Cannes Contenders: Sweden

The Swedish Heartchild Foundation Heartbeat Drum Machine

Ad nerds will know Abby.World (formerly Abby Priest) as the agency that scored tons of awards for The Original Brushes of Edvard Munch campaign for Adobe. Now, under a new name, the agency is back with a banger – raising awareness and donations for families and children affected by congenital heart disease. 

The Heartbeat Drum Machine, created with audiovisual artist Love Hultén and Swedish tech company Teenage Engineering, has already scooped up a black pencil in D&AD. Surely a sign of more to come.

Luger & Live Nation The Shuffle Ticket

Forsman & Bodenfors are no stranger to the Croisette. This year the agency could win with plenty of clients, but The Shuffle Ticket is my standout bet.

To get young people to discover new music, while showing the wide range of concerts offered by Live Nation and Luger, Forsman & Bodenfors combined two different objects – the concert ticket and the scratch card – to create a brand new product. The Shuffle Ticket is like a scratch card for concerts, giving access to a randomly selected live experience. Drawing inspiration from the 'shuffle' function on playlists, the ticket encourages people to step outside their comfort zone.

Oatly Normalise It

The EU School Scheme is a financial aid for schools to buy fruit, vegetables and milk for students, building a preference for these products while eating habits are being established. To rally the public and impact decision makers who will decide whether to include plant-based drinks or not, Oatly launched a beautifully crafted film set to the soundtrack of Curtis Mayfield's classic song Pusherman.  Directed by Torbjörn Martin from B-Reel Films, the film could scoop up a couple of Lions in both Film and Film Craft categories.

SL Ride with us instead

SL, the public transport system in Stockholm, has partnered with Swedish agency Familjen STHLM on a campaign that emphasises the disadvantages of car travel versus public transport. Visuals of tight parking spaces, soaring fuel prices on petrol station display boards, and parking tickets are paired with a tagline that reads 'Ride with us instead'. The ads are simple but effective, with just a few words of copy bringing the message home. I'd be surprised if they left Cannes without a Lion in Print or Outdoor.

Husqvarna Happy Birthday From Earth

Who would have thought that NASA engineers programming Curiosity to use its onboard resonator to sing Happy Birthday to itself, would be the beginning of a great campaign almost 10 years later? 

Prime Weber Shandwick created a remarkable campaign full of human emotion – for a robotic lawn mower – when they decided to launch a feature that makes every other Husqvarna lawn mower sing for Curiosity on its 10th birthday. This campaign is a reminder to the whole industry to always give every brief 110 per cent love and attention and should be awarded a gold Lion just for that.