There were no Gold Lions for Canada on Tuesday, but work by FCB Toronto, Critical Mass, Leo Burnett and Sid Lee received a total of eight Silver and Bronze prizes.
FCB’s “Down Syndrome Answers” for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society continued its strong showing in Cannes, picking up five more awards: a Silver and two Bronze in Cyber, a silver in Direct, and another Bronze in Creative Data. The campaign has now won nine awards, with a Gold and two Silvers in Health and Wellness and a Bronze in PR.
Critical Mass picked up its first award at this year’s festival, a Bronze in Mobile for “Battle Test: A Nissan Rogue 360 VR Experience,” which showed the automaker’s Rogue model in a Star Wars-themed 360 VR experience.
Sid Lee also made its first trip to the stage, collecting a Bronze for its “Swatches” work for Reno-Depot in Cyber. The case has been a jury favourite at local shows, such as the Marketing Awards, for using visual sensor technology that responded to colours. The team created a hue-identifying mobile app for Reno-Depot, which people could use to scan their surroundings for exact colour matches, with the app then pairing it with a similar hue provided by Sico Paints.
Leo Burnett, meanwhile, picked up its second Lion for Ikea’s “Cook This Page.” That work won a Bronze in Direct after picking up a Gold in Outdoor and another Bronze in Promo & Activation.
“Down Syndrome Answers” won in Creative Data for its “imaginative use of search,” jury president Eric Salama, CEO of Kantar, told strategy.
The jurors had a discussion about whether the campaign, which targets expecting parents whose child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome, had a pro-life message.
“The way the entry was written up was this was something people would go to during the 10 days when they’re considering whether or not to have an abortion,” he said. “If you see those kinds of things, it is a pro-life message in a way.”
It received the Bronze “on the basis that it used data incredibly creatively to convey messages to people” without the jury taking a view on whether it was a pro-life campaign, Salama said, adding that he didn’t know “whether we might have awarded it a Silver or higher without that. It’s hard to know how people vote individually as a result of that.”
FCB Toronto CCO Nancy Crimi-Lamanna told strategy the campaign wasn’t about pushing an agenda. The organization wanted to offer “the other side of the story, the story the doctors weren’t telling, the less clinical side, the more human side of Down syndrome,” she said.
The question of the campaign’s politics didn’t arise in the Cyber jury, Taxi CCO and jury member Jordan Doucette told strategy.
Salama said the jury was looking for work that not only raised awareness but changed behaviour.
“We didn’t have any evidence for how women who went onto the site then behaved,” he said of the “Down Syndrome Answers” work. “As an awareness, it was clearly very good, but we didn’t have any evidence whether it changed anyone’s behaviour one way or another.”
There was no Canadian work shortlisted in the Innovation category, which was also handed out Tuesday.
Silver
Canadian Down Syndrome Society, “Down Syndrome Answers,” FCB Toronto; Reprise Media Toronto
Direct: Data-Driven Targeting
Cyber: Native Advertising
[iframe_youtube video=”jXlPST0Z7a0″]
Bronze
Reno-Depot (Sico Paint), “Street Swatches” / “Swatches,” Sid Lee Montreal; Astral Media Montréal; Sid Lee Media Montréal
Cyber: Digital Billboard
IKEA Canada, “Cook This Page,” Leo Burnett Toronto; Grayson Matthews Toronto; Papertec; Printed by Somerset; Trade Graphics by Design
Direct: Art Direction/Design
Nissan North America, “Battle Test: A Nissan Rogue 360 VR Experience,” Critical Mass Calgary; Disney/Pixar; Industrial Light & Magic (San Francisco); Radical Media (New York); Skywalker Sound; OMD USA Los Angeles
Mobile: 360 Videos
[iframe_youtube video=”-1Koxk68NS0″]
Canadian Down Syndrome Society, “Down Syndrome Answers,” FCB Toronto; Reprise Media Toronto
Cyber: Social Purpose
Cyber: Use of Social Data & Insight
Creative Data: Data-Driven Targeting
