Juror Anusheela Saha picks standout campaigns of Cannes Lions 2024

Advertising has evolved beyond product placement, transforming into a medium for brand storytelling and social impact. This year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity showcased some of the most innovative and inspiring advertising campaigns. 

Anusheela Saha, National Creative Director, FCB India and Juror in the Outdoor category for Cannes Lions 2024 shared her experiences and insights from the festival, offering a glimpse into the creativity and strategic brilliance that brands exhibited this year. 

Saha shared that among the stellar work presented, mentioning three campaigns particularly stood out, embodying a blend of brand purpose and product promotion. These campaigns not only captivated the audience but also set new benchmarks for integrating purpose-driven narratives with effective advertising.

Transforming digital creative with purpose

Aligning brand purpose with compelling storytelling can transform advertising into a force for good. Saha discussed how moving beyond traditional media spend to embrace purpose-driven marketing turned out for Pedigree.

She highlighted that Pedigree’s brand purpose has always been to find every dog a loving home. For the past 15 years they’ve created campaigns in service of this purpose.

However, she shared that this purpose led advertising only accounts for 25% of PEDIGREE’s global media spend. She credits the campaign ‘Adoptable’ for changing the game by making purpose the core of every digital campaign.

She said, “Adoptable changed that. The campaign demonstrated how the number can be 100%, putting purpose at the heart of every piece of digital creative PEDIGREE makes. What was also beautiful was the co-existence of AI with human talent, which was the very heart of  the campaign.”

Bridging seasons with moments

Innovative campaigns can reshape how we perceive everyday experiences, turning challenges into opportunities for engagement. Saha shared an example where creativity bridged seasonal gaps to bring fresh experiences to the audience.

Magnum, an ice cream brand ingeniously tackled the challenge of shifting people’s perception from winter's chill to the joy of ice cream with their ‘Find Your Summer’ campaign. For Saha, “Magnum ‘Find Your Summer’ was a campaign to transition people from the ice-cold to ice cream.”

This OOH campaign brought summer to the streets during the cold season, offering passersby not just information about nearby sunshine spots but also where they could indulge in Magnum ice cream.

This campaign highlights the power of experiential marketing, blending classic promotional techniques with real-time, location-based interactions. By meeting people where they were and providing a taste of summer in the middle of winter, Magnum not only made ice cream desirable year-round but also created memorable experiences.

“In this campaign we saw a gorgeous demonstration of classic and current,” added Saha.

Turning flaws into fortune

Sometimes, unexpected events can be turned into unique branding opportunities with a bit of creativity. Saha reflected on how one campaign managed to turn an accidental mishap into a successful marketing moment.

Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani broke Coors Light’s ad with a foul ball during a game. Rather than fix the embarrassing flaw, the brand turned the single damaged outdoor ad into an entire unofficial sports sponsorship.

Saha said, “In just 48 hours, Coors Light turned the broken ad into a special edition can. The brand then promoted the can with an innovative use of outdoor media as the same black square was added to existing media placements. The broken ad became iconic for Coors!”

These campaigns from Cannes Lions 2024 reflect the evolving landscape of advertising, where the fusion of brand purpose and experiential marketing leads to impactful and memorable engagements.

Reflecting on her experience visiting Cannes, Saha mentioned how grateful she felt to honor Grand Prix winners at the festival.