Cases for Creativity 2016 highlights 15 combined Gold Lion, Gold Effie winning campaigns

James Hurman

Representing the ultimate industry achievement, 15 campaigns have accomplished such a feat in 2016. Six of the fifteen Cases are for commercial brands. The others are not-for-profit or corporate social responsibility campaigns. The number of Cases for Creativity in 2016 dropped by two, compared to 2015 (17). In 2014 and 2013, there were 12 apiece and in 2012, when the first study launched, there were just nine.

Hurman comments, “Two of this year’s group are retrospective effectiveness awards, acknowledging the success, over many years, of Old Spice and John Lewis. These feel like proper creative advertising. Campaigns that have taken two brands that by rights should have been as dull as dishwater and made them transcend their natural order - made leaders of them.

“But looking at the other, more recent campaigns, I worry that we’re losing the ability to do that. We are in danger of becoming overly seduced by anything that is trying to save the world. In addition, our commercial campaigns look less like efforts to make brands transcendent and more like attempts to follow a fashion of being so real and authentic that we actually avoid creativity.

“Whilst these campaigns can be disarming to the consumer, I’m not sure it’s really creative. Most troubling, these campaigns all feel just a bit too similar. Like we have stopped awarding work that is different and started awarding work that is the same. As the gold Effies prove, these campaigns are effective, but we mustn’t lose the ability to set brands apart with big shiny ideas, as we are in danger of losing the magic that creative agencies can add to brands.”

Cases for Creativity 2016

• #whoistheking for Burger King by Buzzman, France
  
• Breast Cream for New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation by Colenso BBDO, New Zealand
  
• Groceries Not Guns for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America by Grey Toronto, Canada
  
• Last Words for Indian Association of Palliative Care by Medulla Communications, India
  
• Lifepaint for Volvo by Grey London, United Kingdom
  
• Manboobs for MACMA by David Buenos Aires, Argentina
  
• Multiple campaigns for John Lewis by adam&eveDDB, United Kingdom
  
• Multiple campaigns for Old Spice by Wieden+Kennedy Portland, USA
  
• Radiometries, for Exito Foundation by Sancho BBDO, Colombia
  
• Save our Songbirds for Natura 2000 NGO Coalition by Jazz, Romania
  
• Share the Load for Ariel by BBDO Mumbai, India
  
• The 6-Pack Band for Brooke Bond Red Label by Mindshare Mumbai, India
  
• The Bulletpen for Ministry of National Education by McCann Bogotá, Colombia
  
• The Madden Giferator for EA Sports by Heat, USA
  
• World Gallery for Apple by TBWA\Media Arts Lab Los Angeles, USA

To view in full The Gunn Report’s Cases for Creativity 2016 study, go here.