The Lions exists as a creative benchmark for this industry that can make others evaluate their own work in a new light. They work that wins serves to highlight emerging trends and to spark conversations. And because companies enter from all around the world, the winners also provide a chance for people to see work from outside their own territory that they might otherwise have missed. Finally, it's good to remember that Cannes Lions honours 'applied creativity', so the work that win will often also demonstrate exactly how bold ideas can deliver incredible business results.
In 2019, one campaign emerged as a perfect example of everything the Lions are built to celebrate: ‘AdDress The Future’ by Virtue Copenhagen. The work was created in response to a brief from Norwegian retail brand Carlings, as the firm prepared to open their first online shop. They wanted an idea that would create traffic and build market share for an new platform in an ocean of e-commerce rivals.
"It was magical, memorable and groundbreaking"Rei Inamoto, Founding Partner, I&Co
On stage as he revealed the piece as a Grand Prix winner, Digital Craft Lions Jury President Rei Inamoto told the audience that ‘AdDress The Future’ had sparked a lively debate during judging. In fact, he said that it was perhaps “the most intellectually stimulating” discussion he’d ever been part of in a jury room. For him, this debate happened because "the work confused the jury in the most interesting way". And Rei is certainly someone who has enough experience in the Cannes Lions judging rooms to recognise when something stands out for a jury. A designer by trade, Rei spent many years leading growth at AKQA before leaving to found I&CO. He's been a regular judge at Cannes Lions, serving as the Mobile Lions Jury President in 2013 before being named the Digital Craft Lions President in 2019.
"Why is it brilliant? It's not immediately obvious. It's gradually obvious... Yes it's for a specific audience, but the ambition this piece has is by far the biggest out of the winners we had."Rei Inamoto, Founding Partner, I&Co
Later in the week, Digital Craft Lions Jury member Christian Waitzinger, Vice President and Executive Creative Director at Publicis Sapient, provided a little more detail around the debate. He explained that the piece forced the jury to ask themselves big questions about the relationship between the physical and the digital world.
For him, the work highlighted a new trend in how the attitudes of Generation Z consumers is already starting to have a profound impact on the way retail functions both on- and offline. The work prompted Christian and the jury to ask where this tension between the physical and the digital will end. “The fact that you still had to pay for the crafting” was interesting for the jury, and suggested that this piece was simply “the beginning of something… as it relates to our digital identity”.
"This is a generation we're just getting to know as marketers, and this kind of work is the wave of the future."Krystle Mullin, Creative Director, RPA
"It makes a commentary about two fundamental and profound issues we face: wasteful consumption and the environmental crisis."Rei Inamoto, Founding Partner, I&Co
"This is where inspiration begins and hopefully [work like this] becomes a positive fuel for the world."Rei Inamoto, Founding Partner, I&Co