WCRS, Leo Burnett take top prizes in Ocean’s digital creative competition

WCRS and Leo Burnett have taken the top prizes in Ocean Outdoor’s eighth annual digital creative competition with award-winning concepts for Sky Ocean Rescue and The British Dyslexia Association.

Activist brand Sky Ocean Rescue, set up by media owner Sky, took the commercial prize for The Ocean’s Most Terrifying Killer, a campaign created by WCRS which will transform Ocean’s screens into underwater seas to illustrate the dangers to marine life of plastic waste.

Created by Leo Burnett, The British Dyslexia Association’s campaign uses long uses dynamic long form copy on screens with audience recognition technology to show what it’s like to live with dyslexia. The longer people stop and look at the screen, the harder the words are to read. A Moment of Dyslexia took the Charity first prize.

Ocean’s international prize went to MullenLowe London for Let’s Colour the World for Dulux; and the agency secured both commercial and charity second prizes for Persil and the Art Fund.

Commenting on the winners, Ocean CEO Tim Bleakley said: “The eighth competition has given us record entries and an impressive number of outstanding creative ideas. There are deserved wins for WCRS and Leo Burnett and no less than three awards for MullenLowe London.  

“The winners are striking for the power of their visual ideas and innovative use of DOOH technology to achieve business objectives. They’ve been recognised for their immediacy, impact and relevance to their target audiences. I congratulate the winners and look forward to seeing their concepts brought to life.”

Competition was stiff, with a record 131 entries which were judged a panel of 16 advertising industry experts.

The ideas that underpinned the award-winning campaigns were:

Commercial Category

First prize

Sky Ocean Rescue – The Ocean’s Most Terrifying Killer 
Agency: WCRS

Nowhere is a piece of plastic more prevalent than at shopping centres. On Word Ocean Day, WCRS transformed Ocean screens into deep-sea worlds of menacing shapes casting strange shadows. People could connect to the screen via the free Wi-Fi turning their phone into a virtual torch to see what was casting the shadow. At that point, their torch revealed that the biggest threat to our oceans isn’t sharks or sea-monsters, it’s plastic. Volunteers handed participants re-suable bags, tackling one of the issues of plastics waste right where is matters.   

Second prize

Persil –Get Out Here
Agency:MullenLowe London

To get more children outdoors and active in their local places of play, Persil live streamed footage to Ocean screens from local parks, featuring live data and dynamic copy to show the walking distance to get there. The big idea was to get families out there. 

Third prize

Ariel – Look like New 
Agency: Leo Burnett

This idea used RFID technology to track items of clothing as shoppers leave a store with their purchase. As they walked towards an Ocean screen, Ariel served them with personalised messages delivered by models, congratulating them on their new garments. The Look Like New message was simple by telling the shopper about the benefits of using Ariel 3in1 pods to keep their new clothes pristine.

Charity Category

First prize

British Dyslexia Association – A Moment of Dyslexia 
Agency: Leo Burnett

In a bid to create a more dyslexic-friendly society, this campaign used long form copy on screens fitted with audience recognition technology, the words and letters becoming jumbled and harder to read the longer people stopped and looked at it. The aim was to help non-sufferers understand what it’s like to be dyslexic, to drive donations to the charity and raise awareness of Dyslexia Awareness Week.

Second prize

Art Fund – Art for Everyone 
Agency: MullenLowe London 

To mark Museum Week 2018, people were invited to stand in front of a screen and have their pictures taken. Facial and body recognition technology analysed their expressions and body positions to sort through an Art Fund database to find the work of art that best resembled them. The aim was to make art more accessible and encourage more people to invest in a National Art Pass.

Third prize

NSPCC – Disappearing Children 
Agency: mcgarrybowen

This thought-provoking campaign for the NSPCC used Ocean’s Westfield London screen to demonstrate the uncomfortable fact that more than 1,200 children went missing in the UK last year and are believed to have been trafficked. The campaign broadcasted a live stream of people walking within the vicinity of the screen, but with all the children literally “disappearing” from the image altogether. A powerful and impactful metaphor to illustrate the prevalence of sexual exploitation and modern slavery.         

 International Prize

Dulux – Let’s Colour the World
Agency: MullenLoweLondon

This bright and happy Dulux campaign used Ocean’s international alliance network to invite people to colour the world. In a special live stream linking selected participating cities, people connected to their local screen live via their phone and could literally colour the streets of the international destination in real time.

The winners were announced on October 5 before an audience of 500 guests at London’s IMAX. They shared a £650,000 prize pot to fund their campaigns on Ocean’s screens in the UK and internationally over the next 12 months.