Russian company wins top ad award for innovation at Cannes Lions

Russian communications company Axis Moscow has become the first in Russia to walk away with a top advertising award at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, for a project that involved displaying selfies of visitors to the Sochi Olympic Games on a giant pin screen.

Megafaces, a joint project with London-based design company Asif Khan and sponsored by Russian phone operator MegaFon, was awarded the innovation prize for its trailblazing monitor, a giant version of a pinscreen, the executive toy developed in the 1970s.

Made up of 11,000 metal cylinders, the screen displayed 3D faces of selfies snapped during the Games. The selfies were taken either at one of the seven photo booths stationed nearby the pavilion or at booths touring 30 Russian cities for those who couldn’t make it to Sochi.

Tom Bedecarre, who headed the panel of judges, described Megafaces as “a very dramatic piece of work” whose use of cutting edge photography and technology capable of streaming content immediately singled it out as the best project out of over 200 entries. Another judge, Sune Kaae from New York advertising agency R/GA, noted: “It’s actually coming up with a new art form.”