Cannes Lions: Brand Experience & Activation, Creative Effectiveness & Creative E-Commerce Lion winners

Brand Experience & Activation

Microsoft Xbox picked up this year's Brand Experience & Activation Grand Prix for its Changing the Game campaign which saw the creation of an adaptive controller for use by those who have a disability. The campaign was created by McCann New York with the accompanying film shot through Hungry Man. Jaime Mandelbaum, Chief Creative Officer of VMLY&R Europe, who headed this year's jury, said; "Brands are no longer simply what they claim to be, but are what people's experience of them are. [This work] changes the relationship between the brand and the consumer."

Some brands jump on the trend and miss the mark.

Mandelbaum went on to say that, in the best examples of the work in this category, trends such as inclusion and gender equality have now gone past the point of being about awareness to being about action. "Some brands jump on the trend and miss the mark," he said, "while others take it seriously and do it well."

Other work that won in the category included the Guinness Clear campaign from AMV BBDO London; IKEA Thisables, through McCann Tel Aviv; Volvo The E.V.A. Initiative, through Forsman & Bodenfors Gothenburg and Huawei Storysign, from FCB Inferno London, all of which picked up gold Lions.

For the full list of winners, visit the Cannes Lions website. 

Creative Effectiveness

Marcel Paris's campaign for French supermarket chain Carrefour won the Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness for its bold idea to challenge legal authority around the availability, and saleability, of certain crops. Called Black Supermarket, John Seifert, Worldwide Chief Executive at Ogilvy and jury president, said; "We live in an era of fragmentation and brands that build engagement is the Holy Grail. The impact of this creative idea made it a no-brainer for the Grand Prix. It was a compelling case, word-for-word and end-to-end. We were looking for big ideas that had a pervasive and positive impact... this was it."

Among the 11 other winners were three golds Saatchi's New York for Tide's It's a Tide Ad; McCann London for Xbox Design Lab and DAVID Buenos Aires for Newsan The All-In Promo.

For the full list of winners, visit the Cannes Lions website. 

Creative E-Commerce

This year's Creative E-Commerce Grand Prix winner was handed to RBK Communication Stockholm for its work for Doconomy's Do Black carbon emission-focussed credit card. Daniel Bonner, Global Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman and the jury president said that this was a category still finding its place [this is its second year at the festival] and because of that it is still very diverse. "The key trend," he said, "is 'the atomisation of retail', where people are now able to buy products from places that aren't shops, such as via posters, graffiti, their friends..." He went on to say though, that the winning work stood out because it didn't fit this trend and that the jury just couldn't ignore it. "It was innovative and found a new way to address a problem."

For the full list of winners, visit the Cannes Lions website.