Day one Cannes Lions 2023: Armenia and Nigeria make history by winning their first Lion

Cannes Lions announced their first list of winners across five categories for 2023. New Zealand went home with two Grand Prix.

Cannes Lions 2023 kicked off the 70th edition of the Festival by announcing winners across five categories on day one. The categories included Outdoor, Print & Publishing, Radio & Audio, Health & Wellness, and Pharma. 

Entrants from Armenia and Nigeria made history by being the first to take home a Lion for their country; Bronze Lions in Radio & Audio and Health & Wellness Lions respectively. 

Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said, “We’re delighted to honour our first Lion winners who are raising the creative bar on the global stage. Thank you to all of our exceptional Jurors who have given their time, dedication and expertise to define the creative benchmark for the Festival’s 70th edition.” 

The Outdoor Lions received 1938 entries, out of which, 59 Lions were awarded. Around the globe, agencies went with 9 Gold, 19 Silver and 30 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘A British Original’ by Uncommon Creative Studio, London for British Airways.

Commenting on the win, Outdoor Lions Jury President, Javier Campopiano, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer at Grey and Global Chief Creative Officer of OpenX From WPP, Grey/OpenX, said, “Under the surface of a classical OOH campaign, lays a platform that can hold an infinite amount of human truths, stories, desires, emotions, that can be crafted to connect with people wherever they are in their lives, geographically or emotionally.”

The Print & Publishing category received 814 entries and 26 Lions were awarded; 4 Gold, 7 Silver, and 14 Bronze Lions, and the Grand Prix went to ‘Newspapers Inside The Newspaper Edition’ by Impact BBDO, Dubai, for AnNahar Newspaper.

The Print & Publishing Jury said, “The Grand Prix was awarded to a brave piece of work that put into action a publication-based idea to defend the sanctity of a free press, and did it in a way that we hope sends a signal to the industry on how eternally innovative the future of publication can be.”

Radio & Audio Lions awarded 22 Lions out of the 715 entries received. 3 Gold, 7 Silver, and 11 Bronze Lions were awarded and the Grand Prix went to the 'Phone It In' campaign by Colenso BBDO, Auckland for telecommunications company Skinny, New Zealand. 

1297 entries were recorded in the Health & Wellness Lions, out of which 37 Lions were awarded: 6 Gold, 13 Silver and 17 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘The Last Performance’ By Special, Auckland, for Partners Life. This disruptive piece of work challenged Kiwis to rethink preconceptions around life insurance, encouraging New Zealanders to take action. 

Pharma Lions gave out 13 awards; 2 Gold, 4 Silver, and 6 Bronze Lions. The Jury awarded the Pharma Grand Prix to ‘Scrolling Therapy’ for Eurofarma by Dentsu Creative Buenos Aires / Dentsu Creative New York / Dentsu Creative Chicago. 

The Lions Health and United Nations Foundation Grand Prix for Good was also announced and the Grand Prix went to ‘Working with Cancer’ for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), by La Foundation Publicis Chicago / Publicis Conseil Paris / Le Truc New York / Digitas New York / Saatchi & Saatchi Health, New York / Publicis Groupe UK, London. 

Special awards also awarded: 

The Healthcare Network of the Year

Rank: 

• 1. FCB Health
• 2. Klick Health
• 3. PUBLICIS 

Healthcare Agency of the Year

Rank:

• 1. AREA 23, an IPG Health Network Company, New York, USA
• 2. KLICK HEALTH, Toronto, Canada
• 3. 21GRAMS, Part Of Real Chemistry, New York, USA