In addition to the Media Lions awards (see separate story here) the Cannes Ad Festival issued awards for PR, Creative Data, Direct and Social & Creator Lions at the Festival’s third Awards Show on Wednesday evening.  . 

The PR Lions Grand Prix was awarded to "The KitKat Heist" for Nestle chocolate brand KitKat.

The plot: Just before Easter, thieves posing as police stole a truck filled with nearly half a million KitKat bars in Italy.  

It was a crisis moment for the brand, but instead of trying to cover it up, Nestle teamed with Burson, London to launch “The Stolen KitKat Tracker,” engaging consumers by turning them into amateur sleuths. The tracker enabled them to read bar codes on their purchased KitKat bars to determine if it was part of the batch of stolen bars. The work boosted brand perception by turning a KitKat theft into a global call to action. 

The thieves and stolen goods remain at large, but the jury praised the work for “rewriting the rules” of crisis communications and turning it into a cultural moment.  

The tracker produced 2.2 million engagements, and several leads were developed. KitKat captured 44% of all views on Meta platforms, nearly 3 times its next competitor, owning the conversation over Easter, and generated $224 million in earned media value.  

The Creative Data Lions Grand Prix (celebrating the transformative power of data-driven creativity) went to "SOS POS," a tool supporting phone theft victims by turning regular point of sale terminals into account-blocking points, which reached over 34 million Peruvians. The tool was created by agency Circus Grey Lima for financial institution BCP.   
 
The Direct Lions Grand Prix went to "Uva Uva Bombón" for UVA App, by de la Cruz Ogilvy, San Juan. UVA, a challenger delivery app, earned attention by riding the momentum of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl headline set, converting a global cultural moment into immediate consumer action.  
 
In the Social & Creator Lions, the Grand Prix was presented to "Could Have Been a Heineken" for Heineken, by LePub, Milan, which transformed WhatsApp voice messages into an invitation to reconnect. It rewarded people for stepping away from their screens and sharing a beer in person.