Diageo and its agency partners picked up eight awards, including two golds, at the prestigious 62nd Cannes Lions Festival, the world's biggest annual festival for the creative communications industry
London, 29 June 2015: Diageo, a global leader in beverage alcohol, along with its partner agencies is celebrating eight high profile wins for creativity, including two golds, two silvers and four bronzes, at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last week.
Guinness ''Made Of Black'' by BBDO Africa and AMV BBDO, Buchanan''s ''Piano'' by Santo Buenos Aires, Johnnie Walker ''Keep The Flame Alive'' by Leo Burnett Beirut and Johnnie Walker Blue Label ''The Gentleman''s Wager'' by Anomaly were all rewarded for creating and bringing to life compelling creative campaigns over the past year. Johnnie Walker is Diageo''s most awarded brand this year, winning two silvers and three bronzes across two campaigns and four different categories. A total of seventeen Diageo campaigns were also shortlisted for prestigious wins throughout the week.
The Cannes Lions Festival has been a creative benchmark for more than 60 years as it celebrates excellent work delivered by the communications industry. This year''s competition saw more work submitted than ever before and these wins celebrate creative excellence, which influence and inspire the brand communications world.
Syl Saller, Chief Marketing Officer at Diageo commented:
"It is well documented that creativity drives growth and competitive advantage and that''s why I am so delighted that our success here at the Cannes Lions Festival adds to what has been a record year of award wins for Diageo across the globe. This external recognition validates the creative spirit and hard work of our marketing teams and our agency partners. I am extremely proud that, together, we have again developed world class campaigns for our incredible portfolio of brands."
The winning campaigns are highlighted below:
Guinness ''Made Of Black'' by BBDO Africa and AMV BBDO was awarded a Gold Lion in the ''Film'' category and a Bronze Lion in the ''Film Craft'' category. Released in September last year, the film, directed by Sam Brown and set to a Kanye West soundtrack, celebrates how a creative and aspiring new generation of young Africans are carving their old path and making bold choices, fuelling a new, progressive spirit of Africa.
Buchanan''s ''Piano'' by Santo Buenos Aires won gold in ''Film Craft'' for Adapted Music. Directed by Nicolas Nubile and produced by Rebolucion in the city of Prague, the film tells the story of Vincent, a pianist that has Agoraphobia (fear of crowds), and cannot play in public. His family and friends do whatever it takes to make his dream come true of playing a concert to a sold out theatre. ''A Concert for Vincent'' is a story about sharing. Buchanan''s slogan is ''Share Yourself'' and the campaign''s ''Giving feels great.''
Johnnie Walker ''Keep The Flame Alive'' by Leo Burnett Beirut picked up three awards including a silver and a bronze in ''Cyber Lion'' for Response/Real-Time Activity and Use/Curation of Images and another bronze in ''PR Lions''. In 2014, a dark cloud of unrest loomed over Lebanon and Leo Burnett Beirut and Johnnie Walker decided to remind the Lebanese to Keep Walking despite the troubled times. They started with an event where media and influencers experienced a menacing audio-visual storm only to get introduced to the campaign film: A fable about a flame that defies a storm. Triumphant, the flame finally says: "Storms shall always pass, but the fire inside burns on". Their message sparked the flame within the Lebanese. They had set up a digital ecosystem encouraging crowd source messages of hope. On the ground a fire calligrapher roamed the country for 20 nights and rewarded online users in real time by turning key statements into campaign visuals. Hundreds of visuals were created which were used as the campaign''s main content across media. On 1st January, Lebanon''s main TV talk show dedicated an entire 2-hour episode to the campaign.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label ''The Gentleman''s Wager'' by Anomaly was awarded a Silver Lion in ''Film'' (produced by RSA FILMS) and a Bronze Lion in ''Media'' for Use of Branded Content & Sponsorship (media planning by PHD Singapore). Directed by Jake Scott and starring Jude Law and Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini, the film tells the story of a wager between two men striving for personal progress through the quest for a truly rare experience. It was shot in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and London respectively and sees Law in the role of a man who, despite having it all, uses a wager as an excuse to challenge himself and strive for something he wants, but can''t buy.