Promo golds spare Cannes blushes

The rather less known promotional marketing category has come to the rescue of UK agencies down in Cannes, with Ogilvy London and BBH scooping a gold double across both the direct and promotions awards.
Despite being shortlisted for 11 awards in the Direct Lions, UK shops took just one silver, AKQA London for Nike +, and one bronze, Leo Burnett London for Pantone. McCann Melbourne won the grand prix for a Metro Trains campaign.
Even this was a slight improvement on 2012, when OgilvyOne was the sole winner with a silver for its Kern “gnome experiment” work. In 2011, there were no UK winners.
But Ogilvy London and BBH picked up the only golds of the day in the direct disciplines by walking off with two in the Promo and Activation category. First introduced in 2006, the Brits had 12 campaigns on the shortlist this year.
The Power of Cute campaign for Greenwich Council saw Ogilvy tackle the problem of localised vandalism and anti-social behaviour that continued to endure following the 2011 London riots.
Drawing on cognitive research which revealed that ‘cute’ imagery can have a positive impact on behaviour, the agency called on the community to submit images of their babies. These images were then spray-painted on shop shutters, which had previously been the targets of vandalism.
Emma De La Fosse, executive creative director at OgilvyOne, said: “It’s fantastic to be recognised on an international stage for a campaign that had such a big impact on a local community. The project proved that ‘cute’ can be powerful in combating crime.”
The Lynx ‘Axe Apollo’ campaign by BBH, saw the agency launch a global competition to send 23 people into space. The launch featured a PR announcement with Buzz Aldrin, an ad campaign, a digital hub and a global event – Space Camp – held in Florida to select the final cadets to go to space.
BBH also won a silver and bronze (both for Lynx), while Stink Digital picked up silver for Red Stripe.
Ogilvy Brazil won the grand prix for a campaign for soccer club Sport Club Recife. Last year, the Brits won one silver and two bronzes in the category.

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