Annually, over 10,000 members of the global creative communications industries converge on the French Riviera to attend the Cannes Lions Festival. They have been gathering there since 1954 in hopes of receiving one of the prestigious Cannes Lions Awards. Attendees represent more than 4,000 different companies from across the world. This year McCormick & Company and its marketing firm R/GA won two of those awards that related to McCormick’s FlavorPrint™ campaign. A press release from R/GA announcing the awards explained FlavorPrint:
“FlavorPrint is a service that helps consumers decode the flavors they already love, and invites them to discover, share and bring new flavors into their homes. Consumers can choose to engage with this service on many different levels from seeking or sharing a new recipe to answering a quiz about flavor preferences and shopping for groceries. The more consumers engage, the smarter the service becomes, resulting in personalized recommendations and an enhanced ongoing experience. Recipes, products and consumers will get a unique FlavorPrint mark. The mark allows you to easily scan a recipe to help determine if it is right for you. Your own personal FlavorPrint mark is a representation of your flavor preferences and a way for you to discover new flavors that you may not have otherwise explored.”
Enterra Solutions® has been working closely with McCormick & Company to help it develop the FlavorPrint service so that McCormick’s customers can get the most out of their food experiences. As you might imagine, we are nearly as excited about the campaign winning these prestigious awards as McCormick and R/GA. Both awards received by R/GA and McCormick were in the “Cyber Lions” category. The first award, a Silver Lion, was received in the sub-category of “Other Digital Solutions.” Entrants in this category must, according to Festival rules, offer “a useful digital service or tool that creates brand value between the product and consumer and enhances the users lifestyle or behavior e.g., downloadable or online tools/apps.” The Silver Lion was specifically awarded in the “Branded utility/tool (for digital)” category.
The Bronze Lion was awarded to R/GA and McCormick in the sub-category “Craft” and “User experience.” The jury based its decisions on “the quality of Craft as demonstrated in the design or technical execution of websites or online content. This might take into account the quality of the graphic design, photography, illustration, copywriting or animation, the skillful use of music or sound design.” To win an award, the content had to provide “a pleasurable or memorable aesthetic experience” to users. For the specific award received by R/GA and McCormick, “the engagement between the consumer and product – offline/online accessible via digital devices and other media,” was judged.
Shortly after the awards were announced, Andrew Foust, Digital Business Development Director at McCormick, sent a triumphal note to the Enterra® team exclaiming that the awards were “a tremendous accomplishment for all.” In his note, he relayed that less than one percent of all nominees win anything. That made winning two awards all the sweeter. If you haven’t visited McCormick’s website to see what all the excitement is about, I recommend you do so. Signing up is both fun and informative.
