When it comes to winning a Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, this insider intel from Susie Walker, VP, Awards & Insight at LIONS, helps you get ahead…
Build the business case for creativity
At the heart of the Lions is the knowledge that creativity drives business growth. An ever-growing body of research clearly shows Lion-winning creativity’s impact on bottom-line increase. McKinsey’s Award Creativity Score (ACS) measures the number of Lions awards every company between 2001 and 2016 has won. It found that the most creative companies, simply, had the strongest financial performance.
As a case in point: AB InBev, Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year 2022, is a brand that’s long been known as an operational powerhouse. But more recently, AB InBev made creativity a business priority and said they want to become the most creatively effective company in the world; they won 40 Lions in 2020/2021, which is reflected in their business results and top-line growth.
Build your own case for creativity by producing case studies, and skilling-up your teams in creative effectiveness and strategy.
Craft a winning entry
There’s an art to crafting a Lion-winning entry; choosing the right category for the work is key. The Lions are a truly global award and juries and Lion-winners hail from around the globe. So think about how your creative idea will resonate and cut-through to audiences from a vastly diverse set of cultural backgrounds and contexts. But also, think local. A Culture & Context category was introduced across 10 Lions awards in 2021 to recognise the rise of culturally specific creative work; culture is central when it comes to audience engagement and in 2019, 65% of Culture & Context Lion-winning work centred around local communities.
Learn from Lion-winning work
Think big creativity, not big budget. Each year, incredible creativity comes from independent agencies and brands across every corner of the world, from Nicaragua to Bangladesh. The best way to learn what it takes to conceive, execute and produce Lion-worthy ideas is by absorbing the shortlisted and winning work.
Intelligence platform lovethework.com houses a wealth of insights and ideas from over 230,000 pieces of Lion-winning work from 2001 to today. Or attend the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this June to immerse yourself fully. If you can’t be there in person, LIONS Membership provides access to the stage talks and awards commentary straight to your screen, from anywhere in the world. Alongside access to an annual programme of creative masterclasses and skills bootcamps, you’ll make invaluable connections with the global community.
Benchmark your creativity against the world’s best
For anyone who has ever won a Lion, it’s an incredible achievement. Lion-winning creativity sets the standard for creative excellence globally and has the power to drive progress on a business, societal and personal level. But it's hard: the chances of winning, first time, are just 1.7% for a Bronze Lion and 0.07% for an illustrious Grand Prix. We must applaud receiving a place on the shortlists too: only 10% of entries make the cut.
But don’t let that dissuade you. Entering the Lions is not about the trophy, it’s a chance to benchmark creativity against the world’s best, a process that inspires and motivates you and your teams to raise the creative bar. It’s a valuable investment, providing the time to plan, immerse yourself in leading creative work then evaluate, to get ever-closer to that coveted award.
Take inspiration from the global creative community
Winning Lions and attending the Cannes Lions Festival, have been a seminal stepping stone in thousands of creative career journeys. Icaro Doria is CCO at USA agency Hill Holliday. His journey began in 2005, when as a young creative at FCB in Brazil, the agency picked him to take part in a Young Lions competition. At his first Cannes, his team won a Bronze trophy, beginning a chain of events that catapulted him from São Paulo to New York, and eventually he realised his ambition to open Wieden+Kennedy Brazil. His personal Lion-award tally has risen to 31. Doria says that one week at Cannes Lions 2005 changed everything.
Bring B2B marketing creativity to the Festival
For those in the business of B2B marketing, this is the year to shine. The Creative B2B Lions, new for 2022, celebrates game-changing creativity and effectiveness in work for products and services on behalf of businesses. Marketing in the B2B arena has evolved in recent years, so it is now the time to award creative excellence in the discipline on the global stage. Entries need to show a blend of short-term tactics and long-term brand-building strategies that connect with customers, improve brand health and ultimately drive growth.
Susie Walker leads the teams who research and design each of the specialist Lion awards, in collaboration with the industry. Susie Walker produces insight-led content based on Cannes Lions 68 years’ worth of Lion-winning data.
Find out more about entering the Lions awards. The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is taking place 20-24 June 2022, in Cannes, France.
Lion-winners receive a trophy on stage at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity
