Patriotic campaign wins Promo and Activation at 2011 Cannes Lions

It's that time of the year again - that one full week when thousands of creative folks from around the world gather to the chocolate box, French Rivieran city that is Cannes. A beautiful Sunday morning greeted advertising professionals, designers, and marketers - signaling the first day of the 2011 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Day one was dedicated entirely to seminars and workshops by creative suits such as Landon & Berlin School of Creative Leadership, goviral, and SapientNitro; and global brands like L'Oreal and BMW. There's more that came and more to come in the succeeding days but in this blog, we'll put the spotlight solely on the winning entries.

The first Lion was given Monday evening. The category was Promo and Activation. The winner: patriotism.

When the manufacturers of Romania's ROM realized that the chocolate bar is starting to lose ground among the young locals, they sat down with the people of McCann Erickson Romania and came up with a campaign that triggered backlash to its "new identity."




This campaign had angry Romanians stockpiling ROM bars in original packaging. Aside from revived nationalistic pride in the locals, that meant sales and effective brand promotion for ROM.

McCann Erickson Romania received another lion (under Direct category) for the similar campaign.

For more updates on the ad festival, log on to www.canneslions.com.