In anticipation of who will bring home Gold Lions in the Media category this year, we wanted to reshine the spotlight on some of our 2016 winners and get a few insights on the impact of winning. We asked last year’s winning team two questions: what winning meant to them and how it influenced their work over the following year.

Harriet Finnigan, Strategist, PHD Unilever
Coming from New Zealand, having your work acknowledged on the world stage is a privilege in its own right – let alone winning at such a grand scale.

The Brewtroleum Cannes win is a testament to the fact that a great idea doesn’t need huge agency backing, big budgets or bigger egos to make it award winning – the power behind a great idea is in fact simple; insight, passion and collaboration (with a touch of magic). I have learnt that those components, while they may seem rudimentary, are so often overlooked and replaced with complexity, regiment or speed. As people who are zealous for our work, we should push for quality against an industry that is striving for efficiency.

Brewtroleum from Omnicom Media Group on Vimeo

BREWTROLEUM | DB BREWERIES | COLENSO BBDO2016
MEDIA | USE OF MEDIA | USE OF STUNTS
ENTERED BY: PHD, AUCKLAND
GOLD – CANNES LIONS 2016

Cassidy Meredith, Senior Account Director, Spark PR & Activate
I was given the amazing opportunity to attend Cannes thanks to being the winner of the 2016 PHD Light Awards. The experience was amazing and having the opportunity to see some of the best work in the world has made me rethink what it takes to create not just award winning creative, but creative that works.

Winning a Gold at Cannes is like a good glass of Pinot Noir. You have one glass and after that, you want another. It’s pushed me to continuously think beyond the traditional platforms available in market, and think of solutions that will step change the business of our clients.

Amanda Palenski, Group Business Director, PHD Network New Zealand
Winning at Cannes was an amazing experience, and certainly gave me a different perspective on what it takes to create award winning work. A common theme in a lot of the great work we saw addressed social tension or a brand’s higher purpose, which in turn provided a great platform for creating incredibly rich and emotionally connecting communications – the type of work that really hits you in the stomach.

Since being back in New Zealand we’ve tried to find that sweet spot that’s both relevant for our brand, but also connects at a really deep level with our consumers. We’re hoping for a great result with DB Export Beer Bottle Sand (the follow-up campaign to Brewtroleum) that addresses the very important issue of sand mining in New Zealand.

Source: http://www.canneslionsarchive.com/winners/entry/762984/brewtroleum