How to win a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions

10 min readJul 28, 2016

Here is what changed at the 2016 edition of the Cannes Lions that you should know about if you are serious about winning shiny trophies.

The Cannes Lions 2016

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity was held this year from the 18th to the 24th of June 2016 in the seaside city of Cannes, in south of France.

More than 13,500 delegates from 90 countries attended the event. This year, the awards competition received a record number of 40,000 entries across its 24 categories to be judged by 300 well-respected judges.

At this 2016 edition, 25 Grand Prix were awarded (Cyber had two winners) for 23 separate pieces of work (McWhopper, #OptOutside and The Next Rembrandt each received the highest accolade twice).

The shift in the awards attribution process

This year, you must have noticed that you didn’t find any charity work among the big winners. This was due to a request from the organizers to the juries. The Cannes Lions organizations had decided to reward only purpose-driven marketing, meaning that work done for NGOs could only compete for Gold, Bronze or Silver (not Grand Prix) in the different categories and had its separate competitions, the Grand Prix for Good (one for the health-related work and another one for the general work).

This change was well received by Rob Reilly, Promo & Activation Lions Jury President:

“We awarded so much charity work at award shows. It became easy”
“We want to send a message: solving real problems for big brands will make you famous.”

One of the reasons for this change has to do with advertisers, that are increasingly flying in troves to the French Riviera for the week-long event. Philip Thomas, CEO of the Cannes Lions, said “When clients come to Cannes, they want to see work that they would be able to buy, and not compete against work that is not possible in their range”.

His sentiment was echoed by Titanium and Integrated Lions Jury President, Sir John Hegarty, stating that “We look for work that enters cultural zeitgeist, that uses what happens in the world”.

The winners of the Cannes Lions 2016

What must be a surprise to outsiders of the industry who associate ad awards shows winners with beautiful and well-executed work, is that it is not always the case.

In fact, jury presidents are quick to remind that they are not not necessarily awarding the best work. They give out Gold, Silver and Bronze trophies for that. What wins a Grand Prix in a particular category is work that represents best the category and shows the way forward to the industry.

That led Film Lions Jury President, Joe Alexander, to say of the Film Grand Prix that it is a “crap film and a poor quality, but with a magnificent idea”.

Print & Publishing Lions Jury President, Joji Jacob, also presented its winner as “a print ad with a bad visual and a copy too long, but a conversation starter that reminds people of the credibility that only press can bring (compared to a Facebook post, for example)”.

Promo & Activation Lions Jury President, Rob Reilly, was even proud to point out that “We gave our Grand Prix to the biggest anti-promo campaign ever !”

Again, the New York Times company had the immense pleasure of being awarded two separate Grand Prix for its groundbreaking use of virtual reality. But when listening to how judges justified this feat, you understand that the NYT won less for the quality of the content it created (compared to other great VR work entered this year), but more for the fact that it came from an old institution reinventing itself and taking its readers towards the future of publishing.

The novelty of the Cannes Lions 2016 program

Whoever attends the Cannes Lions finds out quickly that a lot also happens outside the Palais and that you don’t have to buy a pass to take advantage of the many offerings. Even though, most of the panels, sessions and exhibitions around the Croisette are reserved to badgeholders only, you can easily squeeze yourself into a private event (on a yacht, on a hotel rooftop, in a penthouse) and get entertained.

That is why the Cannes Lions organization is making an effort to bring A-listers to its auditorium halls. After welcoming Kanye West in 2014, Pharrell Williams in 2015, this year’s edition saw the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Will Smith or Ban Ki Moon speak during must-see conferences. One can only assume that USA President Barack Obama will be highly sought-after next year once his presidency comes to an end*.

However, the best new item on the program this year was a daily session called “Inside The Jury”. The morning after the winners announcements on stage, some members of the jury from a particular category would come to the Palais and explain to the creatives that had entered work why they didn’t win.

While jury presidents at awards ceremonies will tell you why a particular piece of work got awarded the Grand Prix, “Inside The Jury” session will tell you what was wrong with your entry: wrong category, poor case study, lack of results, idea not strong enough…

This direct feedback is absolutely interesting for anyone involved in the awards submission process. Especially, for the categories that are very recent or those that are a bit “blurry”. It must also be noted that the Cannes Lions organized dedicated “Meetups” for awards managers and communications managers of agencies to exchange tips and best practices.

Another 2016 novelty worth mentioning is the decision from the Cannes Lions organization to broadcast the winners ceremonies live on its YouTube channel, saving people the two hours of their days spent waiting in line to walk the red carpet.

The categories of the Cannes Lions

Not all categories are created equal. Some received thousands of submissions and some were overlooked by entrants. However, juries of all the categories have strong rules for awarding awards and are not obliged to give out a Grand Prix. Here are the notable observations from the 2016 competition:

Radio Lions: only three Gold were awarded and the judges debated for a long time whether or not to give a Grand Prix.
Print & Publishing Lions: the category is becoming irrelevant with less submissions coming in every year.
Glass Lions: the category that was created in 2015 to fight against gender inequality awarded its Grand Prix this year to a transgender issue, showing that its focus is on all types of gender discrimination.
Cyber Lions: the category is becoming too disparate, which lead the judges to give two Grand Prix: one for a beautiful piece of tech and one for an amazing film.
Innovation Lions: the category is hard to judge as you get work that even jury members don’t understand the science behind them. Jury President, Emad Tahtouh, said: “How do you compare work from a billion-dollar company with work from two guys in a basement ?”. He also reminded that “It takes 2–3 years for a new Cannes Lions category to mature” and that “Innovation is not necessarily about high-tech or inventing something new”
Mobile Lions: this category is very large with all types of entries, ranging from films, interactive content, games, apps to VR. Jury President, Malcolm Poynton, said “The Mobile category is like a mini-festival in itself with a broad spectrum of disciplines”.
Pharma Lions: this category saw a strong increase in the quality of the work entered since its creation two years ago. This year, a lot of big brands submitted campaigns and Jury President, Alexandra von Plato, was glad to see work that “didn’t feel pharmaceutical and could win in regular categories as well”.
Film Craft Lions: this category feels like an avalanche of special effects that could easily fit into an Academy Awards picture. However, Jury President, Laura Gregory, reminded that quality is not about the money and that they gave a prize to the low-budget film Looking Back. She also pointed out that many great films could have won in the category but were not entered this year.
Digital Craft Lions: the press was quick to point out that the Cyber Lions category received less entries this year, but Jury President, Wesley ter Haar, explained that it was due to the creation of the Digital Craft category. In fact, Cyber got 3,738 entries in 2015 and 2,886 in 2016, while Digital Craft had 1,150.

2016: the year of VR

As much as 2015 was about drones, 2016 was all about virtual reality. We saw the gimmick being used in so many campaigns, whether is was relevant to the idea, or just used as a new experiment by agencies.

For juries, it was a controversial issue with many judges saying:

“As a jury, we struggle how to judge virtual reality”, Film Jury President, Joe Alexander.
“We saw a lot of virtual reality. We didn’t award any of them”, Pharma Jury President, Alexandra von Plato.
“Just because we have the technology doesn’t mean it will translate into creativity”, Pharma Jury President, Alexandra von Plato.
“Low tech is the best tech”, Health & Wellness Jury President, Joshua Prince.
“New is not always best”, Titanium and Integrated Jury President, Sir John Hegarty.

You can understand the VR fatigue coming from juries who have to go through every single piece of work and put on headsets dozen times a day, for work when the tech is not really justified. However, Health & Wellness Jury President, Joshua Prince, mentioned a particular piece of work, What Does a Migraine Feel Like? by Excedrin, that used VR brilliantly and couldn’t have been executed without it.

Another campaign, The Field Trip To Mars by Lockheed Martin, was lauded across the categories, as it demonstrated the unique aspects that virtual reality can bring without relying on a peripheral device and enabled people to go through the experience as a group.

The big winners of Cannes Lions 2016

Among the 40,000 pieces of work entered in the competition this year, a few stood out thanks to their incredible craft, execution and idea and managed to sweep awards across different categories and to be heavy contenders for most of the Grand Prix:

McWhopper by Burger King, Grand Prix in both Print & Publishing and Media (and contender in Titanium).
#OptOutside by REI, Grand Prix in both Promo & Activation and Titanium.
Brewtroleum by DB Export, Grand Prix in Outdoor (and contender in Direct).
The Swedish Number by the Swedish Tourist Association, Grand Prix in Direct.

Lessons from the Cannes Lions 2016 Grand Prix winners

Lesson #1: DO GOOD

You should try to include a societal angle in your campaign when producing your case study. Here are two examples of how to do it:

McWhopper by Burger King is a plea from a challenger to a category leader to make a combined product. However, in the case study, it is presented as an activation created for International Peace Day, with people going as far as saying “It’s the first time that I’m eating a burger for peace”.
Sugar Detox by Intermarché is a simple promotion of the launch of a low-sugar yogurt line. However, it is presented as a health awareness program where consumers go on to change their lifestyle.

Lesson #2: GO BIG

McWhopper by Burger King, #OptOutside by REI and Justino by the Spanish Christmas Lottery all received Grand Prix this year. However, they didn’t win solely because of the strength behind the ideas, but also thanks to the depth of the execution and all the content created around it:

Justino by the Spanish Christmas Lottery went above and beyond in what you would normally expect for an online film, with behind-the-scenes videos and exclusive content online to further the story for those willing to stay with the beloved character.
McWhopper by Burger King launched along with a complete media kit enabling the public to spread the message of the brand.
#OptOutside by REI didn’t stop with the initial video about the closing of the stores for Black Friday, but went on to use its store locations as protest billboards and managed to get other retailers on board.

Lesson #3: KEEP IT REAL

Jury members were very vocal in saying that they wanted to focus on work that had been widely shared, got press coverage and was being made by big real brands.

This was done to avoid awarding scams or work that was created in the basement of agencies just for the juries to see.

This means that PR is becoming crucial. No winning campaign has been “discovered” at Cannes this year. All Grand Prix winners were operations that had been already widely shared and talked about in the media, and had also made an impact on marketers all over the world, even before the start of the festival.

That being said, scam work is still an issue. This year, three different agencies had to give their Lions back, after their campaigns (I SEA, Saving Africa’s Last Wild Rhinos, By Poisoning Them, Aspirin for Bayer) had being called out by the press.

A final word

Sir John Hegarty, founder of BBH and a legend of advertising: “Creativity is taking what you know and changing what you think of it”.

Michael Boamah is an advertising writer.

He is the editor of TheNextGag, a website covering creativity in advertising. You can follow him on Twitter at @michael_boamah.

*It is worth noting that USA President Barack Obama was the keynote speaker at this year’s SxSW festival. He is already linked with the Festival of Creativity, as the Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis video he was involved in with Funny Or Die, won a Gold award in Film at the Cannes Lions 2015. And this dream is not so big of a stretch when you consider that Former President Bill Clinton (2012) and Former Vice-President Al Gore (2015) already came. Make it happen people.