What Does it Take to Win a Cannes Creative Lion?

With Cannes just around the corner, it's that time of year when I dive into YouTube for Case Studies. I've always felt there is a huge difference between getting something done and packaging it well for an award, considering these are entirely different skills.

Agencies usually excel at packaging since some of them live to see their work featured in Cannes. Clients, especially in the B2B space, don't care about awards, considering that most of their work goes unnoticed because it is under the hood.

But Cannes is trying to change this trend; they introduced B2B Creative Lions in 2022. Yes, it is an entirely new category for creative work by B2B brands. It took them nearly 68 years to realize that B2B needed a new category. Last year, the category got 446 submissions, but the jury mostly felt that the submissions weren't Cannes-worthy.

I've written extensively on why B2B brands aren't submitting more entries or why their submitted entries aren't considered Cannes-worthy, so I'll skip that part. But let's talk about what it takes to win the Cannes Creative Lion.

Appeal to Emotions

Ace Metrix conducted a groundbreaking study in 2017, studying over 25,000 ads to understand the emotional patterns advertisers can use to increase their chances of winning a Cannes Lion. They realized that almost all the award-winning ads evoked an emotional response from the viewers, but it wasn't always a positive one.

Cannes-winning ads are expected to be creative risk-takers, often incorporating humor, quirkiness, and even negative emotions like eeriness and "WTF" moments. The creative goal is to evoke strong reactions, which may become more favorable over time as viewers grow to understand and appreciate the ads' uniqueness.

Equally intriguing about Cannes-winning ads are the emotions they don't evoke, unlike other ads. Concepts like "average" clearly don't apply to Cannes winners, as they are far from ordinary.

Emotions related to deals, value, or authenticity are also uncommon among these ads. Surprisingly, "brandtastic" terms that directly reference the brand are not characteristic of Cannes winners, even though brand managers often desire such expressions from consumers.

Attention > Information

Cannes-winning ads are not your typical product-pushing commercials. They tend to score lower on delivering information, relevance, and creating demand (desire and purchase intent). Instead, they excel at capturing attention and are generally more likable, though there are exceptions.

This attention and likability stem from an emotional connection that sets Cannes winners apart from average ads. Comparing these ads to the entire Ace Metrix database reveals that Cannes winners stand out due to their unique emotional resonance with viewers.

Learn from Award-Winning Work

Think big creativity, not big budget." As a B2B marketer, you've likely heard this before. Agencies spend a lot of time reading case studies and analyzing winning entries for a reason.

It helps them understand what works, how a jury evaluates creative work, and how an ad appeals to local culture and context.

But even with all the preparation, winning a Cannes Lion is hard. The chances of winning the first time are just 1.7% for a Bronze Lion and 0.07% for an illustrious Grand Prix. You should be happy even if you make it to the shortlist, considering only 10% of entries make the cut.

Ultimately, there is a clear difference between an idea and a specific result. Your campaign has to offer a solution to a real problem that exists in consumers' minds.

More importantly, your ad has to tell a story that stirs the right emotions in consumers. When your ad does that, people come back to it years later, just like I did with this ad from Toyota.

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