Talon in Cannes: Celebrating Big OOH Ideas, Sustainability & Thinking Outside
Cannes 2023: Talon & Grand Visual’s OOH Highlights
Cannes is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity – bringing the industry together to discuss the future of creativity and its challenges. This year, AI and sustainability were the talk of La Croisette, alongside celebrations of the Cannes Lions winners.
The Talon and Grand Visual teams flew the flag for Out of Home with a jam-packed week of activity. Keep reading for our key takeaways from Cannes 2023.
Celebrating Big OOH ideas
As always, the work showcased at Cannes Lions was exceptional, with winners pushing boundaries and demonstrating creativity’s potential for positive change.
British Airways and Uncommon Creative Studio were awarded the Grand Prix – Outdoor Lion for their captivating campaign “A British Original. The work, which broke in October last year, was made up of 512 executions around the reasons why people travel such as to see loved ones, get engaged or “eat the unpronounceable”. Talon loved planning and bringing this OOH campaign to life with MG OMD.
Budweiser’s “This Billboard Is Yours to Take,” also received a Bronze Media Lion, and was a favourite of many we asked in Cannes. Grand Visual, our creative OOH production agency, worked on this fantastic OOH campaign with FCB New York.
Sustainability and the need for more action
Sustainability took centre stage at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival, emphasizing the growing importance of environmental consciousness in the creative industry. The festival organizers announced the introduction of non-compulsory sustainability reporting to the entry process for all Lions awards. This move encouraged participants to outline the CO2 emissions associated with their submitted work, aligning with AdNet Zero’s five-point Action Plan. The goal was to benchmark best practices across global creative production and distribution, demonstrating a commitment to mitigating environmental impact.
Cannes Lions 2023 showcased an array of inspiring examples of how brands can innovate their supply chains, products, and processes to reduce their environmental footprint. Winners like IKEA’s Life collection campaign in Norway demonstrated the power of storytelling to drive the adoption of sustainable social behaviours. By sharing authentic stories behind second-hand furniture purchases, IKEA highlighted the significance of sustainable consumption while avoiding the pitfalls of greenwashing. Weber Shandwick also won a bronze for turning turnstiles into a new energy source. This campaign reinvented turnstiles into prototypes of the world’s first underground wind turbines: the Turnstile Turbines. Two brilliant examples of how brands can make a positive impact on the environment while engaging their audiences.
Across the week, the message was clear that more action is needed to address sustainability challenges. William Skeaping of Extinction Rebellion emphasized this urgency during a panel discussion. He highlighted the gravity of the crisis we face and stressed the responsibility of businesses to step up and make a difference. These calls to action served as a reminder that sustainability should remain a top priority for brands and agencies.
Imagining what’s possible when you Think Outside
Talon participated in various panels and discussions at Cannes, contributing valuable insights and OOH expertise across the week. Our Group CEO, Barry Cupples, joined a roundtable hosted by Campaign Magazine UK, addressing: How can brands find the sweet spot between short-term sales and long-term brand-building? This thought-provoking discussion explored the trade-offs and strategies that brands can employ for effective marketing, read more on Campaign.
In addition, our Group CEO Barry Cupples also engaged in discussions on programmatic DOOH and digital out-of-home at panels hosted by Outfront and the DPAA, respectively.
Dan Dawson, Chief Creative Officer of Grand Visual shared his insights on the Little Black Book & Friends Beach panel discussion, “Can we really do Everything Everywhere all at once?”
As part of our commitment to supporting industry events and fostering meaningful connections, Talon sponsored Campaign Magazine ‘s Global VIP Cannes Party. This exclusive gathering provided an excellent opportunity for networking and celebrating creativity and innovation.
We discuss OOH’s superpowers, our favourite OOH ideas, and creativity in the real world in our Talon in Cannes video. Watch now:
