CANNES, France—A year after she was a no-show at Cannes Lions, the festival awarded one of its top prizes Gisele Bundchen's Under Armour campaign, with Droga5 picking up the Grand Prix in the Cyber category.
The supermodel, who backed out of a mcgarrybowen main-stage commitment last year—to be replaced by Rob Lowe (whose ads, alas, have not won anything)—was one of many stars of UA's "I Will What I Want" campaign. But her portion of the campaign was the most digitally innovative, featuring a website that pulled in real-time social-media insults about her to emphasize that she uses her strength and will to block out noise from even her most nasty detractors.
Droga5 said the Gisele campaign led to 1.5 billion media impressions, $15 million in earned media, an average of four minutes spent on the site at the campaign's peak, a 42 percent increase in visits to UA.com and a 28 percent sales increase for the brand. The campaign won two gold Lions and four silvers in addition to its Grand Prix.
This is the first Cannes Grand Prix for Droga5 since 2012, when it took home the Grand Prix for Good for assisting Help Remedies in producing an adhesive bandage that could save someone's life. Droga's most celebrated year at Cannes was 2011, when it won three Grand Prix—two for its Jay Z "Decoded" work and one for Puma.
The win marks the fifth Grand Prix at this festival for advertising that celebrates women, following three P&G's feminine-care campaign that topped the PR and Glass Lions as well as Lions Health and the Y&R campaign that took the top prize in Media.
U.S. agencies, which often dominate the Cyber category, did very well again this year, winning a total of six gold Lions, 20 silvers and 20 bronzes.
The U.S. gold winners were the The ALS Association for "The Ice Bucket Challenge," Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for Adobe's "Dream On," The Martin Agency for Geico's "Unskippable" preroll ads, and R/GA for its Hammerhead bicycle navigation gadget.
See all the U.S. Cyber winners below.
—U.S. Cyber Winners
• Droga5 New York - Under Armour, Gisele Bündchen, "I Will What I Want" - Grand Prix, two golds, four silvers
• The ALS Association Washington - "The Ice Bucket Challenge" - Gold
• Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco - Adobe's "Dream On" - Gold, silver
• The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va. - Geico's "Unskippable" - Gold, silver, bronze
• R/GA New York - Hammerhead Navigation - Gold, silver, two bronzes
• BBDO New York - American Red Cross & Bitly - Hope.Ly - Two silvers, two bronzes
• Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco - Reebok's "Be More Human" - Two silvers
• Grow in Norfolk, Va. - EA Sports Madden Giferator - Silver, two bronzes
• Droga5 New York - Newcastle Band Of Brands - Silver, two bronzes
• Pereira & O'Dell San Francisco - Intel + Dell's "What Lives Inside" - Silver, two bronzes
• BBDO New York - Foot Locker's "Horse With Harden" - Silver, bronze
• Grey New York - Volvo's "Interception" - Silver
• Wieden + Kennedy New York - Squarespace's Jeff Bridges Sleeping Tapes - Silver
• TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles - Gatorade's "Made In NY" - Silver
• Mother New York - James Patterson's Self-Destructing Book - Silver
• BBDO New York - Autism Speaks - The Mssng Project - Silver
• R/GA New York - Ad Council's "Love Has No Labels" - Three bronzes
• Ogilvy New York - IBM's "Play!" - Bronze
• David Miami - Burger King's "Proud Whopper" - Bronze
• R/GA New York - Samsung Holiday Dreams - Bronze
• Dieste Dallas - DPA's "Adoptable Trends" - Bronze
• DigitasLBi San Francisco - Taco Bell Blackout - Bronze
