13 Big Winners in Travel Advertising at Cannes Lions 2017

Editor's Note: This past week creatives from around the world descended on the south of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the most coveted creative awards in the industry. Jesse Desjardins, global manager of social content for Tourism Australia was on hand during the event and he shared his insights below on the most-awarded campaigns in travel. Skift has covered Desjardins work at Tourism Australia in the past, most notably the destination marketing organization's Instagram efforts. Here are the travel campaigns that received accolades: Campaign: Doors of Thrones, Tourism Ireland Agency: Publicis London https://youtu.be/5KN99jVU8BI Popular HBO television series Game of Thrones has been a major tourism driver for its filming locations, including Northern Ireland. When the devastating Storm Gertrude took down ancient interlocking beech trees from The Dark Hedges, a location used as "The Kingsroad" in the show, Tourism Ireland had the trees carved to depict scenes from the show. The doors were then placed at pubs and other locations across Northern Ireland to encourage even more tourism dispersal. A short film about the project was viewed 17 million times, and the campaign reached an estimated 126 million people. The campaign won a Gold "Special Build," a Silver "Use of Ambient Outdoor" and a Bronze Lion in the Media category for "Use of Social Platforms" for Publicis London and Tourism Ireland. Campaign: Visit Britain, Expedia Agency: 180 LA https://youtu.be/5pTYlCFjt54 According to the American Automobile Association, London is the most popular international tourist destination for Americans. But most Americans never leave the city to explore the rest of Britain. In order to encourage dispersal, Visit Britain and Expedia teamed up to shoot five identical films about Britain in separate areas starring separate locals. In each film, the local claimed their area of Britain was the only place a tourist needed to visit in order to experience the authentic Britain. The dialogue and story were identical, but the small details were unique and showed why each part of Britain is worth visiting. Users could switch between the five locations at any time using arrow keys, swiping or even using the mobile phone gyroscope, allowing them to see selections from the entire country. Users received curated recommendations based on the places they focused on the most, and could book directly on Expedia with just