LePub’s wins Social & Creator for‘Could Have Been a Heineken’
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Why send a voice note to a friend or colleague when you could meet up for a beer instead? Heineken’s campaign posing this question has now won the 2026 Cannes Lions Social & Creator Grand Prix.
‘Could Have Been a Heineken’ was created by LePub Milan and LePub São Paulo, centred on the fact that people spend 150 hours a year listening to voice notes, but often struggle to find time to meet up with the senders.
Cue the “first voice-to-beer bot on WhatsApp”. People could forward voice notes longer than three minutes to the account, and receive vouchers for free beers in return.
“It is taking a very new social behaviour and converting it into literally the oldest social behaviour,” said Jury President Mihnea Gheorghiu, global chief creative officer, LePub.
With Cannes Lions rules requiring him to step out of the room when his company’s campaigns were being discussed, Gheorghiu noted with amusement that much of his communication with jurors during the judging process happened in voice notes.
There were 1,413 entries for the Social & Creator Lions this year, with Golds awarded to work from Singapore (2), Brazil, the US and the UK, as well as joint UK/Spain, Denmark/Netherlands and US/Brazil campaigns.
“It was a very big year for real-time response. This speaks numbers about the essence of what Social & Creator should be,” Gheorghiu said.
“It’s reactive. It doesn’t necessarily have to react to a world event: it can react to a trend or to social behaviour. That’s how social is built, that’s what catches fire… it snowballs into this madness that we all love to engage with.”
He added that real-time response levels the playing field. “It’s not that I have 10 months or €10m more than you. Everyone’s on the same starting line: it’s all about craft, speed and collaboration between client and agency.”
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