These Are The World’s Top Performing Creatives and Directors from Cannes Lions

Cannes Lions has revealed the ad industry’s top performing creative talent as part of its annual global rankings. The Lions Creativity Report, released on Friday (Sept. 17), recognizes the world’s most creative companies, people and sectors, as well as trends and insights from the winning work at the most recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. These rankings are based on the number of Lions received at the festival, but they provide a snapshot of some of the industry’s leading talent. Nisha Ganatra, who directed Bodyform’s Grand Prix-winning “Womb Stories” by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, is the top director of the festival. Ganatra is the first woman of color to be ranked as the top director at Cannes and only the second woman ever to be number one (the first was Lauren Greenfield for Always’ “Like A Girl” campaign in 2015). The lack of diverse representation across previous director rankings is a reminder that “a lot still needs to change in the industry to address diversity,” said Susie Walker, vice-president of insight and awards at Cannes Lions. The agency David (both its Miami and Madrid offices) dominates much of the people rankings, which along with directors recognize the top creative directors, art directors and copywriters (the top three from each list are at the bottom of this article). Key Trends From The Work Besides the rankings, several other trends emerged from the winning work this year. Perhaps unsurprisingly because of the pandemic, the health and pharmaceutical categories saw a large jump in entries, with a 10% year-on-year increase in health and 40% year-on-year rise in pharma work. There was also a 61% increase in 2020-2021 Cannes Lions entries into purpose categories, which include the Glass and Sustainable Development Goals Lions. Two-thirds of all the Grand Prix awarded were for purposeful work that fulfilled a role that wasn’t solely related to profit. “Brands are really putting their efforts into creating positive change in the world as well as the bottom line,” Walker said. “Consumers expect more of brands, so the work we see from brands has changed. But these are seriously commercial brands–the winning work is driving effectiveness as well as purpose.” Finally, another major trend from the winning work was the maturation of e-commerce—the Creative eCommerce Lions in 2020-2021 saw a 12% increase in entries from 2019. “E-commerce has exploded because of the situation the world is in, but actually a lot of the commerce winners blended e-commerce with real-life touchpoints and experiences,” Walker said. “It feels like that work has matured and that’s something we’re expecting to see more of.” Talent Rankings Directors of the Festival: Nisha Ganatra, Chelsea Pictures, New YorkMarkus Ahlm, Colony, Stockholm, SwedenSimilar But Different (Charlotte Fassler / Dani Girdwood), Smuggler London, U.K. Creative Directors of the Festival: Jean Zamprogno / Fernando Pellizzaro, David, Miami, USA Niels Sienaert / Tim Schoenmaeckers, FCB Chicago, Chicago, USA Jim Hilson / Toby Allen, AMV BBDO, London, United Kingdom Art Directors of the Festival: Felipe Antonioli, David, Madrid, Spain Andy Tamayo, David, Miami, USA Dwight Williams / Mateus Cerqueira, FCB Chicago, Chicago, USA Copywriters of the Festival: Luis Giraldo, David, Madrid, Spain Alexander Allen, David, Miami, USA Jared Schermer, David, Miami, USA Cannes Lions Names Its Agencies of the Festival