Ogilvy Dublin picked up a Bronze Lion at Cannes this week for its work for the ISPCC – the first time an Irish agency has won back-to-back Lions at the International Festival of Creativity, better known as the Cannes Lions.
The win was for the radio element of the agency’s provocative and powerful campaign for the charity.
Stupid Little Bitch was written by copywriters Des Kavanagh and Laurence O'Byrne, and the TV element of campaign was also short-isted for the Film Lions category.
"When we won a Lion at Cannes last year, it was a major achievement, as an Irish agency hadn't won at Cannes for eight years," said Dave Smyth, managing director at Ogilvy Dublin.
“Creativity is the biggest driver of effectiveness and creative campaigns outsell effective-but-not-creative campaigns 11 times for the same media weight.”
Cute but gruesome
It's a massive festival with 35,000 entries from 90 countries and awards in 16 categories.
Even with the sheer volume of entrants, some campaigns created a festival buzz, notably McCann Melbourne’s super-viral campaign for the city’s metro service.
"Dumb Ways to Die" – (watch it on YouTube, it's weirdly uplifting) picked up five grand prix awards and the phenomenal success of the seriously cute but gruesome animated video proves that brilliant campaigns can come from the unlikeliest of sources.
The ad – a safety message for train users, virtually the definition of a boring brief – has more than 50 million YouTube hits, its soundtrack was released on iTunes and reached the top 10 globally, and it spawned a gaming app.
