Unilever : Cannes Lions announces Unilever as Creative Marketer of the Year

Cannes Lions announces Unilever as Creative Marketer of the Year

Published: 13 May 2024

Average read time: 4 minutes

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has announced Unilever as the 2024 Creative Marketer of the Year. The honorary accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of iconic, Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, with Unilever establishing a reputation for producing brave, creative and innovative marketing solutions.

Unilever was last honoured as Creative Marketer of the Year in 2010 and in the following years has amassed hundreds of Lions. At last year's Cannes Lions, Unilever was awarded Lions across a number of its brands including Dove, Hellmann's, Dirt Is Good (known as Persil, Skip and OMO), Magnum, Vaseline, Marmite and Pot Noodle.

In 2023, Unilever's largest brand, Dove, was awarded the Media Lions Grand Prix for its '#TurnYourBack' campaign by Ogilvy, London / DAVID, Madrid. '#TurnYourBack' was deemed by Media Lions Jury President, Christian Juhl, to be "a timely example of how our industry can use the power of media to protect young people and empower them to reject the pressure they feel to conform to artificial standards and be confident in their true, unfiltered selves."

Dove's inclusive beauty mission was first launched through its 2004 campaign 'Real Beauty', which celebrates 20 years this year. Since then, the brand has been a trailblazer in demonstrating how marketing can drive impressive commercial results. Building on this platform in 2013, the 'Dove Real Beauty Sketches' campaign set out to give striking proof that women are more beautiful than they think - picking up 16 Lions, including the highly coveted Dan Wieden Titanium Lion Grand Prix as well as the Gold Creative Effectiveness Lion the following year.

Today, Dove is a €6bn brand that continues to champion real-world change for DEI, including through the introduction of the CROWN Act in the US which makes race-based hair discrimination illegal. First passed into law in 2019, there are now 24 states with legislation in place.

Unilever brand Hellmann's also continues to stand out in culture through the brand's 'Make Taste, Not Waste' creative platform, highlighting its long-standing mission to help people tackle food waste in the kitchen, most recently with the help of 'Mayo Cat' at the Big Game. With the same humorous tone, Hellmann's 'Mayo McHack' campaign taught Brits how to 'hack' the missing mayo item on a famous restaurant chain's menu, picking up two Silver Lions in PR and Brand Experience & Activation last year.

These Award-winning campaigns are testament to the company's commitment to creativity, underpinned by its marketing philosophy, 'Get on the Frontline', and delivered by its Creative Excellence programme focused on effectiveness education, increasing creative ambition, nurturing creative talent, and eliminating barriers to creativity. This dedicated programme is championed by Unilever's Creative Council, which brings together its Chief Marketing Officers and creative agency leaders and is chaired by Unilever's Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, Esi Eggleston Bracey.

About Unilever's award, Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said: "This award is about recognising and celebrating those brands that are consistently delivering work that raises the bar for creative excellence across the global creative communications industry. Unilever is pushing the creative boundaries consistently and continuously across a wide range of brands from different markets, in collaboration with a breadth of agency partners, demonstrating a clear understanding and commitment to the power of creativity as a driver for progress and growth. Congratulations on this much deserved win."

Esi Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer, Unilever, commented: "Thank you, Cannes Lions, for recognising our brand leaders and agency partners who are always pushing creative boundaries. Our commitment to bold, brave, and more creative marketing is unwavering. Creativity that starts with inspiration, connects to commerce at every moment and resonates with people to build desirable and unmissably superior brands. It is a huge honour to accept this award on behalf of our exceptional team that truly grasps the power of human connection to serve people and grow our brands."

The Creative Marketer of the Year award was Introduced in 1992, with past recipients including AB InBev, Apple, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Google, Heineken, IKEA, Mars, McDonald's, Samsung and Microsoft, each of which have demonstrated that consistent and world-class creativity underpinned by a culture of creativity drives business performance - and have won multiple Lions at the Festival as a result.

Esi Eggleston Bracey will deliver Wednesday's opening keynote during Cannes Lions and will collect this Award on behalf of Unilever at the final Awards Show of the Festival on Friday 21 June. Further information on Cannes Lions including Pass options can be found at www.canneslions.com.

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About LIONS

As The Home of Creativity, LIONS powers the marketing segment of Ascential and is a destination for those in the business of creativity. As the definitive benchmark of creative excellence and with unparalleled access to insight on how it works, LIONS provides those on the journey to creative excellence all they need, at whatever stage they are at and wherever they are. Our annual five-day Festival, Cannes Lions, is the meeting place for the global creative marketing community and a celebration of the world's most excellent and effective work.

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This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws of certain jurisdictions, including 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Words and terminology such as 'will', 'aim', 'expects', 'anticipates', 'intends', 'looks', 'believes', 'vision', 'continue', 'should', 'would be', 'seeks', or the negative of these terms and other similar expressions of future performance, results, actions or events, and their negatives, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements and information regarding Unilever's acceleration of its Growth Action Plan, Unilever's portfolio optimisation towards global or scalable brands, the capabilities and potential of such brands, the structure, timing, impacts and other aspects of the separation of Ice Cream, Ice Cream's future operational model, strategy, growth potential, performance and returns, Unilever's productivity programme, its impacts and cost savings over the next three years and operation dis-synergies from the separation of Ice Cream, the post-separation and post-disposal structure, operating model, strategy, portfolio, performance and returns of Unilever, including but not limited to Unilever's post-separation topline growth and margin. Forward-looking statements can be made in writing but also may be made verbally by directors, officers and employees of the Group (including during management presentations) in connection with this announcement. These forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and assumptions regarding anticipated developments and other factors affecting the Group. They are not historical facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance or outcomes. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

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