2018 Winners Across Creative Data, Direct, Social & Influencer Lions Plus More

The fifith and final day of the Cannes Lions festival is upon us and what a week it's been. Last night's award show honoured the best across the Creative Data, Product Design, Innovation, Social & Influencer, PR, Direct and Media categories.

And of course, we held our annual shots beach party last night too - photos to come soon - so we understand that your heads may be feeling a little hazy this morning and that you need a gentle reminder of the ceremony's big winners. We've listed out the Grand Prix winners for each category below, hope it helps!

Creative Data

“The jury had really good debates around ‘what is data?’ and what our definition of [the category] was," said Creative Data jury president, Marc Maleh, who also doubles up as Havas' global director, as he spoke about the jury's judging process. "We spent a lot of time on that first. We talked a lot about advertising versus editorial and also about ethics and, just because you can do something, does it mean you should?. Creativity also played a large part in the conversation too, obviously."

The Grand Prix was awarded to Rothco's campaign, JFK UnSilenced for The Times/News UU & Ireland, which "is a fantastic piece of work; and all of those masses of audio signals are points of data,” said Maleh, explaining why it bagged the top accolade. For all other winners in this category, click here.

Product Design 

The Product Design category sent the jury into a spin about what makes good product design. Creating a memorable piece that was also considered experimental were some of the top factors when looking at the work. 

Led by architect Asif Khan of Asif Khan London, who served as the jury president, there were 13 awards given out in this category; with six bronze, five silver and one gold Lion dished out. The Grand Prix award went to Ogivly Colombia/Ogilvy Guatemala/Kingo Energy Guetemala/Powell Communications for its campaign Creating the Largest Clean Energy User Base in History for Kingo (below).  

“We discussed this relatively new Lion’s early development, what it means and what it could mean in the future," said Khan of this selection. "We also discussed what constitutes good product design. There was lots of debate about form and function, the fulfilment of a brief and the need to create something that somehow alters the world. The Grand Prix won because it’s scaleable, it connected communities and enhanced social mobility. It was also something we thought we would remember in 10, 20, 50 years’ time. The thing that binds all the winners, and is especially true of the Grand Prix, is that they have the true spirit of experimentation.”

Click here to view the full list of Product Design Lions winners.

Innovation

MullenLowe SSP3, Bogota scooped up the prized Grand Prix award for it's campaign My Line for the Ministry of Communication and Technology of Colombia across Innovation Lion.

However, jury president Tor Myhren, aka Apple's VP, marketing communications, revealed that gold Lion-winning campaign, Making The World Accessible Dot by Dot by Serviceplan for DOT also captured the jury's attention and came in as a close second, thanks to the fact that it returned to the festival circuit in a renewed format. 

“Before talking about the GP I want to mention our gold winner, DOT; they won here a couple of years ago and are a great example of the fact that you have to keep innovating and not rest on your laurels," says Myhren of the jury's decision. "In terms of the Grand Prix, it won because of its brutal simplicity. It was a piece of work where we all asked, how has this never been done before. We checked; it hasn’t… it’s magical.”

Find out who the other Innovation Lions winners were here.

Social & Influencer

As it was the first year that the Social & Influencer Lions category was introduced to Cannes, the jury had to work out what exactly winning an award in this category would entail. 

Jury president and VP/CCO of Facebook, Mark D'Arcy revealed that the full case study for Wieden+Kennedy London's already award-winning Nike campaign, Nothing Beats a Londoner scooped up the Grand Prix prize. Other Social & Influencer Lions winners can be found here.

“It’s a new category so we had to define it as we went along [but] we celebrated brands taking action in the world," says D'Arcy. "‘Social’ means ‘people’ and it’s what people do with the work we put out there is what matters. This Grand Prix is about people and connection, not just about technology and Nothing Beat a Londoner is incredible and is how culture gets shaped.” 

PR

AMV BBDO took home the highest accolade in the PR Lion category thanks to its work for Plastic Oceans and Lad Bible with its Trash Isles campaign. 

Jury president and Ogilvy PR global CEO, Stuart Smith, oversaw conversations in the jury room on this one and revealed that brand relevancy and bearing an important message for society were some of the deciding factors in awarding the Grand Prize prize.

“We looked at what was unique and we needed to celebrate ideas that earned attention for themselves," said Smith. "We looked at whether it changed society and, importantly, whether it aligned with the brand. At first we were a bit worried that we might not have a Grand Prix, but then, over the course of judging, it slowly emerged and the Grand Prix is something that gave voice to an important issue, gave a voice to nature, something that doesn’t itself have a voice. Though it was an integrated campaign, it had PR woven all the way through it.”

More PR Lions winners can be located here.

Direct

The Grand Prix in in the Direct category was a clear winner, according to FCB's global CCO, Susan Credle.

 The jury awarded Host/Havas Sydney the top accolade in this category for its work on the Palau Legacy Project, with its Palau Pledge campaign (below). 

Despite 76 awards given out in this category; 38 bronze, 27 silver and 10 gold Lions; the Grand Prix winner clearly stood out.

“We looked at everything in an open, modern way and it was fun to see how expansive and creative direct marketing has become," said Credle. "For the Grand Prix, we put all the golds up and looked at them but it’s amazing how quickly you focus in on the one piece. The winning work was human, it made us feel something and it rose above all the rest.”

View the full list of Direct Lions winners here. 

Media

BBH London's series of spots for Tesco as part of its Food Love Stories campaign took home the Grand Prix award in the Media Lions category. 

Jury president and Wavemaker global CEO Tim Castree revealed that the decision to award this campaign was obvious, given the creative team's unique approach to engage Tesco customers while also creating fun, relatable and very watchable spots. 

“We saw great work in the corporate social responsibility area and saw a great move towards corporate activism, with brands getting into the heart of debates," said Castree. "We also saw a lot of work featuring GIFs, though only a couple stood out, and some big, technological innovation, too. But we all arrived unanimously at the choice for the Grand Prix and [with this campaign] we think we’re acknowledging the media trade craft and the way it is applied to create business transformation.”

The full list of Media Lions winners is available here.