Cannes Lions 2022 Highlights

he Cannes Lions festival has been championing creative excellence since 1954, with a goal of providing a global destination and a definitive benchmark for creativity that drives progress. The 2022 five-day International Festival of Creativity took place June 20-24 and was the largest gathering in the creative marketing community. 

Day 1, Monday 20 June 

Highlights from Monday’s Grands Prix winners were Outdoor Lions recipient Adidas’s ‘Liquid Billboard’ through Havas Middle East, a swimmable billboard promoting the brand’s inclusive swimwear. And in Pharma, an illustrated book that preserved the voices of people with Motor Neurone Disease, through Dell Technologies and VLMY&R. Meanwhile Dentsu Creative India revealed how they hacked the British Museum to show the provenance of its artefacts.

Day 2, Tuesday 21 June

We considered work with a conscience, including the digitisation of landmarks being destroyed in real life in Ukraine, and a pledge from a retailer helping German teenagers who missed out on life during the pandemic. We listened to Nadja Lossgott, CCO, AMV BBDO London, to find out how she turned a coral reef restoration project into Grand Prix winning work for pet food brand Sheba.

Day 3, Wednesday 22 June

Wednesday’s winning projects included a concept that enabled prisoners to virtually mix with society in a cycling race, thanks to the Creative Strategy Lions Grand Prix winner for Decathlon, through BBDO Belgium Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, on cycling platform Zwift., And we explored how food brand Dole took the Creative Business Transformation Lions Grand Prix with Piñatex, a vegan alternative to leather made from pineapple leaves. Cannes Lions also announced that it will honour Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) as this year’s Creative Marketer of the Year. The honorary accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, and has established a reputation for producing brave creative and innovative marketing solutions.

Niantic At The Terrace

As well as the engaging talks that ran through the day, Happy Hour events took place each evening at Cannes, starting at 5:30pm on The Terrace. The Happy Hour provided a chance for guests to network, listen to live music and take advantage of the free bar. 

Each night the Happy Hour event was sponsored by a different company, and the highlight of this year was the Niantic Happy Hour on Thursday. 

Niantic put on a series of innovative WebXR experiences for Cannes attendees to engage with, including the ‘Doty's Metaverse Trek’. A five part scavenger hunt which took place on The Terrace which challenged attendees to help Niantic’s adorable yeti, Captain Doty, collect camping gear around the festival. Aircards were commissioned by 8th Wall to create the experience which utilised 8th Wall’s Image Target technology. 

Attendees took part to locate five signs featuring Captain Doty and use their smartphones to trigger the WebAR experience where they uncovered a portal within the sign and using a joystick functionality, navigated Doty to collect items. At any time, users could also place Captain Doty in the world in front of them and take them for a walk around the festival.

There was a real buzz at this Happy Hour, with the largest crowd turn out at the Terrace for the week. The mix of interactive experiences, good people and great music meant that this event was one to remember.

Day 4, Thursday 23 June

We examined how WeCapital’s ‘Data Tienda’ via DDB Mexico picked up a Creative Data Lion for its centralised information system that offered financial inclusion for low-income women - and it impressed the jurors because it did so without a huge team or massive budget. Plus we looked at how a bouncing, unbranded QR code introduced crypto platform Coinbase to the Super Bowl crowd.

Day 5, Friday 24 June

Titanium Lion Jury President and WPP Global CCO Rob Reilly described ‘“Long Live the Prince’” as “flawless”. The emotive campaign reframed knife crime using a deepfake of Kiyan Prince, a rising football star who was stabbed aged 15 in 2006. This work for the Kiyan Prince Foundation, through Engine London, worked with EA Sports, football team QPR and Match Attax.