Sheba’s “Hope reef” coral restoration by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO claimed the coveted Industry Craft Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022, while Virtue Worldwide snatched the Digital Craft Grand Prix for “Backup Ukraine”.
Committed to conserving coral reeds, Mars Petcare brand Sheba built a living, thriving coral reef off the coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia’s Spermonde Archipelago, on a site that was once barren, having been blasted out by fishermen using explosives to help them collect fish.
Viewable via Google Maps and Google Earth, the regrown reef was shaped to form the word "hope" – a response to the bleak prediction that if the world does nothing, 90% of its tropical reefs will be gone by 2043.
As Vladimir Putin’s forces destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure, from statues to buildings, Virtue Worldwide tried to preserve its cultural heritage.
Partnering Blue Shield Denmark and the Danish Unesco National Commission, “Backup Ukraine” asked volunteers to use an app to scan objects in Ukraine. The scans were then turned into a 3D model and uploaded into a cloud where they can be backed up.
Film Craft
Striking a chord with the German population, the Grand Prix Film Craft winner, Penny's film "The wish" by Iconoclast Berlin, contemplated what people really wanted for Christmas.
Since 2019, Apple's "The underdogs" have humorously captured the trials and tribulations of the working world, all the while advertising Apple's products. "Escape from the office", Apple's latest edition by Smuggler, picked up two golds and one silver.
Channel 4's third in its lauded "Superhuman" series for the Paralympic Games also performed well, scoring three golds. As did Burberry's "Open space" by director collective Megaforce, which defied gravity and picked up two golds.
Elsewhere, Sandy Hook Promise "Teenage dream" by BBDO New York scooped two silvers; Apple "Detectives" won a silver, and Whatsapp's "One" by Iconoclast Berlin, BBDO Berlin and BBDO San Francisco was awarded two silvers.
Also securing silvers were Google's "Black-owned Friday 2021", which also won gold in the Digital Craft category; Facebook's "Skate nation" by Cut+Run New York and Droga5 New York; Chipotle's "A future begins" by Observatory; Adam & Eve/DDB's "Wethe15" work; BBC Creative's "This is our BBC"; and WWF's "Can’t renegotiate the melting point of ice" by Nomint, which won two silvers.
Industry Craft
With Sheba winning the Grand Prix, two golds in the Industry Craft category went to Burger King Mexico's "Goodbye artificials" by We Believers. The Tarantino-esque film highlighted the natural ingredients that make up its famous Whopper.
Picking up silvers were Adam & Eve/DDB, Nord DDB and DDB Chicago for "Chillboards" for Coors Light; PepsiCo for "Better with Pepsi"; Wendy's for "National road day" by VMLY&R Kansas City; and the New York Philharmonic's "Nyphil" by Ogilvy New York.
Design
The Grand Prix for Design went to Penguin Books' "Portuguese (Re)Constitution" by FCB Lisbon. The book was a reformulation of the Portuguese Constitution of 1933, using the "blackout poetry" technique.
Partnering Ananas Anam, the Dole Sunshine Company won gold for "Piñatex". For every one tonne of pineapples harvested, three tonnes of leaves are wasted. Given the Philippines grows 2,500,000 tonnes of pineapples a year, that's a lot of leaf waste.
Hoping to achieve a goal of zero waste, through the collection and extraction of fibre from pineapple leaves from its farms, it found alternative ways to repurpose the leaves, taking a step toward its promise of zero fruit loss by 2025.
Silvers were awarded to Arizona Coyotes' "We hockey" by MullenLowe US; Deutsche Parkinson Vereinigung's "Staybl" by Havas Germany and Havas New York; Mastercard's "Touch Card" by McCann New York; and Sheba's "Hope reef".
Digital Craft
With "Backup Ukraine" winning the Grand Prix and a silver, gold went to Google's "Black-owned Friday 2021" which also won silver in the Film Craft category.
Anheuser Busch secured one gold for "McEnroe vs McEnroe" by FCB New York, and Girls Who Code's "Dojacode" by Mojo Supermarket got silver.
"Superhuman", "Better with Pepsi", Burberry and "Reverse selfie" were all highlighted as potential winners by Chaka Sobhani, Leo Burnett's global chief creative officer, in Campaign magazine.
The other winners:
FCB wins Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix for Michelob Ultra—read about it here.
Wieden & Kennedy Portland wins Mobile Grand Prix for Google 'Real tone'—read about it here