With Cannes Lions less than a month away, what creative campaigns and projects are in the running? We caught up with Cheil Worldwide’s global chief creative officer, Malcolm Poynton to find out about the innovations, experiences and products that have been creating change across the world. From an app that uses haptic feedback to help people with speech disorders, a pink glove that’s helping to tackle South Korea’s shocking breast cancer rates to an ingenious art hack that allows consumers to use a tax loophole to get a cheaper TV, this year’s top picks from Cheil use smart thinking, cultural insights and beautiful craft to make real world impact.

Samsung – Impulse App 

Cheil WW Spain

Sophisticated AI meets Haptic feedback to take the proven rhythm therapy technique out of the speech therapist clinic, accompanying and enabling people with speech impediments, anywhere. anytime. Impulse also features ‘training mode’ with speech development programs customised for every individual. Samsung’s commitment to Technology with Purpose opens up possibilities for 100+M people currently held back by speech disorders. 

Samsung – Try Galaxy Fold Experience 

Cheil WW Seoul x Cheil WW UAE

Seamlessly connecting any two iPhones to experience Galaxy Z-Fold redefines what the industry thinks of as ‘direct marketing’ and innovates a whole new kind of ‘mobile experience’.  Using cutting-edge WebRTC tech, over 10M iPhone users and counting have spent more than 2min each experiencing first-hand what they’re missing out on with their bar phone. The result; Samsung’s most successful Z-Fold campaign ever along with Proud To Own scores leaping by over 10%. 

Samsung – Flip Park 

Iris London

Getting the UK’s Gen Zers to experience Samsung’s pocketable folding phone, Z-Flip is no small challenge since 79% have got their heads buried in their iPhones. To change the game, Iris x Samsung UK embedded Z-Flip in UK Skate culture. 

Over x50 Z-Flip devices were rigged to capture and share the best shots and clips from a custom-built skate park in Shoreditch, making Flip Park the biggest content studio for skateboarders ever. With Pro skater demos, beginner sessions, fashion shows and DJ sets, the UK’s Gen Z audience actually put down their iPhones and picked up Z-Flip to experience the ‘wow’ factor of Z-Flip’s Flex-Mode camera and AI features. 

JTBC – Drug Test Poster 

Cheil WW Seoul

In JTBC’s latest K-Drama, the hero Strong-girl Nam-soon brings down a Gangnam drug gang. The K-Drama’s launch poster gives girls drug-detecting strips to protect them IRL from the horrendous consequences of spiked drinks in Gangnam’s famous night spots.

It took crazy innovation in printing methods & bio-tech to create a medical-grade test strip on a poster, delivering a breakthrough for ‘direct’ and OOH that resulted in a drop of reported cases of spiked drinks and violations. 

Kundal – Pink Glove 

Cheil WW Seoul

The nation with Asia’s highest rate of Breast Cancer also has hundreds of years of culture preventing a conversation about Self-Examination. Korea’s leading beauty brand, Kundal partnered with Cheil WW Seoul to create a new way to fly under the radar of Korea’s cultural taboos; informing and empowering women by making Self-Examination instructions part of Kundal’s ubiquitous scrub glove, an essential part of the famous K-Beauty routine. The overwhelming response has seen Kundal make the Pink Glove a permanent item in their product range. 

Save The Children Hong Kong – The Sound of Violence 

Cheil WW Hong Kong

‘The Sound of Violence’ is deeply rooted in the cultural context of Hong Kong life; one of the world’s most densely-populated cities, where residents live in extreme proximity to one another, meaning they hear the sounds of arguing, shouting and screaming ALL THE TIME. 

Tragically, behind many of these all-too-familiar sounds are cases of domestic violence against children. A re-creation of the official Dolby Atmos 7.1 Surround Sound trailer, The Sound of Violence was designed to run before acclaimed director Nick Cheuk’s award-winning box-office hit ‘Time Still Turns The Pages’ (a film about a young boy’s struggle with family trauma). The surprise trailer immerses Hong Kong’s cinema-going audience in the intense and realistic sounds of real violence that surround them every day, igniting a city-wide dialogue and resulting in a remarkable increase in reports of suspected violence and a notable rise in home interventions following calls; testament to the transformative power of this unique audio experience. 

Samsung – The Art of Hack 

Cheil WW Spain

Samsung’s luxury TV ’The Frame’ appeals to discerning aesthetic types. The kind that enjoy finding tax relief at every opportunity. The Art of Hack invites this audience to digitally paint, draw, sketch or scribble their own ‘masterpiece’ to be uploaded to The Frame, resulting in the TV becoming a piece of art. This instantly reduces the price of Samsung’s most expensive TV as it’s now subject to just 10% tax (Spain’s official tax rate for art) rather than the usual 21% applied to consumer electronics. A simple hack of the Spanish tax system that increased sales by 55%.

Anais – The Captive Radio 

Cheil Centrade Romania

Domestic violence is runs deep in Romanian society with 1 in 4 women being held captive in abusive relationships. National media gives scant attention to the issue and so, it is silently ‘accepted’ by society. In a first-of-its-kind campaign, Anais x Cheil Centrade gave a voice to victims of domestic violence by hijacking the schedule of Romania’s two largest Radio live streams, Magic + Kiss FM to create The Captive Radio; a nationwide, two-hour live-stream featuring survivor stories and original songs written in response to survivor stories. Both stations’ WhatsApp music request numbers became channels of release for victims. 25% of the Romanian population tuned in to the live stream resulting in Captive Radio bringing the topic of domestic violence to the nation’s mainstream media for the first time in history. An important milestone towards Romania beating domestic violence. 

Little Caesar’s Pizza – Corn Crust 

McKinney

Little Caesar’s have been selling Pretzel Crust for years. And while it’s proved a great success, less so each year. So, to get Pretzel Crust back on the lips of American pizza lovers, we introduced… Little Caesar’s Corn Crust pizza, complete with liquid butter topping-in-a-bottle. And it worked; influences shared it, confused consumers fell for it but most important, it sparked Pretzel Crust fans came out in force to demand the return of Pretzel Crust. Little Caaesar’s enjoyed their most successful promo sales in the company’s history. Crazy but true.

Samsung – All You Need is Rug 

Cheil WW Seoul

Young couples in Korea typically move into a new apartment once they marry. It’s at this time they buy new appliances as they set-up ‘home’. However, with Seoul’s densely-packed high-rise living, there’s not much floor space to play with. Finding the right size appliance to fit what limited space is available can be a challenge. And purchasing the wrong size appliance can prove costly. Samsung appliances solved the issue with bespoke rugs that echo the colour of their appliances and are made to the exact foot-print of each model. Shoppers were given a premium rug to match the exact dimensions and colours of the appliance model they showed interest in – once they returned home with the rug they could easily check if the appliance would fit in their apartment and then, they could complete the purchase directly from the label on the rug.