Golin has made history by securing the first ever PR Lions Grand Prix awarded to a PR agency with sole creative credit. The prize has been given for its work with Specsavers on a radio spot entitled ‘The Misheard Version’.
The campaign saw Specsavers and Golin transform famously misheard song, Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ with intentionally incorrect lyrics.
The amusing alternative lyrics include “Never gonna run around with desert spoons”, and “You wouldn’t catch nits from any other guy”.
Within just eight hours, over 20 million people played the new “misheard version” doubling online searches related to hearing loss and propelling it to a nationally trending topic.
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The campaign also picked up a second Grand Prix in the audio and radio category earlier this week.
The agency has also clinched a Gold Lion and three Silver Lions across audio and radio lions, PR lions and health and wellness lions.
Golin EMEA chief creative officer Ali Wood said: “An Incredible result. This was an earned-first idea that started in laughter, but ended up changing how Brits hear.”
“It means the world to see how a good idea can create such incredible impact and that creative effectiveness can be celebrated on such a global stage in the industry.”
“Since the PR Lions first launched, there has been the same speculation ever year – will a PR agency pick up the Grand Prix?” said One Green Bean founder and Cannes Lions PR Jury president Kat Thomas.
“I could not be more delighted that 2024 is the year that history will be made…The Misheard Version over-delivered against every evaluation benchmark we set ourselves.”
