A Dentsu Inc. planner introduces the 2016 Cannes Lions PR award-winning work.

Hello, I'm Oki Miichi, working concurrently in the Creative Planning Division 2 and the PR Planning Center. I focus on integrated planning from a PR perspective, centered around TV commercial concepts.
As cases where advertising is less effective increase, the challenge is shifting from "How to communicate?" to "How to move people?" Consequently, I feel the importance of PR-based solutions is growing—solutions that focus on how to trigger discourse from influential third parties like media or friends, and how to build new consensus.
So, while Cannes Lions is currently in full swing, I hope to delve a bit deeper into the PR category in this series. In Part 1, I'll introduce this year's award-winning work, categorized through my own lens. And in Part 2, I'll bring you an interview with this year's PR category juror, Mr. Kazuaki Hashida from Hakuhodo Kettle! Enjoy this fresh-off-the-press report straight from the scene.

Seasonal

Valentine's Day, Christmas, Mother's Day—we all have those seasonal holidays, right? Campaigns that skillfully tapped into society's shared feelings about these occasions stood out. It's classic PR.

Pocket Money Equal Future (Gold Winner)
This is an experimental video released by an Australian bank, starting on International Women's Day. Boys and girls are paired up and given simple chores like cleaning the house or car. As a reward, they receive pocket money. However, symbolizing society's wage gap, the girls received less money than the boys. This film, capturing the children's reactions, sparked significant debate, and the campaign hashtag #equalfuture trended. As a company dealing with money, their social commentary proved effective and greatly benefited the brand.

#OptOutside(Silver Winner)
The client was REI, an American outdoor retailer. Their campaign involved closing all stores on Black Friday, America's biggest shopping day. This action carried a powerful corporate message: "As an outdoor retailer, selling great products is important, but we want even more people to experience the outdoors. We want our employees to get outside too."

This action generated 1.2 billion social media impressions. The hashtag #OptOutside was used by 1.4 million people. While it wasn't explicitly stated whether the campaign compensated for the sales lost by closing on Black Friday, it certainly succeeded in creating a positive sentiment: "REI is a great company," and "I want to shop at REI."

Building Strong Facts

The Organic Effect (Grand Prix Winner)
A research PR campaign by Swedish supermarket COOP. To increase interest in organic food, often perceived as expensive and inaccessible, they conducted an experiment with one family: what changes occur in the body when eating only organic food? The family, accustomed to inexpensive non-organic food, showed very high levels of pesticides in their bodies in pre-experiment tests. However, after eating only organic food for two weeks, subsequent tests revealed their pesticide levels had dropped to nearly zero. The viral video capturing this entire process spread widely on social media, achieving 35 million views. Public opinion on organic food showed a definite shift, and COOP's sales also saw significant growth.

The Swedish Number (Gold Winner)
This campaign won numerous awards beyond the PR category. It was an initiative by the Swedish Travel Association to spark greater global interest in Sweden. The idea was incredibly simple: they created the world's first "country phone number." If you had any questions about Sweden, calling this number would randomly connect you to a citizen registered for the campaign, who would kindly answer any question. This citizen-participation campaign reportedly received about 130,000 calls from 178 countries. The fact that the Prime Minister participated was also a major factor in its virality.

Turning the rules on their head

Manboobs (Gold Winner)
An entry from MACMA, an Argentine organization promoting breast cancer prevention awareness. The logic is clear: they needed to educate many young women on how to perform self-exams using their fingers. These women are constantly on their smartphones, engaging with social media. However, social media platforms censor and ban videos showing women's breasts. So, MACMA created a video demonstrating how to perform a self-exam using a fat man's chest. Achieving an astonishing 40 million views, this campaign turned societal rules on their head and became a major talking point.

An unexpected combination

SL Benfica Safety Demonstration (Gold Winner)
Emirates, sponsor of Portuguese soccer team SL Benfica, wanted to do more than just put their logo on the uniforms. Their solution was a pre-match performance by flight attendants. Using in-flight announcement-style narration and their gestures, they lectured the audience on how to safely enjoy the match. This was a huge hit at the venue and was widely covered on TV and online media. I think the strong visual impact came from the unexpected combination of flight attendants on the stadium turf. It's a very insightful piece of sponsorship work.

Creating Another Reason

Edible Six Pack Rings (Gold Winner)
This project didn't just communicate the product's value; it created a "new reason" to choose it. Saltwater, a small beachfront beer brand in Florida, needed to run a low-cost campaign targeting surfers, fishermen, and ocean lovers. Their solution? Replacing the plastic rings that bundle cans with a material safe for marine life to ingest. They made it from a byproduct of the beer brewing process. This action generated over 100 million social media impressions despite zero paid media spend, instantly making Saltwater's name known across America.

BEHAVIOR CHANGE

How did you find these five perspectives, categorized by approach? At the awards ceremony, jury chairman John Clinton emphasized "Behavior Change." Rather than settling for mere publicity, he highlighted how PR content born from big ideas sparked societal debate and ultimately drove new actions. I believe every winning entry was selected with this perspective in mind. From Japan, "10-Minute Donbei" and "OPEN ROAD PROJECT" both won Bronze. Regarding "Social Good," a topic discussed for years, it now seems almost a given within the PR category aimed at building social consensus.

While Cannes features many projects vastly different from Japan in scale and societal context, examining them through these methodological lenses reveals insights applicable to our daily work. In the second part, we'll share discussions from the judging sessions and how Japanese work was evaluated globally, featuring an interview with PR category judge, Mr. Hashida!