A Black Friday awareness campaign that combined spotting handshakes on TV, QR codes and links to promotional offers won the Media Lions Grand Prix this year. 

The campaign, called “Handshake Hunt” was created by agency Gut São Paulo for Brazilian online commerce giant Mercado Libre, which partnered with Brazilian TV network Globo on the effort. 

All day during Black Friday 2023 whenever a handshake occurred on screen across Globo’s programming a scannable pop-up QR code appeared in the corner of the screen linking to a promotional offer. 

The promotion worked on many levels. Symbolically the handshake signifies a good deal. It’s also Mercado Libre’s logo.  

With the help of AI, Gut analyzed thousands of scripts and scenes in Globo’s programming, mapping every handshake in advance and creating specific discounts to each one. Discounts were tied thematically to program genres. Handshakes in music shows, for example, were tied to discounts on musical instruments. Movie handshakes prompted discounts on TVs.  

The commerce giant reported having its best Black Friday ever, using significantly fewer ads because the promo offers were embedded in Globo’s content.  

Sales were up 80% versus the prior Black Friday period. 50 million vouchers were distributed to viewers in a week. The success of the promotion led Mercado Libre to extend it past the Black Friday period and on multiple outlets in addition to Globo.  

The insight driving the promotion was that viewers aren’t crazy about ads to begin with, yet more ads clutter the period surrounding Black Friday. So why not promote in the content viewers tune in to see? 

“At a time when attention is fragmented, this idea has proven that a strong insight can lead technology to reinvent the TV-watching experience in a clever way that not only drives participation, but also wins business,” said Media Jury President, Prerna Mehrotra, Chief Client Officer & CEO Media, Dentsu APAC. 

There were 10 Gold Lions for media awarded this year. Winners included “Sightwalks,” a sidewalk navigation system for the visually impaired that earlier in the week won the Grand Prix in the design category.  

Also winning gold was “Michael CeraVe,” the viral campaign based on rumors that actor Michael Cera was involved in the development of the CeraVe skincare brand.  

And Burger King won media gold (for use of social platforms) for a campaign called “The Unnoticeable Whopper,” done in conjunction with agency Buzzman.