Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions 2011
An analysis of the published entries
James Aitchison, Managing Editor, warc.com
September 2011
www.warc.com
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

Entries were received from 33 countries. 135 entries were published on warc.com.

This analysis focuses on the 135 entries published on warc.com, to establish trends
in geography, client sector, brand type, budget, marketing objectives and media.
www.warc.com
Executive summary

Geography: The US and UK accounted for the most entries. 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 NonProfit, 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.
www.warc.com
Executive summary (continued)

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.
www.warc.com
Geographic spread

The US was the most popular market in which campaigns ran (24), followed by
UK (15), Germany (10) and Brazil (7).

Regionally, 69 campaigns ran in European markets, 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.
www.warc.com
Geographic spread (continued)
Top 10 markets
No. of
entries*
Entries by region
No. of
entries*
USA
24
Europe
69
United Kingdom
15
North America
25
Germany
10
Asia
22
Brazil
7
Central & South America
13
Spain
7
Australia & New Zealand
11
France
7
Middle East & Africa
Australia
7
India
6
Sweden
5
South Africa
4
* Figures refer to the number of entries that included marketing activity in that territory
9
www.warc.com
Client sector breakdown

Entries spanned 16 different industry sectors, led by Government and NonProfit (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.
www.warc.com
Client sector breakdown (continued)
Case study coverage by client category (%)
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
www.warc.com
Types of brand

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.
All entries: global v local
Shortlist: global v local
Local
brands
10%
Local
brands
49%
Global
brands
51%
Global
brands
90%
www.warc.com
Breakdown by budget size

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.
Total no. of entries*
Budget (USD)
4
8
Up to 500k
Shortlisted entries*
Over 20
million, 1
Up to 500k,
2
3
500k - 1 million
6
1 - 3 million
3 - 5 million
11
63
5 - 10 million
1 - 3 million,
1
10 - 20 million
8
Over 20 million
*Budget data only available for 103 entries
10 - 20
million, 4
*Budget data only available for 8 entries
www.warc.com
Marketing objectives

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.
Top 5 objectives (total entries)
%
Top 5 objectives (shortlist)
%
Increase awareness
40
Increase sales/volume
78
Increase sales/volume
38
Build/defend brand position
44
Build/defend brand position
33
Gain new customers
33
Gain new customers
24
Increase market share
33
Social and non-profit objectives
20
Increase awareness
33
www.warc.com
Media channels

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 advertiserowned 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.
www.warc.com
Media channels (continued)
Top 10 channels (total entries)
%
Top 10 channels (shortlist)
%
Television
55
Television
89
Social media
50
Public relations
67
Internet (microsites/widgets)
47
Social media
56
Outdoor, OOH
35
Outdoor, OOH
44
Events and experiential
30
Events and experiential
44
Internet display
30
Internet display
44
Public relations
30
Online video
44
Online video
24
Cinema
33
Word-of-mouth, viral
22
Direct marketing
33
Radio
19
Point of purchase, in-store
33
www.warc.com
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.
www.warc.com
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.
www.warc.com
Most-read entries on warc.com by company type
Creative agencies
Media agencies
Brand owners
1
Walkers (PepsiCo, UK)
Walkers (PepsiCo, UK)
McDonald’s (UK)
2
McDonald’s (UK)
McDonald’s (UK)
Walkers (PepsiCo, UK)
3
M&Ms (Mars, Australia)
M&Ms (Mars, Australia)
Snickers (Mars, UK)
4
Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India)
Snickers (Mars, UK)
Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India)
5
Old Spice (P&G, US)
Gillette Mach3 (P&G, India)
The Pacific (TVNZ, NZ)
6
Snickers (Mars, UK)
Old Spice (P&G, US)
Old Spice (P&G, US)
7
Heineken (Heineken, Italy)
Doritos (PepsiCo, UK)
M&Ms (Mars, Australia)
8
Axe (Unilever, US)
Coke (Coca-Cola, US)
Doritos (PepsiCo, UK)
9
Apple Mac (Apple, US)
Dove (Unilever, UK)
Axe (Unilever, US)
10
The Pacific (TVNZ, NZ)
Heineken (Heineken, Italy)
Pepsi (PepsiCo, US)
www.warc.com
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%.
www.warc.com
What it takes to win a
Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion

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.”
www.warc.com
What it takes to win a
Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion (continued)
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.
www.warc.com
Go to www.warc.com/cannes to browse all the published entries to
the 2011 Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions.