Cannes Lions 2023 Day 4: France wins its first Creative Strategy Grand Prix 

Cannes Lions announced winners on the second last day of the Festival; India won its first Grand Prix this year.

Cannes Lions 2023 announced winners in the following categories on day four; Brand Experience & Activation, Creative Business Transformation, Creative Commerce, Creative Effectiveness, Creative Strategy Lions, Innovation and Mobile Lions. The Regional Network of the Year awards were also announced. 

Simon Cook, CEO, Lions, said, “It’s inspiring to see new countries enter and win Lions to raise the creative bar on the global stage. Saudi Arabia won its first Grand Prix in Creative Commerce, and there were also wins for Germany, Mexico, Japan and China in the Creative Business Transformation Lions for the first time. Congratulations to all of our Lion winners, and those shortlisted, who are driving progress for people, businesses and society across the world.” 

In the Brand Experience & Activation Lions, 2226 entries were received and 69 Lions were awarded by the jury: 11 Gold, 25 Silver and 32 Bronze and the Grand Prix was awarded to ‘FIFA 23 X Ted Lasso', for EA Sports & Apple, by Apple, Cupertino / EA Sports, Redwood City.

Brand Experience & Activation Lions Jury President, Ari Weiss, Global Chief Creative Officer, DDB Worldwide, said: “Provide enough value and consumers will go out of their way to spend time with your brand. This idea transcended advertising and became intellectual property. Never mind 6 seconds, fans went out of their way to play with this idea 90 minutes at a time. It also touched on the power of collaboration. Two brands, both genius at doing what they do, came together to create an experience better than either of them could have created alone.”

Also Read: Cannes Lions 2023: India bags first Grand Prix with Ogilvy’s win

In the Innovation Lions, 152 entries were received and 6 Lions were awarded: 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze, the Grand Prix went to ‘MouthPad^’, for Augmental, by Wunderman Thompson, Lima / Augmental, San Francisco.

Innovation Lions Jury President, Grace Francis, Global Chief Creative and Design Officer, WONGDOODY, Global, comments, “As a jury we spoke about the concept of ‘not going back’; innovations so significant that the world is changed enough that future generations will find it hard to imagine returning to the time before. Assistive technology is often reduced to essentials—MouthPad^ goes far beyond that, enabling a paralyzed person to operate a wheelchair, play a video game, send a text privately (rather than using voice activation), perform a computer-based job, operate a sex toy and hundreds of other things able-bodied people take for granted.”

In the Mobile Lions, from 348 entries received 12 Lions were awarded by the Jury: 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 6 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘World Cup Delivery’, for PedidosYa, by GUT, Buenos Aires.

Honouring the measurable impact of creative work, the Creative Effectiveness Lions received 289 entries and the Jury awarded 16 Lions: 3 Gold, 5 Silver and 7 Bronze. The Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix went to ‘Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad’, for Mondelez, by Ogilvy, Mumbai, India.

In the Creative Strategy Lions, 774 entries were received and 25 Lions were awarded by the Jury: 4 Gold, 8 Silver and 12 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘Renault - Plug-Inn’, for Renault, by Publicis Conseil, Paris.

Creative Strategy Lions Jury President, Amrita Randhawa, CEO, Publicis Groupe, Singapore & Southeast Asia, added, “There is creative strategy that results in the movement of consumer, culture, and business results. And then there is creative strategy that redefines the product category, opens entirely new revenue models for brands, delivers real value for consumers, solves infrastructural problems and is globally scalable – that is our Grand Prix winner. An obvious contender from the get-go, it became our North Star for the very definition of the future of creative strategy and its ability to deliver transformational brand building.”

In the Creative Business Transformation Lions, 251 entries were received and 10 Lions were awarded by the Jury: 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze. The second Grand Prix of the week was awarded to ‘ADLaM - an Alphabet to Preserve a Culture’ for Microsoft, by McCann, New York.

Commenting on the work, Creative Business Transformation Lions Jury President, Justin Peyton, Chief Transformation Officer, Wunderman Thompson, APAC, said it “challenges us to think about the impact not just on the brand’s business, but on all of the stakeholders and communities with whom they engage. The work created new opportunities for an otherwise marginalized people and in so doing provided access to a whole new audience, while also creating a blueprint that could be replicated to reach other similar groups.”

In the Creative Commerce Lions, 467 entries were received and 17 Lions were awarded by the Jury: 4 Gold, 4 Silver and 8 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘The Subconscious Order’, for HungerStation, by Wunderman Thompson, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Creative Commerce Lions Jury President, Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, Chief Creative Officer, FCB, Canada, added, “Some work brilliantly showed us what is possible today in creative commerce, but this idea showed us what is possible tomorrow. It sets a new standard for commerce and shows the way forward in how brands can remove pain points in a moment of purchase while adding meaningful value to it. We hope that this work shows what can happen when brands get the value exchange right for their customers and use fresh creativity to drive engagement.”