Lens That @ Cannes Lions

Cannes Lions is the world’s biggest and most prestigious festival of creativity that celebrates excellence in advertising and design. Held annually in Cannes, this year’s edition attracted an incredible number of 15,000 attendees who, over the course of five festival days, networked, listened to industry experts, discussed current trends, and most importantly, drew inspiration from the best as the festival hosted the prestigious Lions awards, acting as a crucial platform for agencies to showcase the value of their creativity, with awarded campaigns highlighting their excellence. Thus, winning a Lion is a thing and is being considered one of the highest honors in the advertising and creative industries.

This year featured 32 categories, celebrating achievements in design, innovation, social and PR, creative effectiveness, engagement, and brand experience, to name a few. The stakes were high as always, and this year was no different. Out of 27,000 submitted campaigns, only 10% made the shortlist, and just 1% won the coveted Lion. The campaigns co-created by Lens That with Milan-based LePub and LePub Amsterdam captured significant attention at the festival, being rewarded with the outstanding number of 9 (nine!) awards. Here is what the talented Polish team of AR creatives did.

Heineken’s Pub Museums

„Pub Museums” campaign is an incredible story on how Heineken is using AR to help preserve Irish pubs. LePub (Milan) and Publicis (Dublin) teamed up with the world famous beer brand to transform these unusual historic sites into virtual museums, making them eligible for the financial benefits provided to cultural institutions and help them safeguard the heritage.

The campaign leverages AR technology to showcase the stories behind the historic watering holes, and that’s where the Warsaw-based talents stepped in. Once having a pint in any of the pubs, turned virtual museums, such as Toners Pub in Dublin, Mother Macs Public House in Limerick, and Sean’s Bar in Athlone, apparently the oldest pub in the world, visitors can use their phones to scan a QR code on a plaque outside, triggering an AR overlay that narrates local legends associated with them. By integrating indoor navigation with each pub’s geolocation, digital 3D models of numerous historical objects inside the pubs were created and brought back to life! The campaign got incredible recognition at the festival and was awarded with 4 x Gold Lions, 4 x Silver Lions and 10 Shortlist entries, including the most prestigious one, the Titanium. The campaign co-created with Milan-based LePub and Publicis from Dublin was awarded in such categories as Tangible & Spatial Technology, Use of Technology and Immersive Experiences. 

Agencies LePub (Milan), Publicis (Dublin), Thinkhouse (Dublin) & XR Creative Studio: Lens That (Warsaw)

Philips – Refurb. Better than New

“Refurb. Better than New.” is a sustainability awareness campaign by Philips that targets discarded yet still fully functional electronic goods that end up in landfills each year. Launched on Earth Day, the campaign featured videos dramatizing the issue by bringing discarded gifts back to cities, raising awareness memorably.

An engaging AR activation, created by Lens That and hosted in Berlin, was part of the campaign. Throughout the Earth Day week, passers-by who scanned a QR code near the Berlin TV Tower could see a virtual mountain of discarded gifts, symbolizing annual waste. This immersive experience aimed to shock viewers into rethinking their buying habits and directed them to the Philips e-commerce store to learn more about the program and purchase the Refurb Editions.

The impact? In 2023, the Philips Personal Health refurbishment program reused 6.7 tonnes of materials from suitable returned products, with over 13,000 refurbished personal health products finding new homes. The campaign was awarded the unique Grand Prix Lion for Experience: Creative Business Transformation – Experience Transformation and received two Shortlist entries.

Agencies LePub (Amsterdam), Shotz (Berlin), OMD (Amsterdam), Ketchum (Amsterdam), Ambassadors & XR Creative Studio: Lens That (Warsaw)