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CANNES, France—Clash of Clans’ campaign to build a fake lore around the mobile game took home two Grand Prix in the entertainment categories at Cannes Lions today.
“Clash From the Past,” created by agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland, won the top prizes in both the Entertainment Lions and Entertainment Lions for Gaming–the latter of which is an inaugural category at Cannes this year.
As Clash of Clans prepared to mark its 10th anniversary last year, the team realized the game didn’t have much lore or history that typically appeals to players’ imaginations. So it decided to trick the internet by celebrating its 40th anniversary instead.
The campaign went so far as to create three earlier versions of the game that would have existed in past decades, including a 1980s-style arcade platform, and to “reissue” nostalgic branded projects such as a Clash of Clans cereal, which sold out in stores. Its made-up history, chronicled in a mockumentary, involved a fallout among the game’s fictional founders–one of whom even hosted a Reddit AMA.
The Grand Prix winner “tapped into a universal truth about gaming: players don’t just love the games, they love the whole universe around them,” said Entertainment Lions for Gaming jury president Francine Li, who is global head of marketing at Riot Games. “It turned the traditional anniversary celebration on its head.”
Entertainment Lions jury president Brent Anderson, who is global chief creative officer of TBWAMedia Arts Lab, added that Clash of Clans’ work was “a masterclass in community building and community feeding, in understanding and giving the audience exactly what it wants.”
“I don’t think the aim [of the campaign] was to make a community believe something, but it was definitely about making a community feel something,” he said.
Gold winners – Entertainment Lions
- Nike | “Nike FC Presents the Footballverse: by Wieden+Kennedy Portland (U.S.)
- Abaad Resource Center for Gender Equality | “Dirty Laundry” by Leo Burnette Beirut (Lebanon)
- Duolingo | “High Valyrian Lessons” by Duolingo Pitssburgh (U.S.)
- Skittles | “Apologize the Rainbow” by DDB Chicago (U.S.)
- Noblex / Paramount+ | “The CEO” by GUT Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Gold winners – Entertainment Lions for Gaming
- Greenpeace | “Los Santos +3 Degrees Celsius” by VMLY&R São Paulo (Brazil)
- Zikaron Baslon | “Fighting to Remember” by McCann Tel Aviv (Israel)
- EA Sports & Apple | “Fifa 23 x Ted Lasso” by Apple and EA Sports (U.S.)
Entertainment Lions for Music
Entertainment Lions for Music is one of the few categories allowed to give two Grand Prix, and it took that option this year by awarding Apple and British singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka.
