Weber Shandwick Manchester celebrates four wins at 2019 Cannes Lions festival of creativity
Weber Shandwick Manchester, part of the world’s leading global communications and marketing solutions firms, was awarded four Lions at the 2019 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the global creative industry’s most prestigious awards, for its headline-grabbing Iceland Christmas campaign.
The firm was awarded a Bronze PR Lion for ‘Effectiveness in PR’ for its work in partnership with Iceland Foods to support the supermarket’s ’Rang-tan’ Christmas advertising campaign, which raised awareness of the harm done by deforestation through palm oil production for consumer products. It was also shortlisted in the ‘Media Relations’ category, having secured more than 800 pieces of media coverage globally for Iceland’s online advert in December 2018, alone.
In partnership with independent creative agency Mother, the team scooped a additional three awards including a Silver Social and Influencer Lion for their integrated multi-channel approach for the same campaign that lead to more than 80 million views of Iceland’s online Christmas advert. As a result, ‘Rang-tan’ became the most watched Christmas advert of all time, despite not being shown on television.
Taking place over five days in Cannes, France, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. The awards are recognised as the global benchmark for effective creative marketing communications.
Heather Blundell, managing director of Weber Shandwick Manchester, said: “We are often challenged by clients to show the impact of earned media compared, side-by-side with advertising. With this campaign we achieved engagement of which even advertisers with multi-million pound budgets can only dream.
“Our Christmas campaign with Iceland acts as an undeniable PR success story perfectly demonstrating how ‘real’ advocacy can eclipse advertising spend in terms of impact and reach when it is truly earned.
“We are so proud to have won these coveted awards and to have collaborated with such a brave client on getting an incredibly important message out to consumers across the globe.”
Weber Shandwick Manchester has been working with Iceland Foods since 2017. Over the last two years, the team’s work with the retailer has won a host of national and international awards including the Platinum Global SABRE at The Holmes Report’s 2018 Global SABRE Awards in Washington D.C. for its support for Iceland’s plastic sustainability campaign, #toocoolforplastic.