TBWA\London Wins Health & Wellness Cannes Lions Grand Prix for BECO's #StealOurStaff campaign

The campaign sought to close the disability employment gap by encouraging employers to rethink their perceptions toward people with disabilities

News provided by

TBWA\Worldwide

Jun 21, 2021, 14:05 ET

LONDON, June 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TBWA\London has been awarded a Grand Prix in the Health and Wellness category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for its #StealOurStaff campaign for BECO, a social enterprise that makes environmentally-friendly toiletries with an 80% visually impaired, disabled or disadvantaged workforce.

The campaign challenged other British businesses to steal its staff in order to raise awareness of the 'Disability Employment Gap'. According to the World Economic Forum, people with disabilities are 50% less likely to have a job and while more than 90% of companies around the world prioritize diversity, less than 4% consider disability.

"'Steal our Staff' was an upside down recruitment campaign by a little soap brand that brought big corporations to task and disrupted employers' outdated attitudes toward people with disabilities," said Andy Jex, chief creative officer for TBWA\London. "Turning it from a thought into a thing was a long road and took a lot of heart and dedication. I'm delighted for the whole team, whose passion and personality shine through in all the work."

The integrated campaign launched in late 2019 with a packaging takeover that incorporated staff CVs on the product labels. The packaging was supported by press executions comprising an open letter that challenged other employers to take a stand when it comes to hiring people with disabilities, as well as OOH executions that amplified the #StealOurStaff message.

In a twist on the traditional recruitment ad, the creative highlights BECO's talent alongside an invitation for these employees to be headhunted by other businesses. The campaign drove a 96% uplift in sales year over year for BECO products and 40+ brands got in touch to hire talent featured in the campaign.

The campaign case study can be viewed in full here.

This is the second Health and Wellness Cannes Lions Grand Prix for the TBWA\ collective in recent years. In 2018 TBWA\India's Blink to Speak won the Lions Health Grand Prix for Good, created for the Asha EK Hope Foundation.

About TBWA
TBWA is The Disruption® Company: the cultural engine for 21st-century business. Named one of the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company for the past three years, we create disruptive ideas that locate and involve brands in culture, giving them a larger share of the future. Our collective has 11,300 creative minds across 275 offices in 95 countries, and also includes brands such as Auditoire, Digital Arts Network (DAN), eg+ worldwide, GMR, The Integer Group, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, TBWA\WorldHealth and TRO. Global clients include adidas, Apple, Gatorade, Henkel, Hilton Hotels, McDonald's, Nissan and Singapore Airlines. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. TBWA is part of Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC).

SOURCE TBWA\Worldwide