Agencies take note: Based on feedback from juries and the industry at large, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will split up some of its advertising competitions in June and rename and expand others to reflect how marketing is evolving.
The festival announced this week that the Press Lions, for example, which honours outstanding work on the printed page, are now the Print & Publishing Lions.
“This is an award that’s been with us since 1992,” said Simon Cook, the Lions’ director of awards, in a statement. “By renaming it the Print & Publishing Lions, we are evolving the category, just as the print and publishing world itself is evolving, to recognize other forms of publishing, along with best uses of press and interactive press.”
Meanwhile, the Titanium & Integrated competition — arguably the most prestigious award to win at the week-long festival — is being split in two. The Integrated Lions will focus on campaigns and ideas which succeed across standard media boundaries, while Titanium will get a standalone award to perhaps better define its fluid mandate to “celebrate game-changers” that “break new ground in branded communications… provocative, boundary-busting, envy-inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry and moves it forward.”
Likewise, the craft portion of the Cyber and Mobile Lions (which award the best technical skills on display on those fields) will be hived off from those programs to get its own trophy — the Digital Craft Lion — in much the same way the Film Craft Lions are given their own standing apart from the Film Lion contest.
“The Cyber and Mobile Lions juries have told us that with more and more UX- and craft-focused entries, it is necessary to have experts in this field sitting on the jury,” said Terry Savage, chairman of Lions Festivals. “We’ve chosen to split it out so that this specialist area can have its own dedicated jury, which will also make the hugely labour-intensive Cyber Lions judging much more manageable.”
Regular attendees have seen the number and size of Lions award programs grow significantly over the past decade as the industry continues to flock to them, as well as the professional development programs, each June in record numbers. In recent years, separate festivals for health marketers, technical innovators and entertainment marketers have been added to a schedule already bulging with content. As of this year, the Entertainment Lions replace and expand the Branded Content & Entertainment awards with its own content stream.
Agencies and marketers can enter the 2016 Cannes Lions starting Jan. 21.
