THE 2024 Entertainment Grand Prix has been awarded to ‘We Are Ayenda’, a striking piece of work from Creative X and Modern Arts on behalf of WhatsApp.
The winning entry tells the story of the Afghanistan women’s youth football team, whose lives were in danger following the Taliban’s return to power. The team used WhatsApp to plan their escape from the country — and their journey to Portugal was then told in a documentary released by Amazon Prime Video.
Jury President Geoffrey Edwards, managing director, creative, Gale, said the choice of ‘We Are Ayenda’ was “a unanimous decision. It was a riveting story of tenacity and resilience and trust, where the characters rose above the conflict in their lives to do this amazing thing. The story’s connection to the brand was clear, because WhatsApp’s privacy was their only hope of escape. You couldn’t tell this story without the brand.”
In terms of trends, Edwards welcomed the geographic diversity of entries. “Entertainment is usually associated with the US, but South East Asia, India, South Africa and Europe came to play — which made us happy.”
Humour, purpose and AI were all prominent, noted Edwards, “while everything came with a multichannel component. All types of channels came into play.”
The Entertainment Jury also awarded three Gold Lions. One went to ‘We Are Ayenda’ while the others went to ‘American Cancer Story’ (Klick Health, Toronto for Change The Ref) and ‘Women’s Football’ (Marcel, Paris for Orange). The latter also picked up the Grand Prix in the Entertainment for Sport category this year.
Comments