Best part of Cannes if you’re not there? Aside from cracking up at Rob Mayhew, the Cannes Lions provides an excellent opportunity to refresh your ‘reference bank’. Below we have sourced links to cases of all the Creative Effectiveness winners. Of course the links come with some three thoughts from your canny effectiveness champions, Palace Project.

i) Vertigo-Inducing Problems

We were struck by the vertiginous problems that the winners tackled. A former boss would say to me “let’s take it up higher” and many of these are right up there, a few examples:

Structural problems with agriculture
Discriminatory tax code
Corrupt power
Failure of government infrastructure

Maybe we could all ask "could we get higher?" in relation to our problems and insights.

ii. Do Stuff

The entrants to these awards generally tipped to purpose so the work itself errs on the side doing ‘stuff’ but even Cheetos pretty ad-like (and brilliant) campaign did stuff in that they coined a word for cheese-powder fingers. Mouldy Burger was an ad for a mouldy burger but BK did remove the preservatives. Some Examples of ‘stuff done’

Write and widely distribute a revealing, truth-telling book
Guarantee the purchase of farmers’ grain
Built a digital hub for a remote Island
Educational programmes for sex workers
Fixed voice recognition for people with Down's Syndrome

iii) Channel Love

All the winning entrants are expertly orchestrated but what is great to see is the loving comms planning and commitment to a channel when the idea meets audience and context. Examples:

Roadside posters for Dove framing portraits of health workers
Fortnite and Twitch for the incredible Underground Avatar campaign to create a safe space for Gamers to talk
Use of celebrity (and yes, I’m putting Celeb as ‘channel’) to elevate McDonald’s meals and the insight that we all 'have an order'
Not included below but Nestle built a long term partnership with Tencent to connect with gamers in China

Excelling in Creative Effectiveness takes a talent, graft and an alchemy among all involved but aside from those we’ll be sure to keep asking ourselves these questions:

Does the problem we’re solving give us vertigo?

Are we doing stuff or just making it? Let's do the former.

Are we showing the necessary channel love?

And below are the links to cases for all the winners.

Michelob - Contract for Change

Cheetos - Can’t touch this

The Female Company - The Tampon Book

Renault - Appy, Village Electrique

Burger King - Mouldy Whopper

McDonalds - The Travis Scott Meal

Three - The Island

Association L'enfant Bleu - Undercover Avatar