Cannes Lions: Scottish success as Irn-Bru takes gold
Scottish client Irn-Bru won a gold award on Tuesday on a better night for the UK at Cannes Lions.
After something of a washout at Monday's Direct, PR and Promo & Activation Lions, UK agencies had a little more to cheer about at the glitzy Media and Outdoor awards.
The Bruzil campaign by Manchester-based PHD North (creative by The Leith Agency, below), which showed how Scotland could create a crack football team fit for the 2034 World Cup if the Scottish got it on with Brazilians, was one of two UK campaigns to take gold at the Lions Media awards.
The other was Manning Gottlieb OMD London's campaign for Nissan and Sony Playstation, which put fans of the driving game Gran Turismo in real life racing cars.
There were no prizes at all for UK agencies at the Radio ceremony, also held last night, but BBH London enjoyed a fruitful evening in the Outdoor awards.
Its extensive work to promote Google's Voice Search Mobile App was bestowed with the honour of Gold Lion Campaign.
The Media Grand Prix went to Korean agency Cheil Worldwide Seoul for creating 'virtual' stores for Tesco.
The pop-up shops, on streets and subway stations, showed the full Tesco grocery range and persuaded those hanging around to pick items and pay for them using a mobile phone QR code reader. The goods were then delivered to their homes.
The Outdoor grand prix was won by US agency Droga5 New York for its 'Decode Jay-Z with Bing' campaign.
It encouraged fans to read up on the rap megastar's life story by finding segments of his autiobiography scattered around New York in person or by using Microsoft's Bing Maps.
Network BBDO Johannesburg won the major prize at the Radio awards, taking home the grand prix for a campaign trumpeting the safety features of Mercedes-Benz cars.
Overall there were 50 winners at the Radio Lions, 84 at the Media Lions and 119 at the Outdoor Lions.
South Africa was the most decorated country at the Radio bash (10 awards), the USA took the biggest haul in Media (10) and Brazil was by far the biggest winner for Outdoor (17).
Commentary: Bruzil campaign wins over Cannes crowd
The Cannes Lions ceremonies are prim and proper affairs. The thousands of creatives present here from all over the world respectfully applaud the winning ads even if they are lost in translation.
But when the Irn-Bru Bruzil campaign video was shown on screen it was met with more than just polite applause from those gathered at the Palais des Festivals. Though able to speak little English, the Korean creatives sat next to me in the auditorium got the joke - and the room resounded to hearty applause when the winner was announced.
Afterwards, all the nominees descended on the Cannes Opening Gala, an opulent beach party where complimentary drinks and food were in steady supply. There will be some sore heads in Cannes this morning, but there is no rest as the festival continues apace with a packed day of seminars and workshops before tonight's Press, Design and Cyber Lions are announced.
Piers Morgan, Edward de Bono and Jesse Eisenberg are among the day's speakers. The Drum will round up the best of it.