Jury Says Reignite The Fun In Advertising

There is a very clear resurgence of fun and humour in advertising at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Jurors are selecting works where brands have dared to embrace creativity to make people laugh, showing that playful and engaging campaigns can drive business outcomes.

The Social & Influencer Lions Grand Prix went to ‘Michael Cerave’ for Cerave by Ogilvy PR USA. This campaign suggested that actor Michael Cera was the founder of the skincare brand, creating a buzz through a four-week social media and influencer campaign leading up to the 2024 Super Bowl.

The Social & Influencer Jury President Amy Ferguson, Special US’ Chief Creative Officer and Partner described the campaign as “a wildly ambitious, lovably absurd, multi-channel, ultra-modern campaign” that perfectly blends social, influencer, culture and advertising.

Creating History
In the PR Lions category, which honours strategic and creative communications, the Grand Prix was awarded to ‘The Misheard Version’ for Specsavers by Golin UK. This campaign featured pop singer Rick Astley re-recording his hit single with misheard lyrics to promote free hearing tests.

PR Jury President Kat Thomas, Founder & Global Chief Creative Officer at One Green Bean, Global, highlighted the campaign’s exceptional creativity and cultural relevance, stating that it “over-delivered against every evaluation benchmark from standout earned-first creativity to meaningful commercial impact”. Thomas also said, “Since the PR Lions first launched, there has been the same speculation every year – will a PR agency pick up the Grand Prix? I could not be more delighted that 2024 is the year that history will be made.”

The fun element was also seen in the Digital Craft Lions category where the Grand Prix was presented to ‘Spreadbeats’ for Spotify by FCB USA. This campaign transformed a typical B2B media plan spreadsheet into an exciting music video using Microsoft Excel.

Kentaro Kimura, Digital Craft Jury President said the campaign showed remarkable creativity and craft, achieved through the use of decades-old technology. He emphasised that the campaign celebrated human creativity over technological advancement.

Engaging People
The Media Lions Grand Prix also had an engagement element to it. The winning work ‘Handshake Hunt’ for Mercado Libre by Gut Brazil cleverly used TV pop-up

QR codes during handshakes on Globo, the world’s second-largest TV network, to link viewers to promotional offers on Black Friday 2023.

Prerna Mehrotra, Media Jury President and Chief Client Officer & CEO Media at Dentsu APAC, said the campaign had strong insight and made inventive use of technology to reinvent the TV-watching experience. “This idea has proven that a strong insight can lead technology to not only drive participation but also win business,” she noted.

Noor Fathima Warsia

BW Reporters A veteran journalist in business and corporate journalism, Noor Fathima Warsia is the Group Editorial Director of India’s oldest business publication, BW Businessworld. In her role, Noor leads the editorial initiatives across BW Businessworld’s flagship product and communities focused on education, startups, healthcare and wellbeing, media & marketing, gaming, HR and legal among others. In a career spanning more than two decades, Noor has led the publishing of the flagship BW Businessworld magazine and its community magazines, guided the online editorial team and led communities such as BW Marketing World apart from working on editorial-led IPs such as BW Most Influential Women, BW India’s Most Sustainable Companies, BW Top 50 Marketers and more.