Seize the future
We’re living in a time of polycrisis. Climate change. Ongoing conflicts around the globe. Economic uncertainty. The issues of the moment make for a world that feels increasingly unstable. We need to tap into our innate creativity to help fix them.
In a LIONS Unlocked interview about the United Nations Lions Health Grand Prix for Good, Jury President, Sueann Tannis, Senior Communications Director at the United Nations Foundation, said that inequality is the underlying theme of the polycrisis. She made a plea for collaboration to help address this.
SUEANN TANNIS | UNITED NATIONS | LIONS UNLOCKED: LIONS HEALTH GRAND PRIX FOR GOOD
Conny Braams, Unilever’s Chief Digital and Commercial Officer, describes turbulence as the norm. So how can you build your brand in a turbulent world? For Unilever, the answer comes down to three principles shared by Braams: “Get real, do good and be unmissable.”
CONNY BRAAMS | UNILEVER | THE REAL BEAUTY OF LONG-LASTING BRANDS
Use creativity to address the value action gap
Marketers are wasting their energy on “average” work that’s “polluting” the world, said Sir John Hegarty, Co-Founder and Creative Director at The Garage Soho and The Business of Creativity. “I’m on a mission to get people to understand that creativity is the best way to save the planet,” he said. “Constantly producing average is screwing the environment. We’ve got to sell creativity in another way. People need to look at creativity as a green phenomenon.”
According to Kantar, there is a value action gap among consumers where:
Want to follow a sustainable lifestyle
Feel they can follow it through
“People find it hard to live the lifestyle that they want, and they are looking to businesses and brands to help them navigate that journey,” added Jonathan Hall, Managing Partner of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice. Brands can help by re-educating audiences. For example, detergent brand Cascade has helped to educate people that using their dishwasher daily is more sustainable than washing dishes by hand.
“Cascade busted that myth to increase usage by 25%, grow the market by 40% in the past five years and save up to 20 gallons of water per use versus washing in the sink,” said Marc Pritchard, Procter & Gamble’s Chief Brand Officer. Speaking at Procter & Gamble's Lumière session, 'The Next Reset', he added: “Creativity can change habits, grow markets and help people be more sustainable.”
Leave a legacy
Insecticide brand Raid created a sustainable solution to Rwanda’s malaria problem while helping to break poverty cycles. ‘Certified Care’, by Energy BBDO, Chicago, has trained 10,000 of Rwanda’s de facto caregivers as official community healthcare workers, enabling them to earn money and build a career.
CERTIFIED CARE | RAID
ENERGY BBDO, CHICAGO | 2023 GOLD BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION LIONS
While rising prices in many markets may tempt you towards discounting, resist making it all about price. Don't press pause on using ethical considerations in your creative strategy. Instead, think about how your brands can support people in leading more sustainable lives.
Make ideas that are bigger than your brand
To use creativity to address the polycrisis, brands need to be collaborative. Renault, this year’s Creative Strategy Lions Grand Prix winner, showed one way to work collaboratively: think bigger than your own brand. ‘Renault – Plug Inn’, by Publicis Conseil, Paris, connects drivers of electric vehicles with private charging station owners in France. “Renault has shown genuine category leadership in being open to other brands and advancing electric vehicles as a category,” said Creative Strategy Lions Jury President Amrita Randhawa, CEO, Publicis Groupe Southeast Asia.
RENAULT – PLUG-INN | RENAULT
PUBLICIS CONSEIL, PARIS | 2023 GRAND PRIX CREATIVE STRATEGY LIONS
Fix the internet
Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, urged the industry to make a commitment to sharing data that could help us “fix the internet”. He launched the Inspired Internet Pledge, a call for the ad industry and tech companies to collaborate on making the internet a healthier and kinder place for young people. He said: “The people and companies that fund the internet are the ones that can fundamentally change it.”
Team Heroine, a women’s sport marketing agency in New Zealand, has already started. ‘Correct the Internet’ saw it work with DDB New Zealand in Auckland on a tool that corrected search results that failed to include the achievements of women in sport. It has been supported by more than 50 global brands and the United Nations.
CORRECT THE INTERNET | TEAM HEROINE
DDB NEW ZEALAND, AUCKLAND | 2023 SILVER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS LIONS
Reframe your competitors as partners on the bigger issues you all address in your industry sector. Create opportunities to collaborate, as well as sharing knowledge and expertise.
Be scalable
Brands can gain relevance by creating local solutions that can be scaled.
“We were looking for real solutions that drive systemic change," said Sustainable Development Goals Lions Jury President Jean Lin, Global Chief Culture Officer, Dentsu Group Inc. “So scalability was important.” Taking the Grand Prix in the Sustainable Development Goals Lions, Mastercard's ‘Where to Settle’, by McCann Poland, Warsaw, showed “huge scalability potential”, said Lin. The financial services brand helped Ukrainian refugees to find homes and jobs by presenting the cost of living in cities of different sizes in Poland. One fifth of Ukrainian refugees settling in Poland used the digital tool, and the work raised awareness of the positive impacts of the migration both for Polish society and its economy.
WHERE TO SETTLE | MASTERCARD
MCCANN POLAND, WARSAW | 2023 GRAND PRIX SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS LIONS
Start local. Assess what your brand can do in one market. Learn, iterate, then scale up. And don't let perfectionist tendencies get in the way of your creativity.
Tech-fuelled stories
Tech can enable brands to elevate ideas but needs to work in a relevant and supportive role. “Good technology alone is not enough,” said Resh Sidhu, Digital Craft Jury President and Global Director of Arcadia Creative Studio, Snap Inc. “There has to be a connection with the brand, and that technology has to add value to the audience.” Take Nike’s Digital Craft Lions Grand Prix-winning ‘Never Done Evolving Feat. Serena’. It was built by a machine learning algorithm trained on the tennis player’s gameplay over her career. “This is a phenomenal example of understanding how to tell the story,” said Sidhu. “It doesn’t bombard you with technology.” Nike is also using the data to inform future products and train up-and-coming athletes. “This piece is already future-forward,” said Lily Darby, Senior Director, Creative Studio and Production at WeTransfer, Netherlands, and a Digital Craft Lions Juror. “It’s shaping future athletes and the tennis ecosystem.”
NEVER DONE EVOLVING FEAT. SERENA | NIKE
AKQA, SAO PAULO | 2023 GRAND PRIX DIGITAL CRAFT LIONS
NEVER DONE EVOLVING FEAT. SERENA | NIKE
AKQA, SAO PAULO | 2023 GRAND PRIX DIGITAL CRAFT LIONS
Think beyond the campaign to work out how tech can help your work leave a legacy for the community and the audience you are serving.
YOUR FINAL THOUGHT:
The polycrisis can feel overwhelming. But these huge problems offer brands an opportunity to step in and make a positive impact. Many of this year’s winners show how to be unmissable, as Unilever's Conny Braams advises. And two pieces of work that assist people living with cancer are a case in point. This year's Lions Health Grand Prix for Good aims to give people living with cancer dignity and financial security. The 'Working With Cancer' pledge was created by La Foundation Publicis for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. And, when asked what his favourite piece of work was from this year’s Lion winners, PJ Pereira, Founder and Creative Chairman, Pereira & O'Dell, cited a Gold Pharma Lions winner. ‘The Most Beautiful Sound’, by Grey, New York, for the American Society of Oncology, captured the sound of cancer cells dying and shared the audio with patients. "This is one of the most wonderful ideas I have ever seen,” he said. “If you think of the person listening, it changes that person's life. It's beautiful."