Revealed: Where it all went wrong at this year's Cannes

Anyone still scratching their head as to where it all went tits-up at this summer’s Cannes Lions – creatively rather than at the beach parties – need look no further than a new report from marketing effectiveness specialist WARC, which identifies the four themes that define this year’s award-winning work.

The “Creative Effectiveness Lions 2023 – Insights from the winners” study is based on judges’ commentary, interviews with winners and industry experts. It reveals just what an award-winning creative effectiveness entry looks like and provides practical tips and best practices for future entry papers.

In addition, a data lens has been applied to the winners to reveal the most common media and creative strategies used this year.

The four key themes highlighted in the report are:

Finding joy and levity
After a few years of decline in humour in advertising, 2022 saw an uptick and this year’s creative effectiveness winners reflected a more light-hearted approach, even to serious issues. Humour is memorable, distinctive and persuasive, and people gravitate towards positive emotions.

‘Invaluable Food’ by Leo Burnett for food festival Madrid Fusion, ‘Hack Market’ by Marcel Paris for online marketplace Back Market, and ‘Apologize the Rainbow’ for confectionary brand Skittles by DDB Chicago, all used this strategy to their advantage in very different campaigns.

Marcel Paris chief creative officer Gaetan du Peloux commented: “Just because a subject is serious or heavy or critical doesn’t mean the communication about it has to be the same. Serious can easily become boring, heavy can easily become polarizing, and critical can easily become paralysing.”

Distinctive assets become the campaign
This year’s creative effectiveness category winners saw brand equity in distinctive assets used at the core of the campaign: the assets became the idea.

This was the case for ‘Foamy Haircut’ by Africa São Paulo for Brazilian beer brand Brahma and ‘Draw Ketchup’ for sauce brand Heinz Ketchup by Rethink Canada. They both applied creativity to their product iconicity and tapped into the emotional connection that consumers have with brands they love.

On the award-winning Heinz campaign, Rethink group strategy director Julian Morgan said, “Almost every brief starts with the importance of the decades of equity the brand [Heinz] has built. Our thinking is that if these pieces of equity linger in people’s heads, then half the battle is done.”

Redefining purpose
The report maintains there is a shift in purpose from brands driving change not as an obligation but as an opportunity to create shared value; benefiting both the business and the challenge or issue they are aligned with.

The Grand Prix winner, ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad’, for chocolate brand Cadbury by Ogilvy Mumbai, created shared value by supporting the supply chain for its Celebrations product in India by promoting small businesses.

Driving fame through earned media
Be it to create behavioural change, drive ticket sales or raise money, winners harnessed the power of earned media to generate mass attention and participate in culture. Reflecting this change, the use of word-of-mouth as both a media channel and an objective, is up this year.

The crowdfunding campaign ‘Our Worst Vintage’ by Seven.One Ad Factory for wine brand Flutwein, relied on the power of donated and earned media to reach, and raise, millions.

WARC creative head of content Amy Rodgers said: “The findings in this study are critical to understanding how marketers are meeting business goals and driving sustainable impact over time. The winners of this category are unquestionably creative, and now awarded for their effectiveness too. They are simple but disruptive ideas that really work to drive business growth.

“Each of the winners exhibited the principles of creative effectiveness: there was strong objective setting; strategy was contextual, relevant and insightful; distinctive assets were out in force; budgets were balanced across brand and performance; and the use of emotion shone through. The judges were unanimous in their feeling that this was work they wished they had been a part of.”