Canne's 2012 Media Lions show the strength of media demonstrating the message

So Cannes 2012 has come and gone, leaving behind a wealth of video case studies I've spent the better part of a few hours looking through. Though the advertising/creative lions always seem to get the glory, I was quite interested in some of the themes that were apparent in the media lions highlighted this year. While the consistent presence of the (always quite lovely) stunt-experiential-amplified-in-social is present throughout the selections this year (e.g. TNT - "Push to Add Drama", Carlsberg - "Bikers", Lynx - "Angel Ambush", IKEA- "Big Sleepover"), its apparent there are quite a few ideas based around bringing message to life tangibly through media. This is quite interesting because I always think the demonstrative element of media gets lost in conversations about "context" creation and the like. Great messaging is a marriage of creative and media, but adding any extra degree of tangibility (especially if it scales) is the real key to reinforcing a clear and novel message. So that being said, 4 media lions examples that really stood out to me this year in effectively demonstrating the message in media were: (Click on Title for videos)

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Volkswagen - The Blue Motion Label
Ogilvy - South Africa
 
I really love this idea from Volkswagen in South Africa.  Authentically communicating an earnest message, especially around efficiency and environmentalism almost always feels a bit forced for a brand. Volkswagen's take on promoting 'Blue Motion' (the eco range of car variants) effectively dodges this obstacle by clearly demonstrating the brand's values in media. Instead of traditional page ads, the brand opted for small insets within publications, featuring pre paid postage to mail the publication to the brand for recycling when finished reading. Sacrificing prominence for earnestness and environmental responsibility demonstrates what the brand wants to say about the range in a much clearer way than a full page ad could.

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World AIDS Day - "Every 18 Seconds Someone Dies of AIDS"
KEMPERTRAUTMANN - GERMANY

Any idea that makes an ad more than just an advertising placement is interesting. Media choices that do this in a semi-scalable and resonating way are incredibly well thought out. I love the concept behind this campaign, which aimed to promote awareness that "every 18 seconds, someone dies from aids" by using OOH placements. what sets this apart from a normal OOH campaign is the use of helium foam in the shape of crosses, released every 18 seconds from behind each placement. The special OOH placement does something incredibly hard, it demonstrates a timescale in a way that is noticeable and understandable, enhancing the overall campaign message.

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Epensa - "Empty Pages" - El Bocon Sports Journal
PUBLICIDAD CAUSA / PHD - PERU

While this idea is more on the media owner side of things, I thought it was visually so powerful in demonstrating a message, that I thought it continued to reinforce my points. After the death of a fan at a football match in Peru, the government decreed that the championship game would be played without crowds, an idea progressed further by players who didn't want the game to occur. El Bocon, a sports journal, took these sentiments and used their paper to visualize what a world without football would look like; a possible outcome from a continuation of football related violence. The paper used media to demonstrate a consequence in a way that was more powerful than any message about it could ever be. 

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Volkswagen - "Blue Motion Roulette"
Try/APT & Mediacom - Norway

While my other 3 examples have been non-digital, this isn't to say that great examples of digital media demonstrating messaging haven't been found this year. This has been one of my favourite campaigns of the year, based on the fact that it seamlessly ties together the product's USP (mileage) with great creative and innovative online media. The campaign highlighted the range of a blue motion Volkswagen by transforming a main road in Norway into a roulette board. The brand challenged consumers to guess where the high mileage car would run out of gas by inviting them to own a km square of the route. The consumer that guessed correctly won the car. Both the mechanic and the media behind it, which included wide reaching ATL to create an event on the day, cue up a clear demonstration of the claims made around the car.