The Young Lions 2023 national round in the PR category was won by our Creative Director Kaja Zustakova in a team with our CEO & Strategy Director Bibi.
So they packed their bags together for the biggest festival of creativity in Cannes. Their suitcases were covered with the stickers that we had prepared for them at boomex. These stickers were for luck, motivation, and as a keepsake. But that’s not important now. Let’s go back to basics.
Kaja also shared with Strategie magazine the top works that resonated with her the most. Take a look into Cannes Lions through her uncensored perspective.
“After a long time, I “met” a mission that was fulfilled and was not just on a paper or forgotten on some slide of an internal presentation.“
My journey to Cannes
In Cannes, I competed in the PR category as part of Young Lions together with my colleague CEO & Strategy Director at boomex, Bibiana Sotakova. If you want to know how it went, what tasks and complications we had, or what the best T-shirt lettering was, read Bibs’ article. In mine, I’ll share a few “things” that kept me awake.
Levi’s their 150-year brand building
A brand with more than a rich history, which has its own… Historian! Yes exactly. Perhaps I will surprise you even more when I say that the historian has become an integral part of their marketing team.
All the stories and customer experiences she collects become the template for advertisements and all brand communication. Without her, we wouldn’t know that someone once actually traded a cow for Levis. Beautiful storytelling. And most importantly – inspired by true stories.
Patagonia and their clear mission
We all know Patagonia. And honestly, probably all of us who attended their lecture in Cannes already knew most of what was presented.
My mind woke up only with their mission “to save our home planet.” What pleasantly surprised me wasn’t just their mission and its wording, but how they turned it into reality. How they ensure that all activities from production to marketing are truly aligned with the mission.
After a long time, I “met” a mission that was fulfilled and was not just on a paper or forgotten on some slide of an internal presentation. I give a carbon neutral like!
The North Face and their courage to work with a small agency
The North Face follows its “never stop exploring” approach even when looking for partners. The presented campaign was not done internally, nor did they entrust it to a large agency, but to a small team, or a boutique agency. They dusted off the old adage that good creative comes from people who know the brand and have an insight. And there may not even be a hundred of those people. It takes a lot of courage to entrust such a strong brand to a smaller agency. But if it works there, it can work here, too.
Visit Iceland and an email from a horse
If you haven’t seen this campaign, hurry up. Although the creators may have thought that “it’s stupid” when they came up with it, they were guided by these points:
– Do not create ideas, solve problems.
– Know your target audience as you know your BFF.
– Feelings are everything. Listen to yours.
– Whatever you do, don’t be boring.
– Commit to the idea.
– Editing is what makes great ideas great and not only good.
And as they themselves summed up: “Ridiculous can quickly become revolutionary.” And that is also the case with Visit Iceland.
„„Ridiculous can quickly
become revolutionary.“
In the end, I would like to thank my colleague Bibs in particular and let her know that I will be signing us up for another year! You have already read about how great the entire Slovak team was and how it was flawlessly organized in previous articles. I’ll just add that it’s true!
And many thanks to our category partner, Slovenska sporitelna. We are already “saving” all ideas to get there in a year.