Droga’s MailChimp Campaign Wins One of 3 Cyber Grand Prix Awarded at Cannes

CANNES, France—Droga5 has another Grand Prix trophy from Cannes to add to its collection, as it picked up the prize in Cyber for the “Did You Mean MailChimp?” campaign, which reimagined the brand name in playful and creative ways.

The campaign, which launched in January, invented the names MaleCrimp, MailShrimp, KaleLimp, FailChips, VeilHymn, SnailPrimp, JailBlimp, WhaleSynth and NailChamp, and included all sorts of wacky ads and activations paid off with the line “Did You Mean MailChimp?” The work was originally inspired by the girl who mispronounced MailChimp as “MailKimp” in the introduction to the podcast Serial in 2014.

The MailChimp campaign was one of three Grand Prix awarded this year. And it was the one that the jury recognized for being the year’s best example a full-blown campaign with digital at the center.

“We really looked at … what does a major mass campaign look like these days? How do you reach people? How is that constructed?” said jury president Colleen DeCourcy, chief creative officer at Wieden + Kennedy. “We looked for something that you could truly say had Cyber at its core, and that we felt did the job of any mass campaign you could possibly think of. It did it creatively, with charm and wit, and the style of the medium in which it rode.”

The other two pieces that picked up Grand Prix in Cyber were the road-safety campaign “Meet Graham” by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne (which earlier this week won a Grand Prix in the Lions Festival); and “Åland Index” effort by RBK Communication in Sweden, which helped the Åland bank calculate the carbon footprint of every credit-card purchase, and then assist consumers in changing their behavior.

DeCourcy praised both efforts for different reasons, saying the “Meet Graham” shows the evolution of Cyber into tactile and experiential work, and “Åland Index” for creating a big idea that will be increasingly relevant to customers over time.

See both of those case studies below.

Tim Nudd

@nudd

Tim Nudd is a former creative editor of Adweek.