Insights and Trends
This year’s Lion winners and stage talks revealed big shifts in creative strategy, with relatability, heart and humour taking centre stage.
MICHAEL CERAVE | CERAVE OGILVY PR, NEW YORK | 2024 GRAND PRIX, SOCIAL & INFLUENCER LIONS
“Creative bravery means allowing yourself to be vulnerable and experiment.”
So said Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing at TikTok. And winners at this year’s Festival showed how, with new-look celebrity partnerships, absurdist comedy and relaxed co-creation.
Comedy’s comeback
Comedy is making a comeback – and it’s leading to stand-out work that’s getting noticed. 3.6% of all entries in the new Use of Humour category across the Lions went on to win, higher than the global average of 3.1%. “Humour is effective and global,” said Noel Bunting, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis London, who shared some surprising figures:
If a brand uses humour:
of people are more likely to buy from the brand again.
of people are more likely to choose the brand over competition.
of people will spend more with the brand.
Yet 95% of business leaders still fear using humour in their comms. Source: ‘The Happiness Report’ from Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX) and Gretchen Rubin
Speakers stressed the value of a light touch: “If it’s funny, it doesn’t need to fight for your attention. You’ll seek it out,” said Kenan Thompson, Actor, Producer, Comedian and Cast Member, Saturday Night Live.
KENAN THOMPSON | ACTOR, PRODUCER AND COMEDIAN AND SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE CAST MEMBER | READY TO LAUGH AGAIN: THE RETURN OF COMEDY
DOORDASH-ALL-THE-ADS | DOORDASH
WIEDEN+KENNEDY PORTLAND | 2024 GRAND PRIX, TITANIUM LIONS
The 798 entries into the new Use of Humour category across the Lions showed that brands understand that, when executed appropriately, humour pays off.
Titanium Lions Grand Prix ‘DoorDash All-The-Ads’ challenged Super Bowl viewers to input a comically long promo code to enter a sweepstakes to win a product from all 76 ads in the game. “It hijacked a cultural moment, making people look at the company in a fresh way,” said Jury President Debbi Vandeven, VML’s Global Chief Creative Officer.
THE FIRST EDIBLE MASCOT | POP-TARTS
WEBER SHANDWICK, CHICAGO | 2024
GRAND PRIX, BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION LIONS
Weird works
“Marketers can be too literal about making sense – there is a tremendous value in confusion. If you can confuse people, you can stop them,” said Mike Cessario, Founder and CEO, Liquid Death. Entertainment was the solution to Liquid Death’s marketing brief to ‘win the internet every day’. Creator Noah Miller advised marketers to keep in touch with Gen Z’s humour. “The rabbit hole will get deeper and deeper. Trends build upon themselves, especially in absurdism.” A few Grand Prix winners took this approach. Anti-nausea brand Dramamine, for instance, paid tribute to the sick bag. ‘The Last Barf Bag’ won the Health & Wellness Lions Grand Prix. “It talks about the brand without mentioning it, by using light-heartedness,” said Jury President Wendy Chan, Edelman’s Health Creative Lead, Asia Pacific. And Brand Experience & Activation Lions Grand Prix winner ‘The First Edible Mascot’ stood out on the crowded college football field, helping Pop-Tarts achieve its highest category share of 2023. Jury President Anselmo Ramos, Founder and Creative Chairman at GUT, described it as “bizarre, weird, genius and uncomfortable… It’s meme-ready.”
THE LAST BARF BAG | DRAMAMINE
FCB CHICAGO | 2024 GRAND PRIX, HEALTH & WELLNESS LIONS
GUILTY PETS | IKEA
INGO, HAMBURG
BRONZE, OUTDOOR LIONS | 2024
Glorifying messiness
“Often in perfecting something, you can take away its soul,” said Shona Heath, Production Designer and Set Designer of the Oscar-winning film Poor Things. And Lion-winning work showed brands embracing imperfection. ‘Life is Not an IKEA Catalogue’ subjected IKEA furniture to vomit, dog pee and reckless partygoers. Another piece from IKEA, ‘Guilty Pets’, depicted pets wreaking havoc on household items. And ‘Heinz Ketchup Insurance’ created a hotline to cover sauce mishaps, increasing monthly engagement by 856%.
LIFE IS NOT AN IKEA CATALOGUE | IKEA
TRY, OSLO | 2024 BRONZE, PRINT & PUBLISHING LIONS
Other Lion winners gave people permission to express their own unpolished relationships with a big brand.
Coca-Cola collaborated with on-trade and retail partners that contravened its brand guidelines with unofficial versions of its logo.
THANKS FOR COKE-CREATING | COCA-COLA 2024
VML, NEW YORK GOLD, PRINT & PUBLISHING LIONS
Heineken’s 150th-anniversary campaign replaced bottle labels with misspellings and mispronunciations of its name.
150 YEARS OF WHATEVERKEN | HEINEKEN 2024
LEPUB, MILAN GOLD, DIRECT LIONS
Thai housing developer Sammakorn kept being mistaken for Sanpakorn, the state’s revenue department. Its self-mocking film set the record straight.
SAMMAKORN NOT SANPAKORN | SAMMAKORN 2024
CHOOJAI AND FRIENDS, BANGKOK GOLD, FILM LIONS
HEINZ KETCHUP & SEEMINGLY RANCH | HEINZ KETCHUP
RETHINK, TORONTO
GOLD, SOCIAL & INFLUENCER LIONS | 2024
Be culturally fluid
“Tap into something that’s really hot in culture… It needs to represent values of the brand, a strategy and link to a product benefit,” advised Aaron Starkman, Rethink’s Global Chief Creative Officer. This cultural dexterity shone through in the 2024 winners. ‘Heinz Ketchup & Seemingly Ranch’ revived Kranch – Heinz’s struggling sauce mashup – by capitalising on a viral picture of Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, Dutch telco KPN helped pass the Dutch Sexual Crimes Act by partnering with singer MEAU to create a song informed by real stories from her fanbase. ‘A Piece of Me’ won the Creative Strategy Lions Grand Prix. “This reframed society’s understanding of a misunderstood issue,” said Jury President Vita M Harris, Global Chief Strategy Officer, FCB.
A PIECE OF ME | KPN
DENTSU CREATIVE, AMSTERDAM | 2024 GRAND PRIX, CREATIVE STRATEGY LIONS
AMERICA RUNS ON DUNKIN' [AND BEN] | DUNKIN' DONUTS
ARTISTS EQUITY, LOS ANGELES
BRONZE, CREATIVE STRATEGY LIONS | 2024
Subverting celebrity
“I hope the future of advertising is less about famous faces…and that creativity can be the star,” said Print & Publishing Lions Juror Caroline Riis, Senior Creative at TRY. And winning work put creativity at the centre of celebrity partnerships. CeraVe’s Social & Influencer Lions Grand Prix winner ‘Michael CeraVe’ embraced a Reddit thread that Michael Cera developed the skincare range. Dunkin’ Donuts recruited actor and long-term fan Ben Affleck as its Bostonian brand ambassador in ‘America Runs on Dunkin’ [And Ben].’ And ‘The Misheard Version’ turned a famously misheard Rick Astley song into a mass hearing test. It won the Grand Prix in both the PR Lions and the Audio & Radio Lions.
THE MISHEARD VERSION | SPECSAVERS
GOLIN LONDON | 2024 GRAND PRIX, AUDIO & RADIO LIONS
“A brilliant example of creativity turned up to 11. It powered business results and broke into culture.” Simon Vicars Chief Creative Officer, Colenso BBDO | Jury President, Audio & Radio Lions
MICHAEL CERAVE | CERAVE
OGILVY PR, NEW YORK | 2024 GRAND PRIX, SOCIAL & INFLUENCER LIONS
“It's a wildly ambitious, lovably absurd, multi-channel, ultra modern campaign that beautifully blurs the line between social, influencer, culture and advertising. The haters will say it’s just a celebrity campaign, but it’s smarter than that. It’s a symbol that taking a risk on brave, unexpected creativity can be beloved by culture, the industry and the business’s bottom line.” Amy Ferguson Chief Creative Officer, Partner, Special U.S. | Jury President, Social & Influencer Lions