Cannes Lions hosted hundreds of leading experts that were awarded for their work.

Media and marketing executives, creative directors, and advertising managers gathered for the annual Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in the south of France. Hundreds of panels, meetings, and presentations were featured, discussing the future of the industry.

Over 300 content sessions, covering the biggest issues and trending topics affecting the industry, and the world at large, took place on the Cannes Lions stages. Global stars from across the breadth of entertainment, joined thought-leaders, political influencers and academics, to discuss and debate creativity.

Diversity, inclusion and culture were widely discussed in sessions such as Participant Media’s ‘Defining Art + Activism’ with Alfonso Cuarón, Oscar-winning director of “ROMA” and activist Ai-jen Poo; and ‘The 50+ Goldmine: Sparking Creativity’s Coming of Age’ with Arianna Huffington, Bozoma St John and Maye Musk.

Cannes Lions Chairman, Philip Thomas, said, “The breadth and diversity of the festival this year – from stage talks to the work – demonstrates the increasingly global nature of creativity and the ever-growing Cannes Lions community. Every corner of the industry now comes to Cannes.”

Over 30,000 pieces of creative and effective work from 89 countries, in 27 distinct creative disciplines, were awarded and celebrated at the festival, setting the global benchmark for creativity and effectiveness. More than 400 jury members, from over 50 countries, have now convened in Cannes to judge the work.

Celebrating visual craftsmanship, 1,469 entries from 65 countries were entered into the Design Lions. Google Creative Lab won the Grand Prix for Google’s ‘Creatability’, which explores how creative tools can be made more accessible using web and AI technology.

In the Brand Experience & Activation Lions, celebrating creative, comprehensive brand building, a total of 70 Lions were awarded. The Grand Prix was awarded to McCann New York for ‘Changing The Game’ for Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller, a project for accessible technology that levels the playing field and creates opportunity for all.

Meanwhile, of the 300 entries submitted to the Creative E-Commerce Lions, the jury selected nine winners. RBK Communication of Stockholm won the Grand Prix for ‘Do Black – The Carbon Limit Credit Card’ for Doconomy, the world’s first credit card which helps users track their climate impact.

The award for Independent Agency of the Year for Craft went to New York and London-based Droga5. Sao Paulo AKQA agency also received several awards for its work with Nike and Bluesman. Meanwhile, FCB New York was awarded for a campaign with Burger King called “The Whopper Tour” and Wieden+Kennedy Portland for the campaign with Nike called “Nike’s Dream Crazy”.

AKQA + @Nike win Grand Prix at @Cannes_Lions. Congratulations to Nike – thank you for a partnership where there is no finish line: https://t.co/86qZofoLWq pic.twitter.com/TC8fOrYlpX

— AKQA (@AKQA) June 19, 2019

This edition was the launch year of the Creative Strategy Lions, which celebrate the idea behind the idea. The Grand Prix went to ‘The E.V.A. Initiative’ for Volvo Cars, by Forsman & Bodenfors, Gothenburg. The campaign aims to improve gender safety equality in cars, which shows Volvo sharing their research to help other automakers produce safer cars.

Alongside the main content, the Cannes Lions fringe hosted a vast programme of events, from beach-side talks to bespoke networking. The Inkwell Beach, hosted by Cannes Can: Diversity Collective (CC:DC), is the festival hub that celebrates the contributions of communities of colour and underrepresented communities within the industry.

Since its first outing in 1954, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been bringing the creative communications industry together every year at its one-of-a-kind event in Cannes to learn, network and celebrate.

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