Titanium & Special award winners: APAC’s ‘Palau Pledge’ wins top honour at Cannes Lions 2018

The pre-Cannes hype has most definitely paid off for Host/Havas Sydney’s ‘Palau Pledge’ campaign as the Asia-Pacific campaign swept the Titanium Lions by taking the Grand Prix to make it three top gongs at this year’s Cannes Lions.

The remarkable yet simple campaign, which saw visitors to the Pacific island nation of Palau have to sign a pledge stamped in their passports to protect and care for the idyllic ecosystem they had come to visit, left its mark on this year’s awards and the Titanium judges, who were mightily impressed.

“It won our hearts, not because of the good it did but because of the good it was,” said Titanium Lions Jury president Colleen DeCourcy, chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy. “If our job is capturing attention and transferring it from mind to heart, ‘Palau Pledge’ was constructed as an incredibly effective vehicle. Truly inspiring work that will have a lasting legacy.” 

Palau Pledge also took home Grand Prix wins in Sustainable Development Goals and Direct, not to mention Gold in Brand & Experience and Silver in Media.

There were five more Titanium winners:

• Apple Cupertino for ‘Today at Apple’
• P&G Cincinnati/Saatchi & Saatchi New York for ‘It’s a Tide Ad Campaign’
• Droga5 New York for ‘Dundee’ for Tourism Australia
• AMVBBDO for ‘BloodNormal’ for Essity
• Wieden+Kennedy London for ‘Nothing Beats a Londoner’ for Nike

The Special Awards were also announced:

Agency of the year
First: Adam&eveDDB London
Second: AMVBBDO London
Third: BBDO New York

Network of the year
First: BBDO Worldwide
Second: Ogilvy
Third: DDB Worldwide

Independent agency of the year
First: Jung von Matt Hamburg
Second: Droga5 New York
Third: Wieden+Kennedy London

Holding company of the year
First: Omnicom
Second: WPP
Third: Interpublic Group

The Palme d’Or
First: MJZ USA
Second: Revolver/Will O’Rourke
Third: The Corner Shop USA

Creative marketer of the year
Lorraine Twohill, Google

Cannes LionHeart Award
Paul Polman, Unilever

Lion of St Mark
Piyush Pandey
Prasoon Pandey

View all the latest Cannes winners results, plus full coverage from our editors on the ground, here.