Influencing real cultural, societal and economic change
While Cannes offers important creative validation, it provides key trends and insights through winning campaigns.
4 Aug 2025
Terry Levin looks at campaigns presented at the recent Creative Circle Full Circle event in Cape Town. Pictured: The Sounds Right campaign
This year, identifying insights, intention, and impact were some of the key trends in the case studies presented at the recent Creative Circle Full Circle event in Cape Town.
The event featured keynote speaker Ann Nurock and several of South Africa’s top creatives who were jury members at Cannes 2025.
Some of the most memorable examples shared by the panel of SA jury members at this year's event show how the organisations are showing up for societal change, and dominating business results, through cultural influence, media headlines and in consumer hearts and minds.
They showed how brands leverage cultural, societal and economic influence for the greater benefit of brands and people.
Case studies
- AXA Home Insurance | France | Three Words Campaign
- Indian Railways | India | Indian Railways turn ticket evaders into lottery winners
- Herconomy | Nigeria | Breastmilk Money
- Nordea | Finland | The Paternal Leave Mortgage
- Colombia Tourism| Colombia | Humanimal Migration
- The Museum of the United Nations | Spotify | Sounds Right
Tackling Gender-based Violence (GBV) head-on, French finance brand AXA added ‘three words’ to their home insurance contracts.
By adding the phrase ’and domestic violence’ to household damages coverage policies, it could provide victims of domestic abuse with lifeline emergency relocation services and support in the event of a domestic crisis.
To date, the brand’s intentional and unequivocal positioning has benefited hundreds of victims of domestic abuse, while generating more coverage in the media headlines and more real benefit than any ‘normal’ ad campaign, showing how the best of intentions generate the best of outcomes.
Over 7.5 million people ride local trains in Mumbai each day, but around 41% do not pay, making ticketless travel a chronic issue which drains vital revenue from the Indian Railways each year.
The campaign case study, Lucky Yatra, shows how valid train tickets were transformed into lottery ticket entries.
The case study provides all the good feels, via footage of passengers shrieking in delight, waving their winning lottery tickets at stations and ticketing booths, encouraging purchase while ingeniously unlocking revenue already in the economy into the much-needed railway infrastructure.
A big promotional exercise deemed worthy of the Grand Prix in the PR category at Cannes Lions 2025.
Herconomy, a Nigerian financial services company, effectively turned milk into money while hitting it out of the park in their mission to help women achieve financial independence.
The big insight is that many Nigerian families spend a significant portion of their income on baby formula.
Calculating the cost savings of breastfeeding compared to formula feeding, and converting the results, saw savings deposited into a 14.3% interest account for mothers, an initiative which generated a five times increase in sign-ups for Herconomy.
It also led to a healthy 9.2% increase in breastfeeding rates in the targeted regions and pumped an estimated $30m back into the economy.
It was shortlisted in numerous categories and is a Cannes Lions winner in the Creative Data, Direct, and Health and Wellness categories.
A proud moment for an African finance brand.
Some of the speakers from the recent Creative Circle Full Circle event held in Cape Town. (L to r:) Pete Case - CEO Ogilvy SA and Creative Strategy jury member, Ann Nurock - keynote speaker, Carl Willoughby - Creative Circle chairperson and CCO of TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris and Direct jury member, Neo Mashigo - CCO of M&C Saatchi Abel and film jury member, Xolisa Dyeshana - chief creative officer and partner, Joe Public chair of the Audio & Radio jury
Another financial institution living up to its potential by reading the societal room is Finnish bank, Nordea.
The name is a marriage of ‘Nordic’ and ‘ideas’, which it lived up to.
In Finland, both parents are eligible for maternity and paternity leave, but the fact that most men are higher earners than their spouses causes 88% of the parental leave to be taken by mothers, depriving dads of their eligible leave.
Nailing the structural gender imbalance with a new product offering, a payment holiday on mortgages during the parental leave period, sees the brave and innovative strategy contribute to healthier and more balanced families and societies, while significantly boosting the bank’s image and reputation in the public domain.
The iconically entitled Humanimal Campaign for Colombia Tourism identifies that, while Colombia is far from top-of-mind as a holiday destination for humans, animals know better, with over 1,200 species, including birds, whales, and turtles migrating to Colombia annually.
The tech/tourism campaign turns birds and other animals into ambassadors for the country's natural beauty, utilising data insights to track migratory patterns to Colombia, positioning the country as a world-class tourism destination for nature lovers and biodiversity.
The simple communication has attracted a 64% increase in tourism visitors, translating to economic benefits of $89.6m and a Gold Lion for Creative Strategy and Bronze in the Creative Data usage category.
Spotify is another brand that shows new ways of collaborating with, rather than exploiting, the natural world.
The Sounds Right campaign sees ‘Mother Nature’ become an artist in her own right, using the sounds of the earth to create music and earn royalties, which are ploughed back into conservation funds and which earned a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the Innovation category.
This is the ninth consecutive year Bizcommunity has partnered with the Creative Circle as media partner for its Full Circle Event.
There was a session in Johannesburg and two sessions in Cape Town.
For more:
- Cannes Lions special section and search
- More info: Google News, Cannes Lions Twitter
- Official site: http://www.canneslions.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
About Terry Levin
Brand and Culture Strategy consulting | Bizcommunity.com CCO at large. Email terry@offtheshelf.co.za, Twitter @terrylevin, Instagram, LinkedIn.
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