Happy Soldiers exits with two Lions for Tontine as Australia ‘punches below its weight’ in media
Independent Sydney agency Happy Soldiers, which announced it was closing its doors earlier this year, has gone out on a high, picking up two awards in the Media Lions at Cannes in what was otherwise a disappointing category for Australia.
Happy Soldiers picked up the awards – two silver Lions – for its work on behalf of Tontine. It helped redefine the pillow category by coming up with the idea of date stamping the products.
There were two other Australian Lions from the media jury. Ikon Communications picked up silver for its property guide app for CommBank. And OMD picked up bronze for its campaign involving Telstra in the One Laptop Per Child initiative.
But Australia’s juror, Mindshare CEO James Greet, said that the country had underperformed on the world stage. He said: “The work that we’ve seen probably does not shown Australia in a great light. It’s punching well below its weight.”