Cannes Lions: Radio & Audio winners 2023 /

Skinny scooped the Radio & Audio Grand Prix at Cannes on Monday for its long-form OOH copy ads that encouraged New Zealanders to become voice actors to help the low-cost telco save money.

Skinny’s Phone It In campaign comprised OOH ads printed with scripts for radio ads promoting the telco, and a phone number that people were encouraged to ring and then read aloud the scripts for a chance to have their recording broadcast on the radio.

The OOH ads were placed in an eclectic array of locations – from coffee cups to hair salon mirrors and outside a strip club – and the radio ad scripts printed on the posters changed with each location. For example, the ad outside the strip club signed off with the copy: ‘I might be in a questionable part of town making questionable decisions, but there’s no questioning Skinny’s great prices and incredible mobile network. What are you waiting for? Get the Skinny.’

According to the agency behind the campaign, Colenso BBDO, Auckland, 2,650 ads were recorded by people calling the number, resulting in 22 hours of content for the Telco.

Of those recordings, 65% were made on phones signed up to Skinny’s competitors, and the overall campaign resulted in a 34% increase in sign-ups for the brand. It was these business results that the Radio & Audio jury president, Tseliso Rangaka, who is FCB South Africa’s chief creative officer, said clinched Skinny the win over Muskrat Magazine’s hotly tipped Missing Matoaka campaign, which won a gold.

Rangaka said: ‘The question that I asked myself personally was, “Which of the two can I not wait to share with my clients?” And Skinny delivered on that answer. I think as an industry we need to stand behind work that is innovative, pushes the boundaries [and] is a brilliant example of how creativity can actually drive business results.’

Rangaka later referred to Phone It In as ‘a gift’ that symbolises a ‘coming of age for the category.’

Radio & Audio Gold Lions Winners /

Missing Matoaka for Muskrat Magazine by BBDO, Toronto

Files of Freedom for Mercado Libre by Gut São Paulo

Dr. Rick Will See You Now for Progressive Insurance by Arnold Worldwide, Boston