The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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Old Spice Cannes Lions Metro

Samsung Life Insurance Bridge of Life, Dumb Ways to Die, Pothole Season, Easy Way Language Center, devastatingexplosions.com - Five Cannes Contenders chosen by We Are Social's James Nester

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

June 11, 2013 | 3 min read

In the build-up to this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which kicks off on Sunday 16 June, The Drum has asked a number of senior creatives to root through the great creative work they have seen produced this year and choose five they believe could and should win big this year. Today's selection come courtesy of James Nester, creative director of We Are Social.

Pothole Season

Apparently, Montreal has bad roads – it’s the pothole capital of the world. Pothole Season is a phone app that warns its citizens of potholes as they drive and uses the phone’s accelerometer to automatically record the ones they hit. The app generated tons of PR and there was lovely ambient ad to activate it – a car seemingly stuck in an almighty pothole. Most importantly, it comes with a wonderful case study video – half the battle at Cannes. Should scoop a bronze.

Easy Way Language Center: Pronunciation Game

I asked Siri for directions to Richmond the other day. It googled Wayne Rooney for me. Speech recognition can be pretty annoying – but here’s an online game for language students that makes great use of it. The challenge is to make yourself understood by Google’s speech recognition tool. If it can understand your foreign pronunciation, then everyone else will too. A funny and wonderful simple ad for a Language school by Loducca, São Paulo. Silver, I reckon.

Old Spice - devastatingexplosions.xom

These days, it seems like you need to do something world-changing or life-affirming to win big at Cannes. So will something as silly and disposable as Old Spice’s devastatingexplosions.com by Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, have a shot? I hope so. The website shows a hand wavering above a big red button. Guess what happens when you click? This ridiculously simple and low budget website received 4 million detonations in a week.

Dumb Ways to Die for Metro by McCann's Sidney

This is my pick for multiple Lions this year. Young People don’t listen to public safety ads. But they do listen to ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ by McCann, Sydney. It’s a song that climbed the charts in over 20 countries. It’s an animation that was the most shared video in the world for a few weeks. And it’s far and away the most shared public services message in history. Did it stop young people falling in front of trains? Probably. Will it win Lions? Dead cert.

Bridge of Life for Samsung Life Insurance by Cheil Worldwide

The Bridge of Life for Samsung Life Insurance is one of those life-changing, spine-tingling initiatives that performs brilliantly at Cannes. There was a bridge in South Korea with one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Using motion-sensing cameras, Cheil Worldwide installed friendly and comforting messages that light up beside you as you walk. The suicide rate dropped by 85 per cent. Which makes all this talk about winning Lions seem a bit insignificant really doesn’t it?
Old Spice Cannes Lions Metro

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