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TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris caps record success with Grand Prix

24 Jun 2009

TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris Johannesburg has won what it reckons is a record number of Cannes Lions for its Trillion Dollar campaign for The Zimbabwean newspaper at the 2009 International Advertising Festival. This is believed to be the single most awarded campaign coming out of South Africa in Cannes' 56-year history. The agency capped its success by winning the Outdoor Grand Prix .

$TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris caps record success with Grand Prix$

At the second awards ceremony, held on Tuesday night, 23 June 2009, the agency scooped two Bronze Lions, two Gold Media Lions for the best use of mixed media, one Gold Outdoor Lion for the best outdoor and a Grand Prix for its work done on The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar campaign. This, along with the Silver Direct Lion awarded at the opening awards ceremony, brings the total awards won at Cannes by TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris for The Zimbabwean to seven for a single campaign. (Still to be announced are the Titanium Integrated Lions and the Design Lions, in which TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris are finalists for the latter.)

The campaign was designed to raise awareness regarding the plight of The Zimbabwean newspaper and consisted of various creative elements, including a billboard, all made up entirely of Zimbabwean dollar bank notes. The newspaper, the brainchild of journalists driven into exile, is committed to providing independent and fair comment on Zimbabwe to Zimbabweans, and has had a 'luxury' import duty of over 55% added to it by the Mugabe government, thus making it unaffordable to the average Zimbabwean citizen.

Damon Stapleton, executive creative director, comments, "We don't believe that information is a luxury, which is why we believe so strongly in this campaign. All of the campaign elements were made up from trillions and trillions of Zimbabwean dollars, which in the end worked out cheaper than using paper. When we conceptualised the campaign the idea of using Zimbabwean dollars came about; we couldn't think of a stronger or clearer way to illustrate the seriousness of the situation in Zimbabwe.

“Effectively we turned the currency, a symbol of what is happening in the country, into the medium."

Gavin Heron, group MD for TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, enthuses, "As an agency we are thrilled and humbled by this win and couldn't be prouder of our team! The aim when the team first started working on this campaign was to draw attention to the plight of The Zimbabwean newspaper and Zimbabwe as effectively as possibly. Winning these awards is the cherry on top of a great campaign which delivered exceptional sales results for The Zimbabwean.

Watch the YouTube Zim Trillion Dollar campaign: