British Airways' 500 Unique Billboards Win Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes

CANNES, France—The British Airways campaign "A British Original" has been awarded the Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. The work was the first created for the brand by London-based Uncommon Creative Studio and featured 500 unique print, digital and outdoor executions. Each nodded to the box-ticking question most travelers happen across when booking a vacation or work trip: "What is the purpose of your visit?" Southwest Airlines and Grammarly Turn B-to-C Strengths Into B-to-B Success However, beneath the standard “business” and “leisure” options, the ad copy offered hundreds of alternatives ranging from “because this weather sucks” to “to eat a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato” and “I still love her.” With no two ads the same, the scale of the campaign was designed to capture people’s wide-ranging travel motivations and to help British Airways stand out from other airlines post-pandemic. It was also built to adapt based on location, time of day, weather and the news cycle. Scale was key in Uncommon Creative Studio's first work for the airline Jury president Javier Campopiano, Grey’s worldwide CCO and global CCO at WPP’s Coca-Cola agency OpenX, said “beneath the surface of what first appears to be a classical campaign, [the creatives] found different ways to express emotion through this idea.” “It shows an iconic brand can become more iconic,” he added. Outdoor Gold Winners Lacoste "Socks and Sandals," "Pink Polo" and "Bucket Hat" by BETC, Paris Heinz Ketchup "Diner, "QSR," "Kitchen" by Rethink, Toronto Honest Eggs Co. "Fitchix" by VMLY&R, Melbourne ITV and Calm "The Last Photo" by Adam&EveDDB, LondonStella Artois "The Artois Probability" by Gut, Buenos Aires Makro "Life Extending Stickers" by Grey Colombia, BogotaFondation Anne De Gaulle "Anne De Gualle" by Havas Paris Castle Lager "Bread of the Nation" by Ogilvy, South Africa Print and Publishing Trophy AnNahar newspaper took home the Print & Publishing Grand Prix for its "Newspapers Inside the Newspaper Edition" from BBDO Dubai. In December, a special issue of the Arabic language newspaper brought back to life six Lebanese newspapers that have ceased to exist in the last 20 years. The stunt was intended to draw attention to the crisis affecting Lebanese publishers and was timed to launch with the anniversary of the death of former editor in chief Gebran Tueni, who was killed by a car bomb in East Beirut in 2005. Readers opened AnNahar's daily edition to find pages from shuttered publications. "It innovated on the medium while elevating everything we love about print," explained Ali Rez, jury president and chief strategy officer and film director at Publicis Groupe. "It raises the bar on the category and proves innovation is about a mindset, not the latest tech flex. It shows bravery of thinking and a celebration of consistency," he added. Print and Publishing Gold Winners Solar Impulse "Pret A Voter" by Publicis Conseil, Paris Stella Artois "The Artois Probability" by Gut, Buenos Aires NotMilk "We Didn't Write This Campaign" by MRM Worldwide, Santiago Ikea "The Life Collection" by David, Madrid and Ingo, Hamburg Radio and Audio Lions Scooping the Grand Prix trophy in the Radio and Audio category was New Zealand telco Skinny for its low-budget "Phone In" campaign from Colenso BBDO. The work poked fun at the brand's lack of advertising funds. The initiative crowdsourced radio ads from Kiwis via their mobile phones via an 0800 number that let them record a message to be dispatched as a radio ad. The end result was an out-of-home campaign, which doubled as a radio campaign, that tripled as a cost-effective marketing platform. ‘Cannesxiety’ Is Real and Plenty of Nominees Have It The work poked fun at the brand's lack of advertising funds, allowing it make more than 2,000 ads for free. 22 hours of content were captured resulting in a 34% increase in sign-ups, according to the telco. Tseliso Rangaka, CCO at FCB Joburh and Hellocomputer, oversaw the pick as jury president. He said: "We wanted to reward work that drives business results and we need to stand behind work that is innovative too. For me, those two things need to go hand-in-hand and the Skinny work did that." Radio and Audio Gold Winners Mercado Libre "Files of Freedom" by Gut, Sao PauloProgressive Insurance "Dr Rick Will See You Now" by Arnold Worldwide, BostonMuskrat Magazine "Missing Mataoaka" by BBDO, Toronto

Cannes Lions

British Airways' 500 Unique Billboards Win Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes

AnNahar takes home Print & Publishing Grand Prix; New Zealand telco Skinny secures top Audio and Radio prize

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Rebecca Stewart

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