CELEBRATING the diversity of entries in Outdoor, the 2024 Cannes Lions Jury has awarded two Grands Prix in this category. The first is for LOLA MullenLowe Madrid, rewarding its beautifully executed campaign on behalf of ice cream Magnum. The second is for Colenso BBDO Auckland, which applied the ingenuity of AI to its work for Pedigree.
Jury President Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe France, said the two winning entries represented the “classic and progressive” sides of outdoor. However, he stressed that both were united by their impact:
“We wanted to award ideas that would stop consumers in their tracks when they saw them in the real world. At the same time, we wanted quality ideas that would make us jealous as professionals.”
Superficially simple in execution, Magnum’s ‘Find Your Summer’ campaign consists of three beautiful images designed to encourage people to purchase ice cream in winter. Each depicts people seeking out slithers of sunshine on dark, depressing days. “It is a unique campaign,” Venturelli said, “and very beautiful. It is everything a good poster should be and it had an impact on Magnum sales.”
The Pedigree entry, by comparison, is a remarkable piece of work that demonstrates it is possible to combine commercial and purpose-driven goals in a single campaign. Through an astute use of data and AI, the company has created billboards where every dog featured is locally adoptable. Every time a dog is adopted as a result of the campaign, it is replaced on billboards by a new adoptable dog. The impact of the campaign has been to drive product sales and increase rates of adoption.
Venturelli said it was great to see “a big commitment from a big brand”. He said the use of AI moved the category forward without being “tech for tech’s sake.”
There were also 10 distinct Gold Lions for entries from the US (2), Spain (2), Canada, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Peru and Italy/Ireland.
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