At last a big win for South Africa at the third awards night of the Cannes Lions Festival. On Wednesday the Press, Design and Cyber winners were announced and in the Press category Johannesburg-based DDB South Africa led the winners’ parade by bagging the prestigious Press Grand Prix Campaign for their Energiser Lithium Batteries campaign. (In 2006, FCB Johannesburg also won a Press Grand Prix.)
The DDB South Africa team were pictured in the Thursday Daily News proudly waving the South African flag at the awards ceremony. Jury president Craig Davis, JWT’s chief creative officer worldwide, described the campaign as “a wonderful piece of work based on a universal human truth that all people who have children or remember being children will recognise’. The entry had charm and was a catalyst for conversations, he said.
While there were no gold winners for South Africa in the Press awards, King James Johannesburg picked up a Silver Lion with its campaign entry for Cape Union Mart (Store Card) and a Bronze Lion for their creative work for client Independent Newspapers (Aids Stats). The third agency win in the Press category was Saatchi & Saatchi Johannesburg with a Bronze Lion for their Procter & Gamble (Anti-Dandruff Shampoo) campaign. The Audi SA campaign (Audi S5) won Ogilvy South Africa a Bronze Lion win.
In the Design category, Johannesburg’s Grid Worldwide Branding & Design won a Bronze Lion for their work for client Lulu Coffee Shop (Lulu – Made for Today).
There were no South African agency winners in the Cyber category.
The launch of the Design Lions this year attracted 1126 entries, the Cyber Lions received 2757 submissions and entries totalled 7442 in the Press Lions.
The Press Jury awarded 93 winners out of a shortlist of 692, whilst the Design Jury awarded 28 winners out of its 137 shortlisted entries and Cyber saw a total of 327 entries shortlisted with 82 winners awarded.
The final two Film and Titanium and Integrate Campaign category winners will be announced at the gala awards evening on Saturday 21 June.
The winning work is now available to view online along with their credits at www.canneslions.com/winners.
