CANNES, France—Ogilvy & Mather, which won four Grand Prix in 2013, is off to a good start at this year's festival, too, winning the Direct Lions Grand Prix here tonight for its delightful #lookup digital billboards that showed kids pointing to actual British Airways planes as they passed overhead.
The work, entered into the festival by OgilvyOne, captured the public's imagination when it launched in November. The billboards showed real-time data about each individual plane, including the flight number and destination, and a weather feed even read the cloud height to ensure the plane was visible before showing the ad.
"We all know from conversations with friends and family that we wonder where the planes are going and dream of an amazing holiday or warm destination," Abigail Comber, head of marketing at British Airways, said at the time. "The clever technology allows this advertisement to engage people there and then answer that question for them. We hope it will create a real 'wow' and people will be reminded how amazing flying is and how accessible the world can be."
The U.S. won just a single Lion, a gold, and it went to Interlude in New York for creating an interactive music video for Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," to coincide with the release of a career-spanning Dylan box set.