Outdoor Winners Reflect Rift Between Tradition and Innovation
TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris South Africa spends a trillion on Grand Prix
By: Ann-Christine Diaz, Published: Jun 23, 2009
A ton of money went into the Outdoor Grand Prix winner at this year's Cannes International Advertising Festival. But not in the way you'd imagine. The "Trillion Dollar Campaign" for The Zimbabwean newspaper out of TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris South Africa plastered real Zimbabwean trillion-dollar banknotes onto billboards, murals and flyers, serving as a real life symbol of the country's record inflation and economic collapse. The campaign ultimately aimed to raise awareness of the Zimbabwe's suffering under the Mugabe regime and increase the paper's customer base elsewhere in the hopes of getting it back into the hands of Zimbabwe people. The paper was exiled from the country for exposing the corruption of its government, which subsequently imposed a 55% luxury import tax on the publication, making it unaffordable for the average Zimbabwean.
The campaign beat out one other frontrunner for the honor, the Gold Lion-winning Oasis "Dig Out Your Soul" campaign from BBH/N.Y for NYC&Co and Warner Brothers. The campaign featured not a single billboard but made innovative use of the outdoor arena, enlisting New York street musicians to perform unreleased tracks from Oasis's new album in the subway stations of NYC to promote the release. The campaign earned the best of show Grandy award at the Andys earlier this year.
"The discussion for the Grand Prix reflects the larger discussions taking place in the industry," says outdoor juror Jose Molla, founder/ECD of La Comunidad. "The contenders were extremely different: one more traditional and the other more forward-thinking. We all agreed that both were good, but to me Oasis redefines what 'outdoor' is and could be, and that's a great thing. The lines are blurry and this could be the last year that a traditional format wins over something that is ground-breaking. Having said that, the actual Grand Prix is a very nice idea: to create awareness in South Africa about the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, they printed the whole campaign in real bills because they are cheaper than paper. They managed to do something very interesting with a traditional format." According to Molla, the jury was split between the two campaigns and the deciding vote came from jury president Akira Kagami, executive officer, global executive creative director of Dentsu.
Other earlier contenders for the top honor included Leo Burnett Toronto's "Share Our Billboard" campaign for James Ready Beer, which applied money to outdoor in another innovative way. The campaign asked consumers to chip in $1 for the billboards to keep the cost of the brew down, and in turn, they'd also get their own mugs displayed on James Ready billboards in their respective hoods. Another was Dentsu Razorfish Tokyo's unusual "Melody Road" campaign for Dunlop Falken Tyres, for which the agencies constructed a special grooved road that played a tune only when cars ran over it at 40km/hour, in order to promote the brand's safety awareness.
Among other Gold honorees were the Alka Seltzer "Dissolve Your Problems" effort out of CLM BBDO Boulogne Billancourt, the press version of which scored a Grand Clio earlier this year; BBDO, New York's audio mural installations for HBO's Big Love, DDB Germany Dusseldorf's "Storage Solutions" campaign for IKEA and DDB Paris' Boomerang campaign for Greenpeace.
This year's jury awarded 69 Lions total, including 11 Gold, 21 silver and 36 Bronze. France was the most awarded country in Outdoor, with nine Lions total, followed by Germany and the U.S., which each earned six lions, and then Brazil and India, which each earned five Lions.
The campaign beat out one other frontrunner for the honor, the Gold Lion-winning Oasis "Dig Out Your Soul" campaign from BBH/N.Y for NYC&Co and Warner Brothers. The campaign featured not a single billboard but made innovative use of the outdoor arena, enlisting New York street musicians to perform unreleased tracks from Oasis's new album in the subway stations of NYC to promote the release. The campaign earned the best of show Grandy award at the Andys earlier this year.
"The discussion for the Grand Prix reflects the larger discussions taking place in the industry," says outdoor juror Jose Molla, founder/ECD of La Comunidad. "The contenders were extremely different: one more traditional and the other more forward-thinking. We all agreed that both were good, but to me Oasis redefines what 'outdoor' is and could be, and that's a great thing. The lines are blurry and this could be the last year that a traditional format wins over something that is ground-breaking. Having said that, the actual Grand Prix is a very nice idea: to create awareness in South Africa about the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, they printed the whole campaign in real bills because they are cheaper than paper. They managed to do something very interesting with a traditional format." According to Molla, the jury was split between the two campaigns and the deciding vote came from jury president Akira Kagami, executive officer, global executive creative director of Dentsu.
Other earlier contenders for the top honor included Leo Burnett Toronto's "Share Our Billboard" campaign for James Ready Beer, which applied money to outdoor in another innovative way. The campaign asked consumers to chip in $1 for the billboards to keep the cost of the brew down, and in turn, they'd also get their own mugs displayed on James Ready billboards in their respective hoods. Another was Dentsu Razorfish Tokyo's unusual "Melody Road" campaign for Dunlop Falken Tyres, for which the agencies constructed a special grooved road that played a tune only when cars ran over it at 40km/hour, in order to promote the brand's safety awareness.
Among other Gold honorees were the Alka Seltzer "Dissolve Your Problems" effort out of CLM BBDO Boulogne Billancourt, the press version of which scored a Grand Clio earlier this year; BBDO, New York's audio mural installations for HBO's Big Love, DDB Germany Dusseldorf's "Storage Solutions" campaign for IKEA and DDB Paris' Boomerang campaign for Greenpeace.
This year's jury awarded 69 Lions total, including 11 Gold, 21 silver and 36 Bronze. France was the most awarded country in Outdoor, with nine Lions total, followed by Germany and the U.S., which each earned six lions, and then Brazil and India, which each earned five Lions.
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