The latest in a new series in which UK judges from this year's festival share their key takeaways from the process.

Hermeti Balarin, chief creative officer, Wieden & Kennedy London: Entertainment Lions for Gaming

There’s nothing quite like being in Cannes before the advertising hordes arrive. Restaurants are half empty. You can still see the sand and the sea.

That’s the privilege of some of the juries who start working on the weekend before the madness descends on the Croisette.

My group met up at the hotel lobby before being ushered into a dark little room on the third floor of the Palais, where we spent the following days watching case studies and debating the work. It was a wonderful set of people from all corners of the globe. We had advertising folk, digital folk, gaming folk and even a professional gamer. This meant that no stone was left unturned when scrutinising every piece. We’ve done it from every angle imaginable, and the best part is that this group did it with camaraderie and respect. No big egos or filibustering. We were friendly with one another but fierce on the work itself.

I would be lying if I said that there were observable trends; there weren’t. It’s still about the absolute best creative ideas that move brands forward. But, if pressed, I will gladly say that fun work is on the rise again. Thank heavens for that.

Victoria Wright, chief executive, Publicis Health, UK: Health and Wellness Lions

Ten jurors from nine countries and four continents, a truly multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-talented group. Creatives, client and me.

From day one, moment one, there was rich discussion and healthy disagreement. I learned that what works in one country does not work in another – work that was specifically for developing countries was called out as neither new nor innovative by the jurors who were in-country and in the know.

In two days (following on from weeks of online judging) the work had to be whittled down to 91 for the shortlist, then to 18 bronze, 14 silver, 5 gold and 1 Grand Prix. What I found was that the very top and the bottom are (relatively) easy but the middle is where the work to do is: it’s subjective and cultural, and a creative often thinks differently – in terms of what is important – from a client. Through it all the H&W jury were respectful of different viewpoints and for all of us, it always came back to “Is this Cannes worthy”?

Dramamine's “The last barf bag” (Grand Prix winner) was a great example of some of the H&W trends of the year. Long-form film (tick), experiential wrap-around elements (tick), and humour (tick). I also judged the Lions Health Grand Prix for Good where "Child wedding cards" won. It was almost the exact opposite to “Barf bags”. It was one very simple idea, but it managed to change Sharia law (or was a part of the reason) to mean that the marriage age in Pakistan was raised to 18 – before that, almost five million Pakistani girls were married before they reached the age of 15. Sobering.

When I looked at the work that won across all categories at Cannes, I was fascinated by how much of the work had been seen on the H&W judging table, often with a quite different result. What wins in one category doesn’t necessarily win in another. Context is king.

Did being on a Cannes Jury live up to the hype? One hundred per cent. If you get an invitation, grab it with both hands.

Andrew Barnes-Jones, global creative director, Ledger Bennett: Creative B2B Lions

This was just the third year that the Creative B2B Lion featured at Cannes Lions. So, being relatively new, there have naturally been lots of discussions about what B2B really is. It seems to me that in the UK, we have grown up mainly with technology clients using ABM tactics, funnels, buyer groups and a whole host of measurements, ranging from impressions to MQLs to actual sales.

This was not the whole story at Cannes. The view and definition have been more globally influenced. B2B is about any product or service purchased by professionals on behalf of a business. It’s simple and it’s big. The logos reflected this. Companies such as Coca-Cola, Heinz, Mastercard, Spotify, German Rail and Renault all had entries, as well as brands you might expect to see, like Salesforce, Siemens and Google Cloud. The ongoing debate about B2B versus B2B2C or B2C2B is interesting, but my feeling is it’s time to embrace all as one, as long as the business goal is clear. And that’s certainly what we did in the jury room.

The variety of businesses also amplified the message that B2B can drive positive impact around the world. We saw brands tackle issues such as climate change, poverty, unemployment, ocean sustainability, animal welfare, racism, AI bias… the list goes on. Now just imagine what types of brilliant young minds B2B could be attracting in the next 10 years. This is good news for B2B; this is powerful.

On a personal note, it was an unforgettable experience; I’ve made friends for life. And I’ve learned to stretch my thinking even further by spending two solid days locked in a room with some amazing marketers from around the globe. With our smartphones placed in draw-string bags, we debated, agreed, disagreed, challenged and high-fived. Arguments turned individuals 180 degrees, some 360 degrees. But as jurors, when we hit those voting buttons, we did it with absolute confidence.

So, after the regular traffic jam on the way to Nice airport, a short flight and a beer at the local in Twickenham, one clear thought stayed in my mind… let’s put all this to great use.

Keturah Cummings, founder and director, Forward Slash: Entertainment Lions for Music

The whole judge and jury experience was as thrilling, intense and eye-opening as you’d expect – it’s just as well this was an awards category and not a criminal case being tried.

The Music category felt like a unique one in that it included such a diverse range of entries from big-budget brand ads, to original compositions designed to re-educate on farming techniques.

Having reviewed hundreds of submissions at home, and having formed my own thoughts and opinions on the work being judged, I was eager to meet my fellow jurors face to face, hash it all out and learn what they had deduced from the process so far. Apparently, we were among the lucky jury, since we had a window in our room, with a decent view I might add.

With a diverse range of professional backgrounds (filmmaker, composer, ad agency exec, MDs etc) and meeting at Cannes from all over the world (US, New Zealand, Brazil, UAE, Singapore etc), it made for an interesting 48 hours, as we passionately made our cases and sought to defend the work we felt most strongly about, convince our peers of the same and simultaneously build enough positive rapport to respectfully disagree on perspectives throughout.

As the shortlist got shorter, and we continued to discover there was still so much variety in the submissions, we collectively devised a system/criteria for awarding the work across bronze, silver, gold and, the ultimate, the Grand Prix. Not an easy task, and our jury president was required to step in on more than more occasion when we were split down the middle. You can see the winners here. It was agreed that our Grand Prix selection Errata at 88 for Johnnie Walker encapsulated an impressive combination of strategy, craft and cultural insight that authentically reflects the brand ethos.

A few recurring themes throughout:

Culture The work that felt the most impactful (both anecdotally and from the results provided) had a deep cultural connection to the people/place/subject at the centre of the work. The brands that were authentically able to leverage what they do/sell, with their ethos, within a wider cultural context had the edge over those that didn’t manage to achieve this.

Cultural insight The level at which certain pieces of work resonated around the jury was directly related to the level of cultural insight and understanding we had of the work. That is, the direct understanding of cultural context played a significant role in shaping the views and opinions of the work. In almost every case, at least one of the jurors was able to expand on the cultural context from their own experience and perspective, but it was noted that entries that included a well-rounded picture of where the work sits, out in the world, were in better stead to be elevated through the process.

AI It seems we’re possibly at the start of a surge of brands rigorously adopting AI for advertising in ways that aren’t yet clearly defined. For the most part across the Music category entries, it followed a similar pattern; an attempt to combine nostalgia with modern day by "resurrecting" the voice of a notable, deceased artist. The use and application of AI in the entries was a consistent talking point throughout.

Craft Given the category included everything from beautiful, cinematic short-film esque music videos, to Christmas carols dubbed to promote independent businesses, as a jury we were forced to remind ourselves constantly of the balance between craft, creativity and what the work set out to achieve in its chosen format.

As a cultural marketer, the resounding takeaway for me from being on this jury was that, as audiences continue to demand more from brands and determine what is and isn’t the status quo, brands and advertisers will need to balance short-term gain with playing the long game and prioritise building authentic, culturally rooted connections with the target audience. As we say at Forward Slash, we best serve our clients by first serving our client’s clients, and it’s now no longer an opt-in for brands that want to retain and gain new audiences.

Originally published in Campaign UK on 3 July 2024.