CANNES, FRANCE — The first 2024 Lions winners were finally announced at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity’s first awards night, where winning work from the Pharma Lions, Health & Wellness Lions, Print & Publishing Lions, Outdoor Lions, and Audio & Radio Lions were celebrated. Seven Grands Prix were handed out across these categories. The Philippines secured one bronze, while the rest of Asia tallied one silver and four more bronzes.
AUDIO & RADIO LIONS
Led by Jury President Simon Vicars of Colenso BBDO, the agency behind last year’s Audio & Radio Lions Grand Prix winner, this year’s jury awarded the top prize of their category to UK agency GOLIN London for its work “The Misheard Version” for Specsavers.
Billed as the world’s first mass hearing test, GOLIN London’s campaign helped Specsavers use the power of audio to rework one of the most famous misheard songs, “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, to “Rick-Roll” the UK’s ears and generate a national conversation about hearing loss.
“THE MISHEARD VERSION”
Audio & Radio Lions Grand Prix
Agency: GOLIN London
Client: Specsavers
Representing Asia, the Philippines, and Japan also secured metals in the Audio & Radio Lions led by BBDO Guerrero and TBWA\Hakuhodo.
“PLAY THE DEW: DEW BATTLE”
Bronze Lion
Agency: BBDO Guerrero
Client: Mountain Dew
“NO SMILES”
Bronze Lion
Agency: TBWA\Hakuhodo, Tokyo
Client: McDonald’s
OUTDOOR LIONS
Two Grands Prix were awarded in the Outdoor Lions this year, with the first going to LOLA MullenLowe Madrid’s campaign for Magnum entitled “Stairs,” “Corner,” and “Doorstep.”
“FIND YOUR SUMMER: STAIRS, CORNER, DOORSTEP”
Outdoor Lions Grand Prix
Agency: LOLA MullenLowe, Madrid
Client: Magnum
The second Outdoor Lions Grand Prix went to ColensoBBDO‘s groundbreaking work to encourage shelter dog adoption, “Adoptable by Pedigree.” Through a stable diffusion machine learning model, the agency turned every digital PEDIGREE ad into an ad for a shelter dog.
“ADOPTABLE. BY PEDIGREE”
Outdoor Lions Grand Prix
Agency: Colenso BBDO, Auckland
Client: Pedigree
The Outdoor Lions also emerged as Asia’s best category for the first awards night, with four Asian countries each taking home one metal.
“TAJ MAHAL MEGH SANTOOR”
Silver Lion
Agency: Ogilvy Mumbai
Client: Unilever / Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea
“PENGUIN SOAP OPERA”
Bronze Lion
Agency: Dentsu Tokyo
Client: Kyoto Aquarium / Sumida Aquarium
“HEINEKEN HEIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT”
Bronze Lion
Agency: Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur
Client: Heineken Malaysia Berhad
“LOST IN TIME”
Bronze Lion
Agency: Dentsu Creative Shanghai
Client: Jian Ai Elderly Charity Center, Alzheimer’s Disease
PRINT & PUBLISHING LIONS
Ogilvy New York nabbed the top prize in the classic Print & Publishing Lions for its very-strict-brand-guidelines-breaking “Recycle Me” work for global brand Coca-Cola. To promote recycling of its own products, the agency leveraged the brand’s iconic logo, which is recognized by 94% of the world’s population, and crushed it to inspire people to recycle every single can.
“RECYCLE ME”
Print & Publishing Lions Grand Prix
Agency: Ogilvy New York
Client: Coca-Cola
PHARMA LIONS
Area 23 won a second Pharma Lions Grand Prix within four years thanks to its work “Magnetic Stories” for Siemens Healthineers, which transformed the audio of scary Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines, which can be louder than a military jet, into beautiful children’s audiobooks. Its last Pharma Lions Grand Prix win was in 2021 for its work “Sick Beats,” the world’s first music-powered airway clearance vest for cystic fibrosis.
“MAGNETIC STORIES”
Pharma Lions Grand Prix
Agency: Area 23, An IPG Health Network Company, New York
Client: Siemens Healthineers
HEALTH & WELLNESS LIONS
A humorous farewell campaign for barf bags by FCB Chicago and anti-nausea brand Dramamine bagged (pun intended) this year’s Health & Wellness Grand Prix. The campaign created an award-winning documentary feature short called The Last Barf Bag: A Tribute to a Cultural Icon and even mounted the first-ever barf bag museum in New York City, reinforcing the idea that Dramamine is so effective that it ended the need for barf bags on planes.
“THE LAST BARF BAG”
Health & Wellness Lions Grand Prix
Agency: FCB Chicago
Client: Dramamine
LIONS HEALTH GRAND PRIX FOR GOOD
This year’s Grand Prix for Good in Lions Health went to IMPACT BBDO’s activist campaign which aimed to motivate lawmakers to pass a bill protecting children from child marriage. Employing a direct mail campaign to target leaders who can impact these laws, UN Women invited dozens of young girls, including an actual child bride herself, to design wedding cards distributed to Members of the UN National Assembly. The result: The Federal Islamic court, the highest religious court in the country, announced a landmark edict that 18 as the minimum age for marriage is Islamic.
“CHILDREN WEDDING CARDS”
Lions Health Grand Prix For Good
Agency: IMPACT BBDO, Dubai
Client: UN Women
