The Cannes Lion 2007 awards were given out last week at the 54th Annual International Advertising Festival. The winning ads were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold Lions and the Grand Prix was awarded to the best of the Gold Lions. During the festival week participants viewed over 25,000 ads from around the world in categories such as film, press, outdoor, interactive, radio, media, direct marketing and sales promotion.
Last year they added the PROMO LION award category for the first time. Their definition of sales promotion is "activity designed to create immediate activation and/or offer for the sale of a product or service. This may be effected using sampling, tie-ins, competitions, events, in-store advertising (POP materials), PR, exhibitions, direct marketing, and other promotional marketing methods in ways that build/create brand equity with consumers and customers, are sustainable and distinctive." They go on to say that the LION will be awarded to "the freshest creative ideas that are intrinsically linked to brands and achieve measurable results." So it does appear that the CANNES LIONS do put most of their emphasis on creative.
With that definition of promotion setting the stage for the PROMO LION, it somewhat answered my question as to why they weren't any interactive promotions, such as online sweepstakes, games or contests, on the list of winners. Cannes did include digital media in the list of "Use of Media" categories, but they had a separate category just for Interactive, so maybe they were entered there. I did look and there were many CYBER LIONS awarded and quite a few that looked a lot like promotions. Nonetheless, it is gratifying to see that on a global scale promotion is defined as building and creating brand equity.
So with that quick review on the Cannes LIONS (I, needed to know) here's what we have in the PROMO Category this year. The Grand Prix was given to "Bonded by Blood" for Adidas/NZRU out of Auckland, New Zealand. The entry was for a ruby shirt which fell under the "Clothing/Footwear and Accessories Category.
Adidas's objective was to create an emotional bond between the All Blacks Rugby squad and their fans while growing sales of All Blacks apparel by 15%. For the past several years they have produced a commemorative poster that announced the squad. This year they not only created a limited-edition poster that featured the players, but also included their DNA. Each of the 40 players donated some of their own blood which was embedded into the paper during the printing process. 8,000 posters were made available to those fans that purchased an All Blacks jersey. Each poster came with a certificate of authentication and the "Making Of" was shown in stores on plasma screens and on a promotional website which you can view here.
All 8,000 posters sold out and sales of Adidas All Blacks apparel exceeded the goal at a 24% increase. The promotion received many media mentions on TV as well as in print. It goes to show that those fans down under are passionate about their teams. I guess I'm not the target audience for this so I don't quite get it, but yes it is a highly creative idea. The agency that developed the campaign was TBWA/Whybin from Auckland and the funny part is the Executive Creative Director's name is Andy Blood. He told the NZ Creative Blog "I am shocked, stunned, and completely mind blown" about winning the Grand Prix.
We only had one US PROMO LION winner, "That Girl Emily" for Court TV which won the Best Integrated Promotional Campaign Category. This promotion also was a Reggie finalist this year and I recognized it since I remember voting on it as a judge for PMA's Reggie Awards. Deep Focus was the agency that entered at Cannes and The GEM Group is listed as the Reggie Award agency. The challenge here was to create a buzz around the launch of a new TV series for Court TV, Parco PI.
They created "Woman Scorned" billboards which played on the adulterous content of Parco PI and were supposedly purchased by Emily who was trying to get back at her cheating husband. Social media was the channel of choice to further the exposure and buzz. So even before the billboards were placed, the "That Girl Emily" blog was started which told the story from Emily's point of view about her cheating husband, Stephen, and the "fourteen days of wrath" she would enact upon him.
The fictitious Emily got over a million hits to her blog and was seen in viral videos tossing out Stephen's belongs onto the street. The campaign stressed the payoff of hiring a private detective like Parco PI. It received extensive media coverage and became a model for viral marketing. You can see the surveillance video on PMA's website.
It's getting harder and harder to put our marketing efforts into specific categories as the lines are becoming more and more blurred. Promotional marketing today is being implemented in all types of media...Online, TV, Radio, Outdoor, Print. So what happens is that promotion doesn't always get the credit it really deserves. But recognition is increasing and the industry continues to grow so it must be doing its job - increasing sales and building brands.
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