Cannes Lions 2024: Pharma winners /

Healthcare service provider Siemens Healthineers won the Grand Prix in the Pharma category at Cannes Lions for its Magnetic Stories campaign.

Working with agency Area 23 (part of IPG Health Network), New York, the brand created an audiobook collection that transforms a loud, scary MRI into a more fun experience for younger patients, as they listen to them via headphones.

MRIs make horrible sounds, but predictable ones. To help make the experience less traumatic for children, the brand tasked bestselling authors to write audiobooks that incorporated these sounds into the story. For instance, in one story, the jarring whirr of the MRI becomes the sound effect of a playful robot.

Magnetic Stories launched in Portugal, in the CUF hospital network. Following its success, it is planned to extend to Spain, Germany, Italy, and the UK.

The Pharma Jury president Collette Douaihy, global chief creative officer, health, Dentsu Health, outlined three trends they picked out from the best of the work: the rise of product innovation, with tech taking centre stage ahead of brand-led work; the rise of inclusivity — be it improving access to diagnostic tools and access to travel, tackling racial disparities and closing the gender gap; and the rise of the customer experience.

The Grand Prix pick typified all three, she said: ‘This is storytelling at its best, and when you think about the customer experience, that’s exactly what we’re talking about with innovation behind that customer experience — like when you have the right insights and the right data to help you tell that story and you understand what patients are truly going through. What was great about this work is it was very precisely thought through in every moment of that MRI machine, all the noises that it made was thought through and applied to very exciting moments in the story that unfolded for these children.’

Douaihy also had high praise for the Gold winner (see below), but noted while it was great and had amazing potential to change lives, it didn’t yet have the results to warrant a Grand Prix.

Pharma Gold Lions Winner

Voice 2 Diabetes for KVI Brave Fund by Klick Health, Toronto