This year, the teams in Havas New York and Havas Germany brought home the Gold in Health & Wellness for their work on technology app Staybl, which aims to help people with tremors – mostly Parkinson’s patients – access the digital world by correcting their browsers so they can use them more effectively.
We heard more about the campaign from Eric Schoeffler, ECD Europe & CCO Havas Germany.
Congratulations on your Lion! What does it mean to you to win at Cannes Lions?
It obviously means a lot. It´’s very difficult to win a lion and even more so a golden one. To be amongst the best ideas, the best talents, and the best agencies in the world is fantastic and shows our potential – but the award means a lot to me in particular because this is a perfect example of a Havas family collaboration. The teams in Munich, Duesseldorf and New York not only worked together, but operated as one big team – just separated by 6500 kilometres. The fact that they have managed to keep this spirit and ambition high for two years is something I’em particularly proud of.
Tell us a little bit about this campaign, why do you think it connected so well with the jury this year?
The app aims to help people with tremor, mostly Parkinsons patients – one consequence of a tremor is that people are basically disconnected from the digital world because they cannot stop shaking. The staybl app shrinks the browser window on iPads to create a buffer zone and perfectly adjust to the shaking caused by the tremor in real time. This way the interface remains stable and people with tremor can use the internet like we do every day.
The teams built the app from the ground up. From the idea, to the UX and interface design, to programming and beta testing till the final launch and PR. All done by Havas people. No other party was involved except Parkinson patients.
After the launch it immediately got picked up by the press, and now we have requests from all continents. (We might need network support here, especially for Asia – so feel free to reach out!)
I guess it was the simplicity and the immediate positive impact for the people that convinced the jury to award our Staybl app. Also, it´s a digital solution with a meaningful and beautiful design that is free to download for everyone.
How will you and your team celebrate?
We celebrated after the ceremony with our friends from Dubai, our great leader Stephane Xiberras and two beautiful trophies (GP & Gold). But we will continue the party with our colleagues who couldn´t join us here in Cannes. And we will surely find a way and pop some champagne via Teams between Germany and New York.
Finish this sentence: Creativity is…
… never boring.
