Cannes Lions Launches 2020 Festival

Cannes Lions has launched the 2020 Festival by announcing the Content Agenda themes, alongside the launch of the Creative Business Transformation Lions.
New elements of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, taking place from Monday 22 June – Friday 26 June 2020, were devised through industry-wide consultation and in-depth research with the global branded communications community.
Cannes Lions gathered feedback from over 1500 customers and executed 100 in-depth interviews with industry-leading chief marketing officers, chief creative officers, brand leaders, strategists and CEOs to inform the 2020 Content Agenda’s eight themes.
Each theme is shaped around the most business-critical areas of branded marketing and communications and the Festival now invites the industry to apply to speak on stage and enter their content submissions.
Cannes Lions managing director, Simon Cook said: “In response to industry need, the 2020 Cannes Lions content themes will set the global agenda for the industry and help us all navigate the year ahead.
“We look forward to seeing a hugely diverse set of expert speakers from across the breadth of creative and cultural disciplines.
“Our community attends the festival to learn from best practice, make valuable connections, and take away tools and techniques that will accelerate business and personal performance and unlock creative potential.”
The 2020 content themes are:
• Creativity is the Business Growth Engine – explores the role of marketers to define how creativity can support both short-term activities and long-term brand equity to have a better level of influence in the boardroom.
• Creative Disruption in Commerce – trailblazers from brands and retailers will introduce pioneering forms of commerce (cashless, omnichannel, immersive) to promote better buying experiences.
• Post-Purpose: Brand Accountability and Activism – the world’s biggest brands and agencies will discuss how they’re tackling critical global issues, from climate change to inequality.
• Your Brand is my Experience – brand and experience are now interlinked. Brands will discuss how they experiment with customer experience and improve the entire customer journey through seamless interactions.
• Looking to 2030: Making your Business Future-fit – in an era where we constantly learn, experiment and create the future, explore the new skillsets required and how to acquire and retain the world’s best creative and tech talent.
• Applied Creativity: When Data, Tech and Ideas Collide – experts will share examples of how to apply data and tech to enthrall audiences, and brands will demonstrate how they harness tech to create lasting emotional connections.
• Storytelling at Scale – speakers will explore new creative dimensions in storytelling, across a range of platforms and formats, to gain attention and engage in the issues that matter, putting cultural relevancy at the forefront.
• Let’s Get Back to Brand – delves in to how creativity can help to curb the current obsession with clicks and impressions and focus instead on brand-building and long-term brand health.
Cannes Lions VP – content, Charlotte Williams said: “We spoke to more than a hundred of the most brilliant minds in the industry to uncover the real business challenges they face.
“The eight themes explore the key concerns and opportunities for branded marketing and communications, and we look forward to welcoming world-class industry leaders to share their perspectives on the Festival stages next June.”
New for 2020, the Creative Business Transformation Lions are launched in response to the digital disruption that is affecting the way brands and businesses operate.
As businesses invest in new ways of working in order to future-proof their business, this Lion celebrates the creativity that drives businesses forward, and the creative thinking that changes how businesses organise themselves, how people work internally and how customers engage.
The Creative Business Transformation Lions honour this new breed of work.
Work that wins at the Festival will demonstrate how creative change has been achieved across core business functions, delivering business impact and creating better customer outcomes.
This Award covers the breadth of new creative approaches that are used to create value and drive competitive advantage, alongside traditional brand communications.
This includes the creation of new products and services, the use of technology and business design, and the reinvention of operations and customer experiences, in order to drive transformative change.
Cannes Lions head of awards, Susie Walker said: “We’re expecting entries to come from across in-house and agency teams that provide creative services, consultancy, experience or service design, new product development, innovation and digital transformation, in order to drive transformational change.
“We continually evolve the Awards, in line with the industry and the new Creative Business Transformation Lions celebrate creativity that can drive tangible business change.”
The Festival has also refreshed the PR Lions for 2020 to ensure the Award accurately represents the current PR industry.
Cannes Lions undertook research with PR specialists globally to better understand their unique challenges and perspectives to ensure the PR Lions focus on the areas of creative work that the industry wants to be recognised for today.
All updates to award categories will be available on the Cannes Lions website in November 2019.
Entries to the Lions Awards open on the 16th of January 2020 and further information can be found at: https://www.canneslions.com/enter/awards
Content submissions to speak on the Cannes Lions stages are now open and will close on 10th January 2020 – further details on the content themes can be found at: https://www.canneslions.com/attend/2020-content-themes
Latest News

Railway Passengers Mortified By Greyscaled Train Timetable Tribute To Prince Philip
Following the announcement of Prince Philip’s death last week, many businesses, broadcasters and individuals paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh. Some Australian viewers were upset to find the ABC opted not to broadcast British crime drama Vera, instead choosing to cover Philip’s death. Similarly, many were amused to hear a techno dance music mashup on […]

The End Of Average: Why ‘Addressable Priming’ Is The Future
In this guest post, Wavemaker’s national strategy partner, James Boardman (pictured below), talks addressable priming and why it’ll be the end of average and the peak of creativity in media planning… For my entire career media plans have contained a large amount of average. I’m not talking about the quality of my planning skills (although […]

Apple “Not Against Digital Advertising” Despite Privacy Crackdown: Tim Cook
Apple’s new approach to digital advertising is set to go ahead in a matter of weeks, with advertisers warned to think about user privacy first. Previously, companies that sell mobile ads have relied on Apple’s IDFA (“identifier for advertisers”) as a way to identify specific users and offer targeted ads. But with Apple continuing to […]

QMS’ pDOOH Platform Proving Campaign Attribution
As programmatic digital out of home (pDOOH) continues to help advertisers enhance their existing campaigns, digital outdoor media experts, QMS, is already seeing results pay dividends with the latest campaign for a Tourism and Travel sector client delivering over 2,000 tourist visitors who can be directly attributed from their exposure of the pDOOH campaign. The […]

Apple Will Soon Help You Find Your Anything
For years now, Apple users have located misplaced iPhones and other Apple devices via the Find My app. In case you haven’t used it before, Find My tracks the locations of iPhones, iPads, laptops and even AirPods, meaning the whereabouts of each device will come up on a map if it’s ever lost. The app […]

CBA & Football Australia Partner To Elevate The Women’s Game
Commonwealth Bank and the sport’s governing body, Football Australia, announced today that CBA will become the official naming rights partner and bank of the national women’s team, the Matildas, Junior Matildas and Young Matildas from August 2021. M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment supported Commonwealth Bank to bring the partnership together with Football Australia, and looks […]

Facebook Australia Celebrates Ramadan With Calendar Of Content
Facebook Australia is celebrating Ramadan with a range of initiatives including Lives, Reels, IGTV and more. To launch the initiative, Facebook has partnered with a number of Muslim creators and organisations, who will be sharing their perspectives of the holy month on both Facebook and Instagram. Facebook says the 30 days of content is part […]

Netflix’s Challenge To Linear TV
Netflix’s real-time streaming service, launched in France, provides an unexpected alternative to television as the platform also announced a new deal with Sony. The program, called ‘Direct’, is a real-time service with a stream that covers five days, to prevent repeat programming. It was announced in November 2020 originally and rolled out fully in December […]

Grill’d, Melbourne Storm Launch Limited-Edition ‘Storm Burger’ For Fans
The Storm burger includes the chicken wing, grapple tackle & three free ones in a brown paper bag when no one's looking.

Seven West Share Holders Allegedly Not Told Company Funds Were Lent To Ben Roberts-Smith
There can be only one winner in this whole Ben Roberts-Smith saga & that's the lawyers. And the lawyers' BMW dealership.

Twitter Users Spot Unexpected Photobomb In Little Mix Star’s Picture
This has a Twitter photobomb with a Little Mix Star. Don't worry, it's fully translated for the over 30s in the article.

Malcolm Turnbull Calls News Corp “The Most Powerful Political Actor In Australia”
Malcolm Turnbull declares revenge is a dish best served cold. And this latest attack has the Streets Viennetta about it.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Launches “EIU Viewpoint”, Political And Economic Analysis Platform
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a division of The Economist Group, has announced the launch of “EIU Viewpoint”, a new digital product that combines the EIU’s expert political insights, policy analysis, and economic outlook with forward-looking forecasts and proprietary data. “EIU Viewpoint” helps businesses, academics, governments, and financial institutions stay ahead of the shifting global […]

ITF Finds Significant Disparities Between How Men’s & Women’s Elite Sports Are Described
Study finds major discrepancies in how men's & women's sport is called. Ray 'Rabbits' Warren has declined to comment.

Hospital Research Foundation Continues Fight Against ‘The Beast’ In Latest Work Via KWP!
Adelaide-based creative agency KWP! brings more than one hundred volunteers together in an onscreen battle against life threatening diseases for the sequel to The Hospital Research Foundation (THRF) Group’s ‘Together Fight’ campaign. Two 30-second TVC’s feature the return of ‘The Beast’, who comes up against a young patient and army of real-life patients, researchers, staff […]

Hamish & Andy Oust Kyle & Jackie O From Top Three Most Popular Podcasts
B&T would love to report that some fresh, new talent had topped the podcast rankings, but alas it's the same old shit.

Blis Launches Playbook ‘Preparing For A Privacy-First World: Your Personal Guide To Getting Impersonal’
This comes with a downloadable playbook. Admittedly, not as a good as a downloadable pizza voucher, but nonetheless.

NEFF Appliances Launches First-Ever Aussie Campaign Via Keep Left
Home appliance ads celebrate the joy of home cooking, which really isn't as slothful as the sheer laziness of Uber Eats.

Archibald Williams Wins atWork Australia Account, Launches New Employment Services Campaign
Archibald Williams snares employment services atWork's creative. Hasn't quite found the time to start working on it yet.

Shopify Partners With The Peers Project To Support Millennial Leaders Podcast
Do young, high-achieving Millennials give you a bad case of the willies? You're completely exempt here.

Monday TV Wrap: Dancing With The Stars Loses Viewers Post-Premiere
Schapelle joins Roxy's husband and Mark Wahlberg in proving a stint in the slammer no impediment to career success.

Beckham Goes Floral & Chucks Donuts In Slightly Dangerous Debut For Maserati
Becks again proving he's got the Midas touch. We mean for advertising things, not necessarily as a football striker.

Increasing Presence Of Audio Prompts Launch Of S&W Sonic Branding
Globally awarded Sydney sound-house Smith and Western have officially launched a new audio branding agency, S&W Sonic Branding.

Barilla & Publicis Italy Show The Healing Power Of Pasta In New Global Campaign
Barilla Pasta unveils beautiful new spot that also works as a subtle F-you to Doctor Atkins and his fabled diet.

Colin Jowell Joins DDB’s Tribal As Its First Chief Strategy Officer
Colin Jowell joins Tribal as its very first chief strategy officer. Which, if anything, means no handover period.

InMoment Accelerates Asia-Pacific Growth With Appointment Of Carl Kimball As VP Sales
Carl Kimball appointed InMoment's VP of sales. B&T understands that's vice president and not very pushy.

Initiative Melbourne Wins Plush Sofas’ Media
Initiative Melbourne wins Plush Sofas' media, but not before cutting the tags off the office's existing sofas.

Nicole Kidman Voices Global Campaign For Healthcare Firm H&H
Nicole Kidman is keeping herself busy during COVID while at the same time trying to avoid her husband's singing.

Jean-Michael Wu Appointed Head Of Talent At TotallyAwesome
The question remains, do staff at TotallyAwesome have to gurn all day and constantly high-five one another?

Cannes Lions Announces 2021 Jury Members
Sadly there's no trip to sunny Cannes for this year's Lion winners. And no chance of a boozy arrest in Dubai either.