In the just concluded Cannes Lions 2023, X3M Ideas wins the highly coveted Cannes Lions Award making them the first West African and Nigerian agency to win the prestigious award since its inception in 1954. To bring home this award, they won bronze in the health and wellness category.
Announcing the win in an Instagram postwhileposing with the award trophy, Steve Babaeko, the founder of X3M Ideas Ideas wrote;
“It’s official guys we won! x3mideasng won Nigeria’s first #canneslions! This one is for TeamX3M, for our clients, and for our beloved country! Nigeria. Like they say in Nollywood movies: To God Be The Glory.”
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
The 2023 edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity[Cannes Lions] took place between June 19th - 23rd 2023 in Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France. The just concluded edition marked the 70th edition of the world-famous international creativity festival.
In their own words, “The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has championed creative excellence since 1954, providing the definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress, globally.”
The Festival is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications and advertising. It features workshops, exhibitions, master classes, screenings, seminars, award shows, and opportunities to network with global colleagues in the advertising and creativity industry.
With more than 28,000 entries in several entry categories including advertising, media, design, and PR, from all over the world, it is the industry's most prestigious award for the world's most incredible ideas in advertising and creativity. Winners receive the highly referred Lion trophy which is presented at four award ceremonies throughout the week of the festival.
X3M Ideas
A little over a decade ago; in August 2012, X3M Ideas was founded by Steve Babaeko who currently serves as the CEO and Chief Creative Officer. Babaeko also currently serves as the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN. X3M Ideas is a full-service communication agency headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Since its inception, X3M Ideas has worked with high-profile clients and won numerous awards. They became the Pan-African Agency of the Year at the Pitchers Award 2023 where they won 18 awards namely three Grand Prix, five Gold, nine Silver, and one Bronze, across different categories.
The Cannes Lions Award-Winning Campaign
X3M Ideas brought home the prized Lions trophy by winning bronze in the health and wellness category with “The Soot Life Expectancy Campaign”. According to the announcement statement made by the agency earlier this year when the work was shared, “We created awareness about the soot pollution in Port Harcourt with ‘The Soot Life Expectancy Campaign’. Join us by visiting www.sootcity.com.”
The campaign was created for The Extra Step Initiative (T.E.S.I), a non-profit organisation based in Port Harcourt. It was done to raise awareness and bring attention to a scathing environmental issue; the soot crisis facing the people and city of Port-Harcourt in Nigeria.
“Imagine if we could calculate exactly how many years people have left to live based on the amount of time they have lived in Port Harcourt?
The Soot Life Expectancy campaign does that, it calculates and reveals in real-time exactly how many years each individual has left to live based on time spent in soot-affected areas. Through the use of data gathered from years of research across multiple countries, we’re able to accurately determine life expectancy.
In the end, every individual that participates in this campaign will have a petition sent on their behalf to government parastatals of affected states with steps they can take and laws they can make to mitigate the effects of soot.”
To bring the campaign to life, different people came together to make that happen. According to Campaign Brief, members of the team involved in the project include Mike Miller [Executive Creative Director], Anthony Eigbe [Creative Director], Kelechi Uduma, Oladunni Williams [Deputy Creative Directors], Samuel Oluwagbemi [Head Of Art], Sodiq Sheu, Godswill Kalu [Art Directors], Misturah Owolabi, Aidovhioghie Anani [Copywriters], Pelumi Fadolapo [Key Researcher], Oluwatosin Olanrewaju [Editor], and Deji Balogun, Simisola Apatira, Olajumoke Fakomi [Digital Team]. The full PR support was provided by the Black House Media team and of course, the guidance and full weight of Steve Babaeko [Group CEO].
Writing about the win in a LinkedIn post, Sodiq Sheu, one of the Art Directors that worked on the project wrote;
I am proud of being a crucial part of the project that brought this glory home. Winning the Cannes Lion is a big deal, it's like the Grammy and world cup of Creativity. It took dreams, aspirations, hard work, relentlessness, and most importantly teamwork from a group of people who had different journeys but remain unstoppable to reach one goal. Every one of us has our story, this is my own story of how I won at Cannes.
This is a very proud moment for the African creative ecosystem and this achievement shatters the ceiling for other African agencies to soar higher. Congratulations to the X3M family.
