Top of the Cannes
Whilst the rosé may be stored away for another year down in the beautiful South of France, creativity remains top of the agenda for this year’s virtual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Below, some of the Blurred team have picked out their favourite campaigns from the festival.
Lejohn, Junior Consultant
My favourite campaign on the shortlist would have to be Epic Games, Astronomical. I could be slightly biased as I’m a massive gamer as well as a fan of Travis Scott, but the idea of having his own mini-concert take place in a game is just mind-blowingly brilliant.
This is an amazing example of, not just further digitisation, but a key theme that has emerged within society over the last couple of years – dispersion. As everything continues to make its way into our homes, this might just be the first small glimpse into the evolution of how we consume music which is incredibly fascinating.
Matt, Partner
For me it’s the Burger King Mouldy Whopper. Good creative moves us. Great creative changes how we think. How many companies would be willing to show their signature product in the worst possible light - rancid and mould-encrusted - to make the point that so much of our food is laced with artificial preservatives? This was commercially courageous. Imagine the initial internal pitch meetings: “So, let me get this right... you want us to show close-ups of a rotting Whopper? And you think this will increase sales?”. But it worked, it was honest and - from a wider food industry perspective - it mattered.
Stef, Senior Consultant
Burger King x Stevenage Challenge is very good. It taps into gaming, which is a huge, frictionless channel – games are now an extension of how people interact online with another – the brand exposure is massive.
It hit Burger King’s brand “passion points” of sports and gaming. A truly brilliant idea and execution playing into the underdog story earning big results - most used team in FIFA career mode (circa 15 million players (I think!), +25,000 goals shared online, and shirts sold out for the first time in history.
Jenna, Consulting Director
Bodyform’s Womb Stories might be one of the more obvious choices, but deservedly so. It is the latest in a series of brilliant campaigns by Bodyform that have moved us beyond the reductive portrayal of periods as a blue liquid that might prevent you from wearing your favourite white shorts on a hot date, to address the stigmas that exist around periods head-on.
With Womb Stories they’ve taken it to the next level. It is a clever, relatable, funny and heartbreakingly authentic account of the complexity of the female experience. That alone would make it a worthy winner for me, but the fact that it is opening up important conversations about women’s health for the first time makes Bodyform a true purpose leader in my eyes.
Nik, Founder and CEO
I just love Borrow the All Blacks. Perfect example of the simplest ideas often being the most powerful. In essence they lent the (literal) weight of the rugby stars to small businesses to give a marketing boost. The positivity generated for the All Blacks, via this simple concept, would have far outweighed any benefit had they used the star players for traditional marketing. And in doing so they clearly showed they were about the country and not just the team. Loved it.
Nicole, Senior Consultant
My pick is Ikea's #BuybackFriday by Edelman, London. This stands out for me because most consumer companies want you to buy more and more of their stuff. Whereas this campaign from IKEA not only highlights their commitment to sustainability but also shows they want their products to have many lives, without people needing to continually buy new stuff.