What to Expect From 2023’s Cannes Lions

As Cannes Lions enters its eighth decade, this year’s festival—taking place June 19-23—is firmly looking to the future under the theme of “In the Making.” Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook told Adweek that there would be “a few surprises” throughout the week to honor the event’s heritage, with sessions focused on “looking forward and resetting for the next 70 years.”

This year’s festival highlights include the June 23 final awards ceremony and a showcase of winning work over the past seven decades. New for 2023 is the “Creative Impact” content track, introduced following feedback from 2022 delegates who asked for a greater focus on creativity. 

But beyond the official programs and events, the festival is seeing an uptick of interest and attendance from brand marketers, who flock to Cannes primarily to conduct pitches and strike deals. 

“Marketers increasingly understand that growth can’t happen without long-term investment in both brand and performance, and they’re moving away from the short-term thinking of the past,” said Michael Kassan, CEO of Medialink (which will have its own daily programming during the festival). “They’re coming to Cannes not just to be inspired, but to get down to business: inking the deals, forming the partnerships, and writing the strategies that will take them through the second half of the year and beyond.”

Kassan also forecast a big presence this year from streaming platforms and retail media networks, who got a taste for the festival in 2022. “We can also expect a bigger presence from creators, especially as brands increasingly seek them out for efficiency and authenticity,” he added.

All about AI

Once marketers have landed, slung on their Birkenstocks and worked out the lay of the land, they can expect one of the big themes to dominate the festival to be artificial intelligence. With machine learning set to uproot the creative, advertising and media industries, nervous agency execs want to figure out what AI will mean for their business models, while clients wil seek out meetings with the pioneers behind this new technology. 

On June 20, Brad Lightcap, CEO at OpenAI—the company behind fast-growing generative AI tools like Dall-E and ChatGPT—is sitting on a session with Goodby Silverstein & Partners about how these tools will affect the future of creativity. 

Having launched its own conversational chatbot, Bard, Google has hinted it will be capitalizing on marketers’ appetites for AI solutions on the Google Beach.

“In this unprecedented time of innovation, Google is looking forward to coming together with the advertising industry in Cannes and to joining discussions on AI’s creative possibilities and how it can help businesses now,” a Google spokesperson told Adweek.  

Instacart CMO Laura Jones is eager to discuss her company’s new AI tools during the week, including on June 19 as part of Adweek’s own Cannes Lions programming lineup (see sidebar). “I’m excited to not only share how we’re deploying AI and machine learning to enhance our product and creative outputs, but learn from my peers and industry leaders on how their companies are leveraging AI for good,” said Jones.

Awards highlights

While AI talk might dominate the week, Cannes is still primarily about awarding humans for their creativity. 

In 2023, the number of award categories has grown with the introduction of Creative Maker of the Year, which will go to legendary filmmaker Spike Lee.

In another shake-up, the Entertainment Lions For Gaming will celebrate creative work that has connected people to brands through gameplay. With brands like Nike and Lego having entered the metaverse in the last 12 months, tapping into platforms including Roblox and Decentraland, there will be no shortage of entries for judges to consider.

“Finally, gaming has its own category,” said Mark Eaves, founder of London-based digital agency Gravity Road. “For too long, it’s been pinned onto the broader entertainment landscape, when it is its own very nuanced combination of creative and audience engagement.”

Elsewhere, the heavily restrictive pharma category has also been revamped to sit alongside the rest of the health and wellness ad category, which aims to raise up work that brings science and innovation to life.

The jury president for this year’s health and wellness Lions, Mel Routhier, chief creative officer at VMLW&R Chicago, said there is “no doubt” that “the continued elevation of great thinking that’s raising the bar of what’s possible in this space” will be reflected in the 2023 winners.

“Brands are increasingly looking to spotlight the importance of understanding and supporting the health of the human mind. It’s going to be fascinating to see the innovations coming through,” said Routhier. “With AI also continuing to trend—should we take bets on how many AI ideas we’ll see?—the health industry is evolving at warp speed.”

Cannes Lions will also honor Dan Wieden permanently added to the Titanium Lion, which recognizes game-changing work, said Cook.

Here’s What It’s Like to Win a Cannes Lion

Improving Riviera representation 

While Cannes Lions has long had a diversity, equity and inclusion track, advocacy groups have criticized it for failing to make diverse groups feel connected and included in what, at times, can feel like a very exclusive space. 

That could change this year, as Cephas Williams, founder of the Black British Network, and Cannes Lions CEO Cook have launched “Black Out 2023,” a new campaign to drive Black representation at Cannes Lions. The “Black Out 2023” program will see the festival secure attendance for up to 50 Black ad professionals, with flights, accommodation and associated costs financed by industry backers. 

“‘Black Out’ gives Black talent the authentic proximity they need to develop themselves personally and within the industry, building meaningful relationships while connecting with a community of people on a similar mission,” said Williams.

The festival will also work with advocacy groups PerifaLions, the Black Executive CMO Alliance and the Brixton Finishing School to ensure talent is represented on the ground and given access to events at this year’s festival. 

Black at Cannes has been supporting the organizers with the New Creative Maker of the Year Award while The Cannes Can: Diversity Collective will bring its Inkwell Beach back for the fifth year to highlight diversity, equity and inclusion.

A collective of women-focused industry bodies (Bloom and WACL) have partnered to offer female delegates “a safe space” within a beach space that’s being hosted by Women in Programmatic across the week too. 

Meanwhile, Google is serving as Cannes Lions’ official accessibility partner, helping ensure the festival itself is built for people with disabilities. This includes providing American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and using Live Transcribe for real-time captioning. 

The tech giant will also host an official Pride celebration showing solidarity and support for the LGBTQ+ community.

The World Has Changed and So Has Marketing. Is Cannes Still Relevant?

Adweek’s Cannes plan

As usual, Adweek will have a can’t-miss presence at the Cannes Lions festival. From June 19-22, we’ll be joined by some of the most influential voices in marketing, creativity and advertising—including FYI CEO and founder will.i.am, Instacart CMO Laura Jones, Walmart svp and CMO William White and Andréa Mallard, chief marketing and communications officer for Pinterest—to discuss the business case for creativity over a series of panels and fireside chats on the beach at Whalar House. On June 20, we will also celebrate this year’s Brand Genius honorees, who will be featured in Adweek’s July issue. 

This story is part of Adweek’s Creativity x Culture digital features package, which spotlights the people, marketing strategies and creativity driving lasting cultural and societal change.