Cannes Lions 2023 – Fierce Protector of Creativity

Hollywood names and big winners with bold ideas flocked to the Riviera

If there’s one creativity festival to rule them all, it’s Cannes Lions. It’s been busy as a fierce protector of creative excellence since 1954, influencing brands and marketing in a way that (possibly) makes Kim Kardashian feel a soupçon of envy. 

2023’s International Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity took place between the 19th and 23rd June. This year saw a line-up of speakers that demanded the immediate rolling out of the red carpet, with names more commonly associated with the pages of The Hollywood Reporter than advertising and marketing. But that’s why these celebs stand out – they not only understand, but, crucially, are involved with how brands, marketing and creativity can be an immense force for good. 

Celebs, Creativity & Collaborations… An Award Winning Combination.

This was artfully demonstrated by Halle Berry, whose session was unsurprisingly standing-room-only. The Academy Award-winning actor got creatives seriously thinking during ‘Every Body’s Business’. She was joined by industry heavyweights Patricia Corsi and Kristen Cavallo to discuss why advertising should talk candidly and meaningfully about topics relating to women’s bodies which are widely considered “taboo”.  

Meanwhile, the ever-charismatic will.i.am joined Jonathan Mildenhall, the no-nonsense CEO of marketing consultancy TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, for ‘Unlocking Everybody’s Innate Creative Potential: The New Era of Collaboration’. 

will.i.am immediately grabbed the attention of a packed hall: “By 2033, you’re not going to recognise how we used to do things. So much transformation is going to happen in the next 10 years. The giants of today are not the giants of tomorrow.” 

Mildenhall brought in his professional experience of how relationships are being built between creators, agencies and brands in the advertising sector. He was particularly keen to underline how brands can reward their communities by working with creators “to create a different accent on culture and different experiences”. 

We’ve also got to give a big mention and round of applause to the extraordinary Spike Lee who received the Cannes Lions inaugural Creative Maker of the Year award. 

And that brings us nicely to the rest of the awards.

With 26,992 entries received, and an 18% increase in the number of entries, there’s no doubt that there’s a growing value being placed on the creativity that drives business.  

One of the biggest focuses was on the Brand Experience & Activation winners. This year, EA Sports & Apple scored the Grand Prix in Brand Experience & Activation for putting the characters of Ted Lasso into FIFA 2023.  

The ingenuity of the campaign not only involved the first fictional team to be included in FIFA gaming, but also everything else that surrounded it. By using ideas like featuring all of the team’s players and coaches as in-game avatars, and a launch film which included actors from the show as well as real-life footballers such as Ian Wright and Wayne Rooney, in most viewers’ minds the fictional world became a reality. 

The campaign generated over 2,000 articles and 13.2 billion earned media impressions in just the first 30 days. In addition, the AFC Richmond Team was the 17th most played-as team in FIFA 23 – out of more than 700. 

Other awards ceremonies revealed a major coup for GUT, the five-year-old agency which won three Grands Prix. In addition to Creative Agency of the Year, it was also awarded Independent Agency of the Year and Independent Network of the Year at Cannes Lions.   

GUT Buenos Aires won both the Grand Prix in Mobile for “World Cup delivery” for Pedidos Ya as well as the Grand Prix in Creative Data for Stella Artois for “The Artois Probability”. To complete the hat trick, GUT Los Angeles picked up the PR Lions Grand Prix for Doordash for “Self-love bouquet”. 

You can check out the full list of winners here.

The Cannes Lions 2024 wheels are already turning, but what all of us at mustard XP and MD want to know is if you’ve got the creative goods to be breezing up and down la Croisette this time next year.  

If you do, we’d love to chat about some of the dazzling job opportunities within the experiential, advertising and creative design industries, which we’re regularly asked to recruit for. Press these numbers on your dial pad to find out more: 0117 929 6060