AI-powered Black Friday campaign for Mercado Libre wins Media Grand Prix

Mercado Libre’s “Handshake Hunt” won the Media Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Wednesday. The Black Friday campaign, from Gut São Paulo, used AI to generate deals within TV content rather than in commercial breaks. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns In partnership with Brazilian TV network Globo TV, the e-commerce and financial tech company used AI to scan shows, sports and movies airing live to recognize any people or characters shaking hands—Mercado Libre’s logo. Whenever two hands met, a QR code would appear directing viewers to Black Friday deals. Additional deals were distributed on social media for users who posted handshakes that weren’t caught live. The campaign led to an 80% year-over-year increase in sales on the platform on Black Friday itself and a 39% increase in sales for the month, according to a case study from Mercado Libre. Gold winners There were 10 Gold Lions awarded in the Media category. Notable among them were “Sightwalks” for Peruvian cement brand Sol Cement from Circus Grey, which won the Design Grand Prix on Tuesday; and CeraVe’s Super Bowl campaign featuring actor Michael Cera from Ogilvy PR New York, which also won Gold in the Health & Wellness category. Additional Gold winners included a creative combination of found objects, OOH, digital and social ads comprised “If you’re into it, it’s in the V&A” for U.K. museum V&A from adam&eveDDB with media from PHD; Dentsu’s “Inflation Cookbook” for SkipTheDishes, which helped Canadian shoppers find recipes based on the most affordable ingredients each week while inflation rates rose; a campaign from The Digital Public Library of America and agency FCB Chicago which uses geo-targeting to create local book clubs based on banned books in each area; and a dog collar from L&C for Petpace that uses pets’ vitals to monitor potential earthquake activity in Peru.

AI-powered Black Friday campaign for Mercado Libre wins Media Grand Prix

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