OMD Worldwide: Media Network of the Year 2024

A five-minute live broadcast played on the kiss cam at football matches, inviting the first fan spotted with a packet of Lay’s to watch a Champions League game with two football legends. Entertainment Lions Juror Monde Twala, SVP and General Manager at Paramount Africa and Lead at BET International, said: “This was spontaneous. It was experiential. It brought you into a space where you’re celebrating sports, but also positioning your product in the hearts and minds of fans.”

Gyms, nail salons, campsites and dental clinics became IKEA showrooms in an initiative to boost accessibility in the Philippines. The 927 new ‘stores’ increased website revenue by 8% year on year. “The smartest thing about this is that it uses the product as the media,” said Media Lions Juror Vanessa Giannotti, Media VP at Ogilvy Brasil. “It reduces the friction and captures the consumer at the exact moment that they’re aiming to buy.”

A shapeshifting main character tested the iPhone camera’s transitions in this 15-minute Chinese New Year film shot on the device. The film was launched like a blockbuster, complete with a ‘making of’ film and homepage tab takeovers on leading streaming sites, and was shared by 15.7 million people. It shows how to build the cinematic credibility of the camera by giving the ad a film-quality release.

McDonald’s showed how to use an untapped media channel to spotlight a fan truth – New Zealanders adding extra items to their standard orders. Taking over the tiny screens below billboards where media providers put their logo, it used sales data to pair big fan favourites with smaller ‘ad-on’ items. Inspired by a popular countertop phrase (“aaand a”), the media hack demonstrates how to encourage impulse buys.

CeraVe sparked a viral conspiracy theory that it was developed by actor Michael Cera, culminating in a Super Bowl reveal that helped the brand achieve its highest-ever week of moisturiser sales. Media Lions Juror Fábio Baracho Martinelli, Global VP of Connections and Occasions, AB InBev, described the piece as “a powerful combination of creativity, media strategy and media execution, where different channels build an impactful story”.