Cannes Lions 2024: Creative B2B winners  /

A 100-year-old Spanish grandma is the star of this year’s Creative B2B Grand Prix winner. The Meet Marina Prieto campaign by David Madrid saw JCDecaux fill its unsold OOH spaces on Madrid’s underground system with the Instagram posts of an unknown woman with 28 followers.

The idea was to make Prieto famous to demonstrate the effectiveness and reach of subway ads – more than 2.3 million people use Madrid's subway every day, but brands perceive subway media as less relevant, effective, and attractive than regular street OOH advertising, and subway ad investment decreased by 7% in 2023.

After two weeks of building speculation around the ads, JCDecaux revealed it was behind the stunt at the Effie Awards, targeting Spain’s top CMOs. According to the agency, the campaign attracted 185 new brands and doubled JCDecaux’s media investment. It has also been awarded a Gold Lion in the Outdoor category.

Creative B2B jury president Andisa Ntsubane (managing executive: brand, marketing and communications, Africa, Vodacom Group) called it ‘the ultimate celebration of humanity’, praising ‘the power of a simple breakthrough idea that captured the hearts and imagination of 14 countries around the world’.

He added that the campaign had a special place in the jurors’ hearts throughout the judging process, ‘but, also from a results perspective, this idea really proved the business case’.

‘Most interesting is that they didn’t use an existing influencer, she became the influencer,’ said Ntsubane. ‘This [campaign] also proves that you don't always need to use AI and new-generation technology to sell an idea or pull on the heartstrings and wallets of key decision-makers.’

One over-arching theme shone through this year, he added. ‘B2B [is] at the forefront of helping to address the biggest global and social issues that we face.’ For instance, DP World’s The Move to -15°C campaign (awarded a Silver Lion) is ‘a bold idea that costs nothing’ and demonstrates ‘the power of B2B to help address the most global issues we’re facing’, said Ntsubane.

Speaking more broadly about the Creative B2B category, Ntsubane observed ‘an increase in the use of influencers and celebrities and also humour [having] a profound impact on the brand and the emotional connection to those brands [in what is] typically received as a functional, complex, cold category.’

He also encouraged the industry to look closely at and learn from Brazil, where ‘we are seeing the rise in the strength of creativity in B2B’ and businesses are harnessing ‘the power of creativity to help address social issues’ (eg, Eletromidia’s Guarded Bus Stop project, which won a Gold Lion in Media last year).

Thanks for Coke-creating for Coca-Cola by VML, New York, Kansas City, São Paulo

Pub Museums for Heineken by LePub, Milan and Publicis, Dublin