Valarie Madon, Chief Creative Officer, McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific selects the network’s six best chances at this year’s Cannes Lions festival.
“I am particularly excited about the range of work we have entered this year, which spans across brands in auto, travel, FMCG and finance. Importantly, many of the campaigns have resulted in impressive commercial impact for our clients, even while doing good for humanity.”
Client: Chevrolet
Campaign Title: The Dirty Launch
Agency: McCann Worldgroup China
Entry Category(ies): Classic – Outdoor Lions / Entertainment – Entertainment Lions / Engagement – Media Lions
The Chevrolet Equinox is going through an evolution internally, and the mid-size SUV market is highly competitive. Hence there is an urgent need to highlight our product strength at the core, Equinox safety USP and superior performance.
The Dirty Launch is a disruptive campaign that flips the norm on all automobile campaigns. To kick-start the campaign in the most intriguing style, we drove a very dirty Chevrolet Equinox through the streets of Shanghai which was hard to ignore. The vehicle was parked in a central space in the city for people to explore. QR codes were integrated on the vehicle where people were led to one of the 29 Discovery mini-episodes made out of behind-the-scenes footages of the famous “First Man Out” series.
The content series reveals how the dirty vehicle came to be as it was celebrity explorer, Ed Stafford’s, choice of vehicle for himself and his crew when he went on an extreme survival challenge because he trusts our vehicles performance and safety features. Every piece of content highlights a specific feature of the Equinox and was launched across multiple platforms such as bilibili, Douyin, little red book, WeChat, automobile websites and many others.
Client: Maybelline New York
Campaign Title: Under the Avatar
Agency: McCann Australia
Entry Category(ies): Engagement – PR Lions / Social & Influencer Lions / Media / Entertainment for Gaming
It’s no secret that gaming can be a toxic environment, with 1 in 2 female gamers experiencing abuse online.
We confronted this problem from a completely new point of view, with a campaign that called on those who witness abuse to call it out. Maybelline New York’s Under The Avatar campaign raises awareness of the bystander effect where 71% of male gamers who witness abuse choose to ignore it.
An eye-opening social experiment saw male gamers play a multiplayer game not knowing that the female gamers being subjected to abuse were their close friends. In the process creating new allies by encouraging bystanders to fight gender discrimination in gaming.
The campaign exploded on Twitch, Tik Tok and Youtube with over 30 influential streamers organically sharing the campaign. Along with International and national news and publications we reached over 10M gamers, with a film time totalling over 3.5M minutes and #1 trending on YouTube Gaming.
Client: Buscopan
Campaign Title: Battle Cries
Agency: McCann Worldgroup Philippines
Entry Category(ies): Audio & Radio Lions / Health & Wellness Lions
BOXING
“Fight like a Woman”
BASKETBALL “Take it like a Woman”
DRILL SERGEANT “Woman Up”
In the Philippines, taking pain killers at the onset of discomfort is not a norm. There is still a prevalence of martyrdom in the country where women tend to wait for the pain to become unbearable before they can justify medicating. Buscopan Venus, a potent period pain reliever, believes that women need to be reminded that they should not have to tolerate any degree of pain, especially period cramps, just because they can.
BATTLE CRIES is a radio campaign that uses the aural experience of an intense and manly pep talk to deliver a message about relieving period pain with Buscopan Venus.
The idea talks vividly about the pain women have had to endure all throughout history – from broken ribcages to torture and even childbirth, to make a point that women are tough, but they should not have to endure pain anymore.
The campaign encapsulates this by subverting the masculine battle cries “Fight like a man,” “Take it like man,” and “Man up,” to pertain to the strength and endurance of women. Instead of taking the pain, Buscopan Venus can relieve women of dysmenorrhea in as fast as 15 minutes.
Client: Safari
Campaign Title: Second Life
Agency: McCann Worldgroup Japan
Entry Category(ies): Creative Commerce / Brand Experience & Activation
Second Life is inspired by an emotionally daunting process the elderly goes through called Shukatsu (end-of-life decluttering) where they throw away most of their belongings to get ready for retirement such as moving into retirement homes or to avoid burdening their children when they pass on.
This process is emotionally draining as their belongings are not just fashion pieces but priceless memories of the life they led.
So SAFARI saw the opportunity to evolve the meaning of vintage shopping and decided to create Second Life as a unique platform that sells a collection of living stories. Each piece celebrates a first date, memorable moments with friends, and more and are retold on Instagram Reels. Our younger audience gets to buy these unique pieces and are encouraged to share their own new stories wearing them.
Every piece bought feels more valuable especially when it’s also a more sustainable way of life.
Client: ESAF Small Finance Bank
Campaign Title: Dabba Savings Account
Agency: McCann Worldgroup India
Entry Category(ies):
Experience – Brand Experience & Activations Lions
Experience – Creative Commerce Lions
Experience – Innovation Lions
Engagement – Direct Lions
Good – Glass – the Lions for Change
Good – Sustainable Development Goals Lions
Titanium – Titanium Lions
25% of rural Indian women face constraints to have a bank account. They save cash inside a ‘Dabba’ (steel rice canister), believing it is auspicious. But their men take it away.
ESAF Bank wanted to bring banking into their rural lives. We re-created the rice dabba to have a partition hidden in plain sight. While the top section continues to store rice, the hidden bottom section could safely store the cash.
Our women representatives began attending the women-only monthly gatherings in the villages. We distributed the new Dabbas, opening Savings Accounts for them. Women continued their saving habit and deposited at these meetings regularly. For easy withdrawals, we equipped the neighborhood rice shops with micro-ATMs using India’s biometric technology – Aadhaar. The women could authenticate with a fingerprint, the shopkeepers handed them the cash.
We launched in eight districts in Southern India as the first phase – without any advertising or publicity – so it was kept a secret amongst the women. In a few months, we got 121,670 women to open accounts, secretly. They started doing bank transactions for the first time, no longer fearing banking formalities.
ESAF Small Finance Bank empowered these women with true financial inclusion and growth.
Client: Buckaroo
Campaign Title: Fit My Feet
Agency: McCann Worldgroup India
Entry Category(ies):
Craft – Design Lions
Engagement – Creative B2B Lions
Engagement – Direct Lions
Experience – Brand Experience & Activation
Experience – Creative Commerce Lions
Experience – Innovation Lions
Health & Wellness Lions
Titanium – Titanium Lions
Good – Sustainable Development Goals Lions
People suffering from clubfeet are usually found below the poverty-line. While club-foot is classified as a birth-defect, there are multiple environmental and economic factors that lead to the abnormality. Given their income-strata, they can’t afford the expensive surgical or footwear solutions available. And living with clubfeet leads to loss of not just mobility, but also opportunity and dignity.
Our approach was to not just create a design that could create bespoke footwear for the problem, but also make it cost-effective, widely distributable and scalable. Which is why the FitMyFeet kit was specifically designed to work with the vast street-cobbler network of India.
We started designing the kits in collaboration with orthopaedic doctors and footwear designers late last year, and early this year we started testing them with street-cobblers. Once the material-testing and learnings were finalized, the kits were launched with a test-market in Mumbai.
We kicked off the pilot on 22nd February 2024 and since then over 228,000 custom flip-flops have found their feet. The placement of the kits is with over 4.5K street-cobblers, with plans to scale to pan-India by the end of the year.
FitMyFeet successfully managed to create customized flip-flops for clubfeet at just USD 2.40 a pair, while also generating a new revenue stream for cobblers. So far more than 228,000 customized flip-flops have managed to reach its consumer.
With every customized flip-flop, we enable mobility, opportunity and dignity. Working with over 4.5K cobblers and sticking to advertising on the walls behind them, we’ve managed to create a smart and cost-effective means of generating awareness.
