EV app innovation electrifies judges

PUBLICIS Conseil Paris has won the Creative Strategy Grand Prix for ‘Renault Plug Inn’, a game-changing initiative designed to support the rollout of electric vehicles (EVs). ‘Renault Plug Inn’ was devised to tackle the growing disparity between the number of EVs in France, currently one million, and the country’s 80,000 public charging points. In essence, it is a transactional app that acts as a kind of Airbnb of EV charging. Drivers can use their app to connect with home owners that are willing to let their own private charging points be used — at a scheduled time and for a price. With 680,000 home chargers in France this could significantly reduce the potential charging log jam. Jury president, Amrita Randhawa, CEO, Publicis Groupe, Singapore & South East Asia, said the Grand Prix “solves an infrastructure problem and opens up a new rev- enue stream for the brand.” In terms of trends, Randhawa said the jury saw “a big shift from points of view to ‘points of do’ — ie brands that are no longer just talking about challenges but delivering a solution. There were also a lot of brands taking risks.” The jury awarded four Gold Lions for the US, UK, New Zealand and Honduras

THE CREATIVE Business Transformation Grand Prix for 2023 has been awarded to McCann New York and Microsoft for ‘ADLaM, An Alphabet To Preserve A Culture’. The inspirational campaign has already won a Design Grand Prix this week. The heart of the campaign saw Microsoft help the Fulani people of West Africa preserve their traditional spoken language Pulaar.

Through a collaboration with the Barry Brothers, they helped create an alphabet called ADLaM. This was then systemised for computers and is now on one billion machines worldwide.

Jury president Justin Peyton, global head of emerging channels, Wunderman Thompson, said the campaign “empowered local people to create their own businesses and opened up a new audience to Microsoft. But more than that, it systemised the process so that Microsoft can speak to other maginalised communities.”

Across the category, Peyton noticed several trends. One was “the use of existing tech to support transformation … taking something, looking through a different lens and repurposing value”. Another, illustrated by the Grand Prix, was “entries that looked beyond the traditional consumer base to a broader set of stakeholders.”

There were also two Gold Lions for Japan and France.