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CLEVELAND — Last month in the south of France, American Greetings Valentine’s Day campaign film, “What it Means to Love,” won a Bronze Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Since 1954, these awards have been viewed as one of the most recognized and prestigious for the creative and marketing communications industry, and winning one is a true testament to American Greetings pursuit to inspire people to make more meaningful connections through greeting cards.
There was a total of 32,372 entries received for this year’s awards, with 2,120 entries submitted into the Film category. Of those, 200 were shortlisted and 44 won a bronze — including American Greetings.
“We are thrilled that the prestigious international jury selected ’What it Means to Love’ out of all the entries,” said Alex Ho, chief marketing officer. “We leaned into the cultural tension that people see cards as an obligation, rather than a way to express themselves. To remind people of the power of a message, we shed light on miscommunication as a real problem that cards can help solve and ultimately inspired them to visit our retail partners during the most important Valentine’s Day holiday. Being recognized for our creativity and marketing is simply icing on the cake.”
Taking a new approach for Valentine’s Day, the “What it Means to Love” film goes through a series of vignettes in which people struggle to communicate what they’re really feeling. As miscommunication is a universal problem, its manifestation was shown within a variety of relationships; it’s not until the last scene when a husband communicates exactly what he needs to say — with the help of an American Greetings card. There is no struggle to find the words, they’re right there on paper. The film shows that if there’s one thing that can help communicate what really matters, it’s a card.
