CHOWNEY ON REPUTATION
Cannes winners show social media is about more than Facebook
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Mark Zuckerberg may have stolen the show at last week’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, but it’s the winning projects we should be looking at to spread the good word of social media.
There’s no doubt social media was the biggest winner at the 57th Cannes Lions last week. Two of the most sought-after awards went to projects using Twitter and other social networks, with Best Buy and Nike/Lifestrong’s Chalkbot both walking away with gongs.
This is good for those banging the digital drum and trying to get brands to use online communities to not only build stronger relationships with customers but to create smart promotional campaigns at the end of it. Social projects sat side by side with more traditional advertising practices, with the world’s media, most influential brands and industry practitioners taking note.
We’ve said before on Reputation Online, as have many others, that the need to share case studies is vital to help the media and ad industries learn how to work with social media. Sure, many of the agencies involved might be keen to win the prizes, but regardless of the motive, the result is good for all.
In these two winners we see evidence of two of the biggest trends of the past year: offline/online collaboration and realisation that an awful lot of online chatter stems from poor customer service.
The Titanium Lion went to consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (which has just opened its first UK store) for its Twelpforce concept. The retailer gathered tech-savvy staff to answer customer questions via Twitter, promoted via traditional ads, and created a gamechanger.
Nike again picked up the Cyber Grand Prix (jointly) for a campaign that put cycling legend Lance Armstrong at the forefront of a public service message about cancer survival. Wieden+Kennedy played on the Tour de France tradition of writing messages of encouragement to cyclists along the route in chalk. The mechanical Chalkbot pulled in messages from networks like Twitter or received text messages from mobiles, etching them along the road as it travelled the circuit. No paid-for ads were used throughout the entire project.
Both are creative, innovative and based on something of real value. Whether it’s making customers’ lives easier by providing useful and timely customer service, or raising awareness of cancer by doing something fun, these case studies are what we should be looking at – not the fact that Zuckerberg has made an appearance and once again stolen the show.