Making history, Russia took home the top prize for Innovation at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which announced the winners on June 21.
Megafon Moscow / Axis Moscow / Asif Khan Ltd. London’s ‘Megafaces Pavilion at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games’ for JSC Megafon won the Grand Prix – the first time in 61 years that a nominee from Russia has won the main prize.
MegaFon customers around Russia and visitors to the Olympic Park were invited to create their own moment of history by having their faces scanned. Facial impressions were then brought to life on the pavilion façade. Fans’ faces were enlarged by 3,500 times on the digital building, with the intention of providing an epic canvas that allowed people to tell the simple story: ‘I was there’.
Mikhail Dubin, Executive Director at MegaFon, said: “This is a fantastic victory! Innovation and development are in MegaFon’s DNA and MegaFaces is clear evidence of this. This project was very important for us, as was everything associated with the Olympic Games in Sochi. We are proud to have made a significant contribution to its success and are delighted that our Olympic MegaFaces project continues to fascinate people around the world. It is a huge honor for us to be part of Russia’s first victory in the history of the Grand Prix. I would like to thank and congratulate all those who participated in this wonderful project and whose ideas and hard work made MegaFaces a reality”.
The MegaFaces project, designed specifically for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, has been one of the year’s marketing sensations. The interactive high-tech design is the first of its kind anywhere in the world and breaks new ground in modern architecture and digital technologies. The pavilion’s façade contains 11,000 actuators with LED lights that extend to create three-dimensional portraits that are the size of a three-storey building: 8x6x2 metres. Over 140,000 fans’ faces from all over the world were shown on the MegaFaces façade during the Olympic Games in Sochi.
Only three others won in the category: From the USA, Breakfast New York’s ‘Points’ won an Innovation Lion. Brazil’s Agenciaclick Isobar Sao Paulo / Questto No Sao Paulo also won an Innovation Lion for ‘Fiat Live Store’ for Fiat. From France, Ogilvy France Paris’ ‘Babolat Play’ for Babolat also got an Innovation Lion.
The winners were selected from a total of 206 entries.
View the full list of winners here.
