Xbox’s ‘The Everyday Tactician’ from McCann London wins its second Grand Prix, in Direct

Xbox’s “The Everyday Tactician” won its second Grand Prix, in the Direct category, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Wednesday. The campaign, from McCann London, already scored the Entertainment Lions for Gaming Grand Prix on Tuesday. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns Xbox partnered with Bromley F.C., a London-based soccer club in the National League, to hire one avid player of the simulation video game series “Football Manager” to the five-month paid role of “support performance tactician” on the team’s coaching staff. The campaign launched last November for the 20th anniversary of “Football Manager.” The Direct category celebrates targeted and response-driven creativity. Xbox first created a competition for "Football Manager" players for the chance to serve in a real role in a professional league. McCann London then filmed the lucky winner, Nathan Owolabi, and his experience in the role and created a three-part documentary series that showed how digital and physical worlds can merge. The effort exceeded expectations when Owolabi helped Bromley F.C. win the National League Playoffs in May and achieve promotion to the English Football League for the first time in 132 years (the National League is the lowest professional league in England). The campaign garnered 1.5 billion impressions and a 190% increase in “Football Manager” gamers on Xbox. Gold winners Among the Gold Lions winners was Spotify’s B2B music video campaign “Spreadbeats,” from FCB New York, which was created and distributed to marketers in a media plan spreadsheet. That campaign also won the Digital Craft Grand Prix at Cannes. DoorDash took home a Gold Lion in the Direct category for its ambitious sweepstakes that showed off its delivery prowess. The campaign from Wieden+Kennedy Portland awarded a single winner with every product advertised during the 2024 Super Bowl. Heinz, with agency Rethink in Toronto, won a Direct Gold Lion for the introduction of its limited-edition bottle of “ketchup and seemingly ranch.” The bottles played into the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce buzz, nodding to a photo taken of Swift at a Chiefs game in Kansas City, where she was watching Kelce play, that showed her with a plate of just one chicken finger, a dollop of ketchup and a white condiment, which many on social media assumed to be ranch. 🚨| Taylor Swift was eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and seemingly ranch! pic.twitter.com/rpAOP2HFtT— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) September 24, 2023 Publicis Groupe agencies were also behind several Direct Gold Lions-winning campaigns for clients including Heineken and Renault. Other Gold Lions winners: • “Long Lasting Reviews" for Darty by Publicis Conseil, France • “Cars to Work" for Renault by Publicis Conseil, France • “Alcaraz Signs" for Netflix by David Madrid, Spain • “Room for Everyone" for Mastercard by McCann, Poland • “Pub Museums" for Heineken by LePub Milan and Publicis Dublin, Italy and Ireland • “150 years of Whateverken" for Heineken by LePub Milan, Italy • “Adoptable" for Pedigree by Colenso BBDO, New Zealand Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Xbox’s ‘The Everyday Tactician’ from McCann London wins its second Grand Prix, in Direct

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