Cannes Lions: UK's Sheba-sponsored coral billboard wins Media Grand Prix

The campaign for cat-food brand Sheba, which took major honours in the Cannes Media Lions category, has been growing – literally – for the past few years, earning the UK a Grand Prix and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO its second of the week.

Sheba wanted to raise awareness about the peril that fishing stocks and marine life are under by proving that marine environments, in this case a coral reef, can be restored over time.

The aim of the campaign was to illustrate that the fish Sheba uses in its products comes from sustainable sources, but also that more needs to be done to restore environments that are critical to marine life.

Sheba and its partners developed a reef restoration technique under the title “Reef Stars”, which it said is the world’s largest coral restoration programme, aiming to restore more than 185,000 square metres of reef by 2029.

The reef, which forms the shape of the word "Hope" when viewed from the air, is quite possibly the world’s largest living billboard.

In fact, it is so big that it can be viewed on Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Street View. Google is a media partner of the campaign.

The "Hope Reef" campaign used PR, handled by Freuds in London and Weber Shandwick New York, to amplify it, as well as influencer partnerships and a series of out-of-home executions.

AMV BBDO London came up with the idea and entered the campaign. Media partners were Google and MediaCom. It is the creative agency's second Grand Prix at this year's Cannes.

Production companies that worked on the campaign include Framestore, We Are Seventeen, Indo Pacific Films, The Glue Society and Flare BBDO.

Laura Balfour, the board account director for Sheba at AMV BBDO, said: "We're incredibly moved that the industry has recognised this work with two Grand Prix. We set out to leave the world a little better than when we found it. And we hope it inspires other brands and agencies to do the same.

"We truly believe that creativity can change the world and change the world for the better."

AMV BBDO wasn’t the only London creative agency to score well in the Media Lions category.