CANNES, FRANCE — A campaign for Dutch telecoms giant KPN to educate youth about the risks of online shaming and sharing intimate photos has won the Cannes Lions 2024 Creative Strategy Grand Prix. Recognizing how the strategic planning redefined KPN’s business, influenced consumers, and impacted culture, this follows the work being awarded a Health & Wellness Silver Lion, an Entertainment for Music Silver Lion, and receiving 10 shortlists.
The winning campaign, “A Piece of Me,” was developed to promote KPN’s “Better Internet” platform, established to make the internet a safer place. Dentsu Creative Amsterdam partnered with Dutch pop star MEAU, using lyrics inspired by real fan stories, to launch the single and music video “A Piece of Me” (Stukje van Mij) in February 2024. Within three weeks, the song went viral, viewed and shared over 33 million times, and overtook Beyonce to become a Top 3 Spotify hit in the Netherlands with seven million streams, achieving a Gold record.
The topic of online shaming was pushed to the front of the news agenda, inspiring debate in the Dutch parliament, leading to the Dutch Sexual Crimes Act being updated to class the sharing of intimate photos without consent as a sexual offense. In addition, the music video has been added to the Dutch curriculum, now being shown in 100s of schools to educate students. In response to its growing international reach, MEAU wrote an English language version of the song, which achieved 70,000 views in under a week.
Bartho Boer, Chief of Brand, Communications, and CSR at KPN, said, “It is unprecedented what this campaign with MEAU has unleashed, from the kitchen table to the classroom. That is important because attention to this sensitive subject is the first step towards a solution. It was a bold move for KPN to take a leadership position on internet safety. But fortune favors the brave. The team behind this campaign has worked on this with great dedication and care over the past years. This Grand Prix is a proud symbol of the journey we have been on, which has been made possible through our creative and strategic partnership with Dentsu Creative and, of course, MEAU. What is even more exciting is that, in many ways, this is only just the beginning.”
Boris Nihom, CEO of Dentsu Creative Amsterdam CEO, commented, “Wow! It is a huge honor to be awarded the Grand Prix with the #betterinternet platform, which has impacted not only society and KPN but has now also been recognized by the global industry. Creative Strategy was the pinnacle category for us. Not just because the competition is fierce, but it also demonstrates the importance of strategy in creating transformative ideas that drive real change in the world.”
Creative Strategy Jury President Vita M. Harris, Global Chief Strategy Officer of FCB, Global, added. “‘A Piece of Me’ rose as the Jury’s choice for Grand Prix in Creative Strategy because it fired on so many cylinders. It was the brilliance of the insight: how they got to it; the modernity and problem-reframing nature of it; how it was driven deep into culture, phenomenally so; how it reframed society’s understanding of a misunderstood issue, not just locally but also globally; how actionable it was, going beyond petitioning to law enforcement within a month; the clear impact it had on this telco brand.”
