McCann took the Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix in Cannes this year with a campaign that tapped into a universal family dynamic: parents living in the sticks, children living in the city.
The big problem: how to get the kids to come and visit their parents more often. The big insight McCann had for their client, V/Line, a train operator based in Melbourne: why not aim the message at the parents, not the kids?
In awarding this campaign the Grand Prix, the jury tipped their collective hat not just at the campaign’s obvious strengths – great, funny creative; resonant cultural insight – but also at the obvious “through line” from strategy to execution to results. A case for all planners to take on board, in other words. (If you subscribe to Warc, you can read it here.)
Here’s Pat Baron, ECD at McCann, telling the story of the campaign.