Cannes Awards Analysis from Warc

Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions 2011 By James Aitchison , Managing Editor, warc.com September 2011 To read the full entries, sign up for a trial at www.warc.com/trialcannes

Background
About the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions
The Creative Effectiveness Lions were established as a new award category for the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, to honour creativity that has a measurable business impact.
Only winning or shortlisted entries from the 2010 festival were eligible to enter the Creative Effectiveness Lions in 2011. These were judged on their strategy (25%), idea (25%) and results (50%).
From a total of 142 entries, ten cases were shortlisted and six won Creative Effectiveness Lions. Of this last group, one was awarded the Grand Prix.
About this analysis
Of the 142 entries, 135 were published on warc.com.
Warc has analysed these entries for trends in geography, client sector, brand type, media budget, marketing objectives and media channels.
Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Geography: Entries came from 37 countries, led by the US and UK. Europe was the most-represented region, followed by North America.
Global v local: Most entries were single-market campaigns, equally split between global and local brands. But global brands dominated the shortlist.
Client sectors: Entries spanned 16 sectors, led by Government and Non-Profit, Media and Publishing, Leisure and Entertainment, Food and Retail.
Budget: Small-budget campaigns were most common overall, but larger budgets were prevalent among the shortlisted entries.
Objectives: Shortlisted entries tended to have “harder” objectives such as increasing sales, gaining customers and growing market share.
Media channels: TV was the most-used channel, followed by social media. PR, OOH and experiential marketing followed.
Executive summary Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Grand Prix winner: Walkers (PepsiCo, UK).
Lions winners: Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India), McDonald’s (UK), Old Spice (P&G, US), The Pacific (TVNZ, New Zealand) and Snickers (Mars, UK).
UK success: Three winners were from the UK, reflecting UK agencies’ experience of demonstrating effectiveness for the rigorous IPA Awards.
Global brands: Most winners were for global brands running campaigns in local markets, suggesting engagement comes from a local approach.
What it takes to win: The strongest entries – particularly the winning and shortlisted entries – focused on proving their effectiveness with supporting research and data.
Executive summary (continued) Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Entries were received from campaigns that ran in a total of 37 countries, led by the US (24 entries), UK (15), Germany (10) and Brazil (7).
Regionally, Europe accounted for most entries with 69, followed by North America (25), Asia (22), South America (13), Aus/NZ (11) and MEA (9).
Single-market campaigns dominated the entries: fewer than ten entries were explicitly multiple-market campaigns and these were generally European (examples: Toshiba, T-Mobile, Perrier).
But online and social channels meant that nominally single-market campaigns often went beyond their original borders (examples: VW Scirocco (UK), Evian (France) and Starbucks (US)).
Of the shortlisted entries (detailed on slides 12 and 13), four came from North America, three from Europe and one each from Asia and Aus/NZ.
Geographic spread of entries Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Geographic spread of entries (continued) * Figures refer to the number of entries that included marketing activity in that territory Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes Entries by region No. of entries* Europe 69 North America 25 Asia 22 Central & South America 13 Australia & New Zealand 11 Middle East & Africa 9 Top 10 markets No. of entries* USA 24 United Kingdom 15 Germany 10 Brazil 7 Spain 7 France 7 Australia 7 India 6 Sweden 5 South Africa 4

Entries spanned 16 different industry sectors, led by Government and Non-Profit (31 entries), then Media and Publishing (16), Leisure and Entertainment (15), Food (10) and Retail (9).
Of the 31 entries from the Government and Non-Profit sector, 18 came from charitable organisations and 10 from governmental and public health bodies.
Within the Media and Publishing sector, 10 of the 18 entries were for TV services, channels or programmes.
Leisure and Entertainment had no clear sub-category leaders, but the 10 Food entries were dominated by Confectionery (4) and Savoury Snacks (3).
Among the shortlisted entries, Toiletries and Cosmetics were most represented with three brands, followed by Food with two.
Client sector breakdown Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Client sector breakdown (continued) Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

There was a near-equal balance of entries from international brands (69) and local brands (66). However, 9 of the 10 shortlisted entries were from global brands.
Of all the global brands, multiple entries included Canon, IKEA, Unilever and VW.
Types of brand Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Small-budget campaigns (up to USD 500k) dominated the entries overall. But among the shortlisted entries higher budgets were more common, with campaign budgets of USD 10-20m accounting for half of the entries.
Breakdown by budget size Budget (USD) Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Overall, entries had an average of 2.5 campaign objectives. The shortlisted entries averaged 3.7 objectives.
The two groups of entries shared four of their top five objectives. But “harder” objectives such as increasing sales, gaining customers and growing market share were more prevalent among the shortlisted entries.
Marketing objectives Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes Top 5 objectives (total entries) % Increase awareness 40 Increase sales/volume 38 Build/defend brand position 33 Gain new customers 24 Social and non-profit objectives 20 Top 5 objectives (shortlist) % Increase sales/volume 78 Build/defend brand position 44 Gain new customers 33 Increase market share 33 Increase awareness 33

Taken as a whole, entries used an average of 5.1 media channels. This figure rose to 6.2 for the shortlisted entries.
TV’s continued importance is reflected by its presence in the media mix of 55% of entries - and in all but one of the nine shortlisted entries.
Social media marketing featured in 50% of the entries and advertiser-owned microsites were used in 47% of the entries.
PR was used by 30% of entries overall. By contrast, two thirds of shortlisted entries contained a PR element.
OOH was utilised by 35% of entries and four of the shortlist, whilst events and experiential was used by 30% of entries and, again, four of the shortlist.
Media channels Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Media channels (continued) Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes Top 10 channels (total entries) % Television 55 Social media 50 Internet (microsites/widgets) 47 Outdoor, OOH 35 Events and experiential 30 Internet display 30 Public relations 30 Online video 24 Word-of-mouth, viral 22 Radio 19 Top 10 channels (shortlist) % Television 89 Public relations 67 Social media 56 Outdoor, OOH 44 Events and experiential 44 Internet display 44 Online video 44 Cinema 33 Direct marketing 33 Point of purchase, in-store 33

The Grand Prix and Creative Effectiveness Lion Winners
From the shortlisted entries, a Grand Prix and five Creative Effectiveness Lion winners were chosen:
Grand Prix: Walkers (PepsiCo, UK).
Lions winners: Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India), McDonald’s (UK), Old Spice (P&G, US), The Pacific (TVNZ, New Zealand) and Snickers (Mars, UK).
Three winning entries were from the UK, perhaps reflecting UK agencies’ experience in demonstrating effectiveness for the rigorous and long-running IPA Effectiveness Awards.
All but one winner (The Pacific, TVNZ) were for global brands running campaigns in local markets. This reinforces the conclusion drawn by an analysis of entries to the 2011 Warc Prize for Asian Strategy: to engage consumers, campaigns should take a local, culturally-specific approach.

Other shortlisted entries
The four additional non-winning entries making up the final shortlist were:
Apple Mac (Apple, US)
Axe (Unilever, US)
Heineken Italia (Heineken, Italy)
Monopoly (Hasbro, global) (entry not published)
Again, the trend established by the winning group is evident: global brands running local campaigns are dominant.

Most-read entries on warc.com by company type Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes Creative agencies 1 Walkers (PepsiCo, UK) 2 McDonald’s (UK) 3 M&Ms (Mars, Australia) 4 Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India) 5 Old Spice (P&G, US) 6 Snickers (Mars, UK) 7 Heineken (Heineken, Italy) 8 Axe (Unilever, US) 9 Apple Mac (Apple, US) 10 The Pacific (TVNZ, NZ) Media agencies Walkers (PepsiCo, UK) McDonald’s (UK) M&Ms (Mars, Australia) Snickers (Mars, UK) Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India) Old Spice (P&G, US) Doritos (PepsiCo, UK) Coke (Coca-Cola, US) Dove (Unilever, UK) Heineken (Heineken, Italy) Brand owners McDonald’s (UK) Walkers (PepsiCo, UK) Snickers (Mars, UK) Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India) The Pacific (TVNZ, NZ) Old Spice (P&G, US) M&Ms (Mars, Australia) Doritos (PepsiCo, UK) Axe (Unilever, US) Pepsi (PepsiCo, US)

Beyond the shortlist
A selection of entries that did not make the short- or most-read lists:
Carlton Dry (Carlton, Australia): a viral video strategy that engaged a new generation, increasing volume sales by 42%.
The Economist (India): print, OOH, QR codes and Facebook combined to engage consumers and boost subscriptions 44%.
Golf (VW, South Africa): an event-led strategy to mark the end of a much-loved model increased margins and boosted profits.
PUMA (Pan-Europe): soccer fans’ “Hardchorus” Valentine’s song leveraged TV and social media to double online revenues.
Studio Brussels (Belgium): a radio station’s UCG campaign paid tribute to Michael Jackson and increased market share 21%.
Virgin Blue (Australia): an airline harnessed Twitter to boost its new Sydney-LA route and raised base revenues 88%.

The aim of the Creative Effectiveness Lions is clearly defined on canneslions.com :
“ [To] honour creativity which has shown a measurable and proven impact on a client’s business - creativity that affects consumer behaviour, brand equity, sales, and where identifiable, profit. ”
Entries were judged on three criteria: strategy (25%), idea (25%) and – most significantly – results (50%).
In this respect, the best entries paid particular attention to a specific point in the guidance notes on creating successful entries:
“ It is not enough to make assertions, the jury want proof. Any claim must be supported by evidence and source data. ”
What it takes to win a Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

The best entries therefore stood out for their focus on proving effectiveness:
They supplied research data to prove that communications objectives had been met or exceeded (e.g. awareness, recall etc).
They also provided evidence that business objectives, such as sales and/or market share increases, had been achieved (see slide 11).
And the very best (epitomised by the Grand Prix-winning Walkers) utilised econometric research to isolate the campaign effects and discount other factors.
Weaker entries , by contrast, tended to rely on assumptions and correlations to support their case (e.g. social media activity and PR output).
The 2012 winners of the Creative Effectiveness Lions will, like the inaugural winners in 2011, have to prove their ROI beyond doubt.
What it takes to win a Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion (continued) Sign up for a trial today and read all the entries www.warc.com/trialcannes

Already a subscriber? Visit www.warc.com/cannes to browse all the published entries to the 2011 Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions Want to read all the entries? Visit www.warc.com/trialcannes to sign up for your free trial today

Cannes Awards Analysis from Warc

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