the face of convention around holiday advertising. For a retailer to take their highest selling season and do something like this is remarkably bold. We wanted to reward that."
Harvey Nichols: "Sorry, I Spent It On Myself" Product Line
British Airways "Magic of Flying" Billboard: Direct Grand Prix
Created out of OgilvyOne London, this out-of-the-box outdoor campaign featured digital billboards that reacted in real-time to their surroundings and earned the Grand Prix in Direct. The billboards were placed in various London locations and featured cute children, who would react every time a plane flew overhead in the real world -- but not just any plane, only BA flyers. And every time each one would pass by, the boards would also broadcast their destination and flight numbers.
V/Line "Guilt Trips": Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix
McCann Melbourne, which became last year's Cannes darling for its Metro trains "Dumb Ways to Die" campaign, returned to the stage to take the Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness, this time, for another train company, V/Line. Its "Guilt Trips" campaign provided a clever way for parents to "guilt" their kids into buying V/Line tickets to take a trip home. The campaign generated $4 million in revenue for the client, plus plenty of goodwill toward the brand. Juror Greg Lyons, VP-marketing Mountain Dew & Energy at PepsiCo, said "this work was the tightest case and one that no doubt showed that it was a brilliantly executed marketing idea that led to brand growth."
MegaFon/Asif Khan "Sochi 3D Selfies": Innovation Grand Prix
Selfies took a huge step up with this Innovation Grand Prix winner, created by Russian telecom brand Megafon and architect Asif Khan. The interactive installation at the Sochi Olympics Olympic turned visitors' photobooth portraits into gigantic 3D images at the games. Even those who couldn't attend could participate, via booths set up in 30 other Russian cities. According to the Innovation jury, the work met its three goals for the Grand Prix, and then some, featuring breakthrough technology, a scalable idea, work that empowers creativity and, what Jury President Tom Bedecarre, co-founder/chairman at AKQA, said was a fourth "private" requirement: "Is this a business I would invest in?"
Pharrell Williams "24 Hours of Happy": Cyber Grand Prix
Pharrell Williams' 24-hour long interactive music video for his popular track "Happy," created out of production company Iconoclast, was one of three pieces that earned a Cyber Grand Prix this year. The Cyber juror applauded the work for its emotional impact -- the criteria which has now come to define excellence in user interface. Jury president Susan Bonds, CEO of 42 Entertainment explained, "What was really amazing about it was it was an online experience that evoked emotional response and behavior. The interface was seamless."
G-Star Raw/Pharrell Williams "Plastic Fashion": Product Design Grand Prix
The festival's first Product Design Grand Prix earned singer Pharrell Williams his second top honor at Cannes. This time, he partnered with fashion label G-Star Raw to create a line of clothes from recycled marine waste.The idea was conceived out of FHV BBDO in the Netherlands. Jury President Donghoon Chang of Samsung explained that the idea stood out for its form, function, and innovation, and a commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
Nivea "Sun Block Ad": Mobile Grand Prix
To create this year's Mobile Grand Prix winner, FCB Brazil combined a print ad and mobile app for Nivea Sun to create a very useful tool for parents. The ad, which appeared in Brazilian publications, could be turned into bracelets that parents could put on their children. Those wristbands could be read by a special app, Nivea Protege, which parents could program to alarm when kids traveled beyond a certain distance -- an idea that proves especially helpful for moms and dads wanting to relax in the sun while the kiddies run around in the sand. Jury President Jaime Robinson, ECD at Pereira & O'Dell, San Francisco, called the campaign the "perfect marriage of the right media delivering the right utility, delivering the right brand message and the right time and place."
Lucozade "Give Me Strength": Radio Grand Prix
Ogilvy Johannesburg earned the Radio Cannes Prix for cheering on the everyman in a campaign for Lucozade energy drink. Three spots gave outrageous pep talks to unusual heroes such as a white collar worker giving a power point presentation and an attendee of an Enrique Iglesias concert. Jury President Tony Hertz of Tony Hertz Radio and Brand Sound said the work had "every element of craft. It's beautifully written, excellently produced, and there is nothing to criticize about it."
Bergen International Festival Rebranding: Design Grand Prix
The Design Grand Prix went to a rebranding campaign for Norway's Bergen International Festival, created out of Anti Bergen. The new identity for the classic and avant-garde music fest used a mathematical system to expand the festival's "F" logo into imagery that mirrored music itself. The design jury appreciated the "quietness" of the work, and juror Barry Quinn, executive creative director at Juniper Park, said it "wasn't an ad trying to be design. It truly was a complicated design project."
ANZ Bank "GayTMs": Outdoor Grand Prix
Whybin/TBWA and New Zealand's ANZ Bank earned the top Outdoor prize for this colorful take on ATMs highlighting the brand's sponsorship of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The campaign transformed ANZ ATMs around Sydney into outrageously bejeweled "GayTMS" that dispensed rainbow-colored receipts and sent all transaction fees to a gay and lesbian charity. Jury President Jose Miguel Sokoloff, president of the Lowe Global Creative Council and co-chairman and chief creative officer of the Interpublic Group's Lowe SSP3, Bogota, said, "This one we chose because it's important and it's brave and it's not necessarily very large but it became very large."
Coca-Cola "Happy ID": Media Grand Prix
The Media Grand Prix went to McCann Lima, Havas Lima and Coca-Cola's "Happy ID," an effort that promoted Coke's happiness mantra in Peru, a country which, according to research studies, sat at the bottom of worldwide happiness charts. The campaign featured Coke-branded photobooths set up around Peru that citizens could use to take photos for their national IDs. But there was one hitch -- they would only capture images when the subjects smiled. Matt Seiler, media jury president and CEO of IPG Mediabrands explained, "It was a brilliant idea with brilliant use of media and what media is today, which is everything. It was not a digital idea, an ambient idea and not an out-of-home idea. It was all of the above. It also used a very unusual channel [the government]."