The last time Canada broke its record in terms of the number of Lions won in Cannes was in 2021. At the time, the country boasted 52 trophies by the end of the festival.
This year, on the second-to-last day, Canada is clocking in at 53.
But an even bigger takeaway is the number of times Canadian agencies have won Gold: an impressive 12. That’s double the aforementioned record-breaking year. As an elated Aaron Starkman, CCO at Rethink, put it last night after his shop snagged its own Gold piece: “It was like Agency of the Year in Cannes. It felt like everyone from Canada was on stage.”
There has also been more Silver passing through Canadian agency hands in 2023 than in 2021 (22 versus 17), which can only mean that the calibre of work Canada is putting out into the world is on an upward trajectory.
That was certainly obvious at this evening’s show, which awarded Lions in Brand Experience & Activation, Creative Commerce, Creative Effectiveness, Creative Strategy and Mobile. Another 10 trophies were awarded to Canadian shops, of which three were Gold, five were Silver and two were Bronze. The agencies on the winners list tonight included BBDO, FCB Toronto, Angry Butterfly, Rethink, Cossette and Dentsu Creative.
A Brand Experience & Activation Cannes Lions darling was the “Missing Matoaka” campaign by BBDO for Muskrat Magazine, evident in the three trophies it won (a Gold, Silver and Bronze) in the category. For the magazine, the shop created an entirely new alternative audio track for Pocahonatas that told the story of Matoaka, the historical character’s real name, in an effort to counter the harmful representation portrayed in the Disney film.
Speaking with juror Carlo Murison of Two Tone Global South Africa after a pre-show press conference on Thursday, he applauded BBDO’s blending of entertainment and mobile in the campaign. “I think it was quite a smart way of bringing two worlds together,” he said. “It was also a really clever cross-generational activation. It goes back 30 years when the film was first produced and so speaks to multiple generations. For me that was brilliant.”
In Creative Commerce, FCB Toronto also left an impression among the jury, picking up a Gold for its work on BMO’s “NXT LVL” and a Silver for OLG’s “Dream Bars.” Meanwhile, Angry Butterfly was awarded its second Lion for 2023 (following a Gold last night), with a Silver for Jane/Finch Community Centre’s “Bill it to Bezos.”
Nancy Crimi-Lamanna of FCB was given the president baton for that category, which is in its second year and required a boiled-down set of criteria. The jury looked for work that had “creative commerce central to the idea,” the CCO told strategy. “We saw a lot of brand activation or design peices that had great results. But great results is not creative commerce. We had to see creativity in a [some sort of] transactional form.”
She added, “We also felt it needed to be sustainable, meaning it could go beyond a moment, it’s not a gimmick. And it also needed to provide real value to the consumer in some way. We found a lot of ideas complicated the journey versus adding meaningful value to that moment.”
The final Gold for a Canadian campaign –”Draw Ketchup” by Rethink, which was in contention for a Grand Prix – was given in Creative Effectiveness, a category that jury president Devika Bulchandani, global CEO of Ogilvy, said can be tricky to navigate. “When judging there is an interesting dynamic where you can go into the rabbit hole of effectiveness and forget creativity. Did it create economic value for the business? But also, did it push the boundaries of creativity? That balance was interesting.”
Brand Experience & Activation (4)
Gold
“Missing Matoaka”
Muskrat Magazine
BBDO Toronto
Silver
“Missing Matoaka”
Muskrat Magazine
BBDO Toronto
Bronze
“Missing Matoaka”
Muskrat Magazine
BBDO Toronto
Bronze
“Runner 321”
Adidas
FCB Toronto
Creative Commerce (3)
Gold
“NXT LVL”
Bank of Montreal
FCB Toronto
Called NXT LVL, BMO’s platform educates and informs gamers about personal finances through live gaming. To put its money where it’s mouth is, the financial institution found a new job for one of its own, personal banker Sean Frame. He is the bank’s gaming relations specialist (GRS), a position that 50 employees were vying for and what many people would probably consider a dream job.
Silver
“Bill It to Bezos”
Jane/Finch Community Centre
Angry Butterfly Toronto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_L6GdePi34&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fstrategyonline.ca%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&feature=emb_imp_woyt
Silver
“Dream Bars”
OLG
FCB Toronto
People are often said to have developed a “taste” for the finer things, a concept that OLG and Lotto Max played off with “Dream Bars,” ice cream flavours that taste like things only the well-heeled can afford. Created by agency FCB and Toronto-based Creamery X, the four-flavour lineup includes Rare Oil Painting, Private Island, Designer Handbag and Grail Sneaker. The purchase of a Dream Bar also included a Lotto Max lottery ticket on the package. All of the proceeds went to charity.
Creative Effectiveness (1)
Gold
“Draw Ketchup”
Kraft Heinz
Rethink Toronto
Creative Strategy (1)
Silver
“House of Legends”
SickKids Foundation
Cossette, Toronto
Mobile (1)
Silver
“Inflation Cookbook”
Skip the Dishes
Dentsu Creative Toronto
With inflation at an all-time high and many families turning to food banks to feed their families, SkipTheDishes and Dentsu sought to create an “inflation-fighting grocery shopping tool” that would help Canadians “take inflation out of their cart.” An algorithm was created to monitor major grocery stores and changing food prices to determine a national average pricing trend. Users of the “Inflation Cookbook” app could see where prices were up or down for different food ingredients. The app then sent a weekly grocery list of affordable items for them to purchase. Users could also personalize their profile to pull ingredients that would cater to their family’s size and needs. They could then buy their weekly grocery items through the Skip Express lane, the company’s 25-minutes-or-less grocery delivery service.
