Key trends from Cannes jurors and commentators

From left to right: Andisa Ntsubane (Vodacom Group), Sue Unerman (Brainlabs), Ivan Moroke (Kantar), John Raúl Forero Manrique (DDB Colombia) and Chloe Markowicz (Contagious).

Andisa Ntsubane, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodacom Group

Cannes Lions 2024 President of the Creative B2B Jury

The B2B category has made significant progress in being recognized as a distinctive craft that needs to be honoured, admired, celebrated and respected. My key trends from 2024:

1. Leadership brands take Leadership positions
   B2B brands have a profound ability to impact the world and this year in particular, there were great examples including DP World with their “Move to -15” and Siemens Health with their “Magnetic Stories” initiative.
   
   
2. Excellence in Creategy (Creative Strategy) in B2B
   It was pleasing to see greater alignment and congruence between the insight/need, the strategy, the creative output, the customer journey, media integration and the metrics. Examples include the Grand Prix winner “Marina Prietto” by JC Decaux.
   
   
3. Innovative use of Data and Content in B2B
   Examples include personalization at scale, long-format content for storytelling and multi-dimensional engagement. A great example is Coca-Cola’s “Thanks for Coke-Creating”.
   
   
4. Increasing use of Influencers, Celebrities and Humour to improve Storytelling
   There has been an increase in the number of B2B brands using influencers, celebrities and humour to drive awareness and emotional connection. Due to the technical and complex nature of some B2B offerings, “humanizing” the brand can be a great way to drive impact. “Rain” by AT&T is a great example.
   
   
5. The Rise of Creativity in Brazil
   Having been on the B2B Jury for two years, one cannot ignore the Creativity and Innovation coming out of Brazil. Bold ideas, cutting-edge creativity and solution-driven! Brazil is definitely a country to watch over the coming years.

Sue Unerman, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Brainlabs

Cannes Lions 2024 Glass Lion Juror

As a judge for the Glass Lions – the award for culture-shifting creativity – I saw an awesome body of work. The work that was shortlisted for a Lion had to demonstrate real outcomes and the jury focussed exclusively on work that had created evidenced change, not just awareness.

Seeing work from around the world can create its own challenges as inequality shows up everywhere, but has different features in different cultures. Fortunately, we had an extremely diverse set of judges, both in terms of where they originated from, and who they are. Live presentations of the shortlisted entries often changed the jurors’ opinions. The Grand Prix winner, Vaseline Transition Body Lotion, stood out for its impact on underrepresented communities. Other notable winners addressed issues such as tracking women-run businesses and improving women's access to public restrooms.

The experience highlighted the need for the advertising industry to continue improving its own practices regarding equality and equity.

Ivan Moroke, CEO Kantar Insights Division South Africa, Kantar MEA DEI Lead

Cannes Lions 2024 Creative Data Juror

The Creative Data category celebrates the role data and insights play in driving brand and business growth, so this category is only going to grow moving forward. My takeaways from serving on the jury:

1. Beyond the AI Bandwagon
   The full application and leverage of AI is still in its infancy. If it’s just about good old data analytics, it should not be called ‘AI application’.
   
   
2. Simplification Sophistication
   Simplification remains a critical success factor for impact, from the very first step in the marketing value chain to the last.
   
   
3. Good Money
   For purpose initiatives to be sustainable, they need to be intertwined with brand and business growth. The Holy Grail is when the brand and business grow because of a “doing good opportunity” as demonstrated by our Grand Prix winner, Mastercard.
   
   
4. Collaboration Currency
   Some of the most brilliant work could only be delivered by great collaboration between brand owners and agencies and collaboration across the agencies and client teams.

John Raúl Forero Manrique, President & Chief Creative Officer, DDB Colombia

Cannes Lions 2024 Jury President

I think the work presented at this year's Cannes Lions in the Print & Publishing category shows us a good present and future for the category. We were all able to see how print can be taken to other levels and how the bandwidth of the category can be expanded. On the one hand, new experiences outside print can be generated through emerging technologies. But it can also be done through wonderful storytelling that happens or ends in a great way in print.

Classical print was in a way vindicated once again with Coca Cola's “Recycle me" Grand Prix. But we didn't want an ordinary classic print. We wanted an iconic classic print, which will be remembered in a few years. I have no doubt that in 10 years we will remember this Grand Prix.

Chloe Markowicz, Editor, Contagious

Cannes Lions 2024 commentator

The Contagious team spent the Cannes week grilling Jury Presidents, gleaning insights from press briefings and analysing the Grand Prix winners. All this blood, sweat and tears (and maybe a splash of rosé) fed into our Cannes Deconstructed briefing, identifying key trends from the winning work:

1. Guttertech & Make-do Media 
   Everyone might have been talking about AI but did it come through in the winning work? Not so much. Some of the work taking home the biggest awards used solutions from postcards to QR codes that were barely cutting-edge in the 20th Century.
   
   
2.  Unlikely heroes
   Several big winners earned attention, encouraged sharing and increased memorability by putting the most unexpected people, celebs and influencers front and centre, for example, comedy actor Michael Cera fronting a campaign for a skincare brand.
   
   
3.  Go hard or go home
   Brands achieved excellence by dismissing the easy route. Take Specsavers getting an 80s icon to re-record his smash hit to raise awareness of hearing loss. Easy? No. But it showed tremendous commitment to creativity and the juries specifically rewarded the brand for it.