14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Eyes that scroll: A Cannes Lions Social and Creator Special: BE Extraordinary
These are campaigns that stood out for use of social media and
creator-led strategies
. From playful "sonic branding" challenges, to a B2B strategy disguised as consumer engagement or leveraging a social media platform's community, each one had a unique story to tell.
Oreo "Name this Oreo', VML
Oreo transformed its iconic cookie into a playful exercise in "sonic branding" and social engagement. The campaign leveraged the simple act of twisting, licking, and dunking an Oreo, translating these actions into a "Morse code" for the brand.
Different combinations of cookie and cream created distinct auditory responses, challenging a community of Oreo lovers to "guess the sound." This innovative use of social media didn't just showcase the product; it invited active participation and interpretation, turning the familiar cookie into an auditory puzzle. It bordered on sonic branding, demonstrating how the very act of consuming an Oreo could be playfully interpreted through sound, galvanizing a community around a shared, multisensory experience.
Lay's Bar Crawl, Slap Global
Lay's amplified its "No Game Without Lay's" slogan with a clever social media campaign featuring football legends Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi on a pub crawl. The premise was simple: the stars would attempt to watch a game at various pubs.
Upon entering, their first question would be, "Do you have Lay's?" If a pub didn't stock the chips, the celebrity duo would simply leave and move on. This highly engaging social experiment was designed to be filmed and shared, creating immediate, viral content. It leveraged the immense fan base in pubs, turning every potential sighting of the stars into a demand for Lay's. The implicit message was clear: if you want football legends to watch the game at your establishment, you better have Lay's on hand. This was a brilliant B2B strategy disguised as consumer engagement, driving demand for Lay's in pubs by appealing directly to the desires of their patrons and the influence of iconic athletes.
US Navy "Subreddit Hunt", VML
The US Navy faced a dual challenge in recruitment: a high benchmark for candidates and difficulty reaching this niche audience. They devised an incredibly intelligent and targeted recruitment campaign using the popular online platform Reddit.
Playing on the homophone between "submarines" and "subreddits," the Navy began hiding intricate clues, quizzes, and IQ tests within various subreddits. These challenges were designed to appeal to individuals with the specific skills, intensity, and knowledge required for Navy service. Finding and solving these hidden puzzles demanded significant intellect and persistence, effectively pre-qualifying potential recruits. This highly innovative approach turned a digital space into a sophisticated recruitment tool, leveraging an online community's characteristics to identify and engage a highly specialised talent pool for the US Navy.
(At BE Extraordinary, a series about the winners at Cannes Lions written in collaboration with Harsh Kapadia, CCO, Grey India, we peer outside the Grand Prix winners, and look at clutter breaking work that picked the silvers and the bronzes, but don't often get discussed.)
