Edelman, other PR firms shine at Cannes 2023
By Ibidunni Banjoko
The 2023 Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, which had prominent people across the globe, including the president of the Public Relations Consultancy Association of Nigeria (PRCAN), Israel Jaiye- Opayemi in attendance, has seen three PR firms, Weber Shandwick, Citizens Relations, and Edelman snatch up Cannes Lions during the festival of creativity awards.
Edelman won a Gold Lion in the Brand Experience & Activation category and also won four Silver Lions and three Bronze Lions.
Citizen’s Cheetle in Cheadle campaign for Cheetos won two Lions for its 17-foot monument to Cheetle (the orange dust Cheetos leaves on your fingers) in the Canadian town of Cheadle. The campaign won a silver Lion in the outdoor category for outdoor displays. It also picked up a bronze Lion in the outdoor category for special build.
Weber Shandwick won three Lions, thanks to work from Prime Weber Shandwick in Sweden and Weber’s Paris shop.
The Turnstile Turbines campaign for wind energy company Iberdrola, which was based on turning turnstiles into prototype underground wind turbines, won a bronze Lion, also in the outdoor special build category.
In the radio and audio category, Prime Weber Shandwick won two Lions. The Stockholm shop picked up a silver Lion for cultural insight for the Spellbound by Sweden campaign it executed for Visit Sweden. Prime also won a bronze Lion for its Happy Birthday to Earth campaign for robotic lawn mower company, Husqvarba.
Edelman earned its win in health & wellness. Edelman Bangkok and Select Start Bangkok won a bronze Lion in the brand-led education and awareness category for their Let Her Grow campaign for Dove. Kenya also received its first-ever PR Lion
Commenting on the award, Simon Cook, CEO, of LIONS, said, “There’s an incredible breadth of notable wins from every corner of the globe among the winners. First-time Creative Data Lions were awarded to the UAE and Poland, and Kenya won its first-ever PR Lion. We’ve seen a significant growth in non-traditional Lions in 2023 and this body of winning work really showcases the diversity of creative work coming through from engagement-focused mediums.”
Meanwhile, the PR Lions, honour strategic and creative communication – work with storytelling at its core, which establishes, protects, and enhances reputation and business, awarded 52 Lions from 1600 entries: 8 Gold, 17 Silver, 26 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to ‘Self Love Bouquet’, for DoorDash by GUT, Los Angeles, USA. This work tapped into the 72% of US adults that believe self-pleasuring is a form of “therapy”, and destigmatised female self-pleasure using the most iconic Valentine’s gift: a bouquet of red roses. It showed consumers that DoorDash could be a go-to destination for same-day flower delivery on Valentine’s Day by reaching 200MM earned media impressions and 500k social impressions.
Commenting on the Grand Prix, PR Lions Jury President, Jo-Ann Robertson, CEO, Global Markets, Ketchum, UK, added, “With a deep understanding of their audience, DoorDash were able to deliver a culturally of the moment campaign that made their customers feel something whilst delivering incredible business results. Their focus on celebrating and empowering single women’s self-love was simple, brave, and the campaign was perfectly built with “earned at the core”.
From 1462 entries received in the Social & Influencer Lions, 49 Lions were awarded:
8 Gold, 15 Silver, 25 Bronze, and the Grand Prix was presented to ‘Flipvertising’, for Samsung, by CHEP Network, Sydney, Australia. To launch Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the brand flipped the idea of ad targeting to create a competition for Australian GenZers to win a flagship Galaxy Z Flip 4 phone, boosting brand sales by 34%.
According to a PRovoke Media report, PR agencies had more success in the social and influencer category: although, again, they were all credited with PR rather than idea creation. Gold Lions went to Edelman and MSL, silvers were awarded to teams including MSL Chicago, Current Global in Chicago, Edelman London, and Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Dubai, while bronze Lions went to Ketchum and MSL in Chicago and Mango Communications in Auckland.
Social and influencer lions jury chair Caitlin Ryan, VP of Meta’s EMEA Creative Shop, said: “We were determined as a jury to really define what the future of social and influencer marketing is because it’s moving at a pace and we wanted to give a clear direction to the industry of what impressive work looks like.”
Ryan added that the biggest takeaway from the process was thinking about social and influencer work beyond amplification:
“Social media does socialise an idea well when it taps into culture and explodes, but what we said a lot on the jury was ‘what next?’ The most brilliant work is co-creating with influencers to create momentum with an audience. When you want an audience to socialise your idea, you don’t just build for them, you build with them. It takes time and attention, and you can see in the work where they have been intentional about building a community.”
She added that “craft is incredibly important” in the winning social and influencer work: “It’s not just copywriting and art direction: we also saw a beautiful craft in UX and audio.” And Ryan said the final theme among the winners was social and influencer work that is trying to solve a business problem.
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