Cannes Lions debrief: How did the UK work perform?

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the Campaign podcast. It's the week after Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and in this episode we're taking a look back at how the UK work performed in the 2026 awards. And we are back to our, uh, regular programming for the podcast. But if you want to hear more about the Cannes Lions from our global editors, just check out the three part Campaign Can Global podcast hosted by our, uh, UK Editor in chief, Gideon Spaniar. But joining me in this can Debrief episode, please welcome from our creative team, creativity and Culture editor Gurget Deegan. Hello, Gurget.

Speaker A: Hello. I don't know why I'm waving, sorry.

Speaker C: Should do some air quotes later as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, we love an air quote in the podcast that no one can see. And deputy Creativity and Culture editor Charlotte Rawlings. Hello.

Speaker A: Hi, Lucy.

Speaker B: And UK editor Maisie McCabe.

Speaker C: Hello.

Speaker B: And I'm your host, tech and multimedia editor Lucy, uh, Shelley. Well, as anyone listening can tell, I've only just got my voice back, which

Speaker C: I think is a sign of a good can.

Speaker B: Well, yeah, I think it's the same for quite a lot of people at Cannes.

Speaker C: Um, I actually really remember two years ago, Charlotte, where you were like, maisie, haven't you lost your voice? It was like she was shocked. Well, it made me feel grown up.

Speaker B: But it was a busy can. I think it was a busy can for everyone at Cannes, but a very busy Cannes for us. So second year of campaign house opened by Cindy Rose, Artisa Dune. And we had a ton of other sessions going on as well. So we're glad to be back in a way.

Speaker C: We've got lots of stories out of them, so well done. Yeah, a lot of them for all

Speaker B: their writing and more to come.

Speaker C: So watch this space, the campaign website.

Speaker B: Yes. Watch one of our other spaces, Gurget as Gadget. We're still loopy, aren't we?

Speaker C: Yeah. For the.

Speaker A: Should we move on for the audio.

Speaker B: Shaking our head over to Gadget then. So how was your can this year? How would you summarize?

Speaker A: Just as you describe it, really hot and sweaty. But think everybody was the same. I felt it was a success for UK Creativity. We'll come on to that a bit later. I've had a two year gap away from Cannes and I couldn't believe how much bigger it was. I don't know if I remembered it. I don't know if I remembered it smaller, but I hadn't quite realized the Amazon port was around the other side. So when I saw the photos from you guys Last year I just assumed it was where that Snapchat bit is. And in my mind I had just made up. That's where it was. So I was. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: It's interesting, isn't it? Because I sort of never. I don't feel like it's getting bigger, but I did have people complaining that there were restaurants that they usually. Or like Brasseries that they usually have just sort of normal meetings in that were also branded and bought this year. Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker B: I mean I felt like it was, to your point, kind of expanding outwards. I mean, I went to OpenAI's press briefing, which was their first public thing going on at Cannes and that was beyond us. Uh, so Campaign House was in the old town, the other side of Amazon Port, and the M opening Eye was even beyond that.

Speaker A: It was further than Campaign House.

Speaker B: Even further than Campaign House. Yeah.

Speaker C: So we had a couple of lovely dinners. It has to be said.

Speaker A: It's quite nice and calm and on that side of the town. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. But I heard that people are buying those beaches. We're on the other side next year. Heard it here first from somebody else who threw me.

Speaker D: Yes.

Speaker C: It's not double sourced. The BBC won't publish it.

Speaker A: It's not double sourced at and Charlotte

Speaker B: your can how would you summarize it? How did you experience it this year?

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean similar, I think I can't count how many conversations I had with people saying, oh, it's so hot, isn't it? But I'm so glad I'm not in the uk. So glad we've got aircon here. But yeah, no, it was good. It was my third can so I feel like I found my rhythm with it. And I also know my limits, which is good because, you know, first year is finding your feet and then second year getting overexcited and having a back to back schedule for like this year was very productive and I learned.

Speaker C: I feel like it's changed during that time.

Speaker D: No, feels the same. I've changed, I've changed during that time.

Speaker A: I have just thought Cannes was a lot smaller then.

Speaker B: So this was my fourth Cannes, third with Campaign actually. And I think when I first started coming everyone was saying, oh, everyone's working harder at Cannes now. People are actually doing a lot more work. And one thing this year I felt that out of our, uh, contacts and all of the agencies that we go and see, everyone was talking about clients and seeing clients and client meetings. Cindy Rose at the beginning, she said that WPP collectively had 1500 client engagements. Last week I was told that they have a Microsoft app where they are literally logging the time spent with clients. So you're basically clocking in and clocking out with the app.

Speaker D: I wonder if they had a quota that they had to hit. Why else would you have an app?

Speaker C: But were you there in that conversation when they were saying the app wasn't working? I can't remember who that was.

Speaker B: Uh, no, I wasn't.

Speaker C: I can't remember who that was. But it just seems like. And uh, this has been said lots before, but it's like the serendipity of can is almost part of the point and where the magic is. And so whilst it is important that people are seeing clients and doing work work, the not quite work work is also quite useful. And I'm sure there were occasions where I would argue probably 20 years ago that people were just sort of drinking Mose and having a lovely time. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody really doing that now. Yeah, I mean there must be some

Speaker B: of them, but also part of it's meant to be finding, learning more, finding inspiration, finding new ways to be creative with your business and things like that. And I feel like if you're locked down in meetings, you can work on those relationships. Maybe the other side of Cannes isn't being as developed as much, but we shall see. Anyway, I did want to ask what are, uh, just very quickly, what our standout moments was and I hope your answer is the same as mine.

Speaker D: Charlotte Live in five, Live and five. It's not what I had written down, but since you gave me that prompt. Which episode?

Speaker C: Do you have a favourite episode?

Speaker D: Yes, the one on the beach was good. Yeah, we were on um, Google and YouTube. Pride.

Speaker B: Beach Pride.

Speaker D: Because there was no Pride present. Air quotes.

Speaker B: No, there was this year, but less than two years ago and more than last year.

Speaker D: About that.

Speaker A: What do you mean? What are you talking about?

Speaker B: So, last year the Google Pride party, which happens every Thursday around 4, 5pm because it was YouTube's 20th birthday, they,

Speaker C: and not categorically not, because of the new political climate in the US, they

Speaker B: had replaced it with YouTube's birthday. But as Maisie said, that wasn't what was told. And then this year the Pride party was back, but it wasn't to the same extent that it was two years ago. Like they used to have a massive glittery seven foot tall Pride sign. Everyone took pictures with her, everyone took pictures with etc.

Speaker D: Etc.

Speaker C: And so Canva, um, launched their own Pride party As well, at the same time. And there was actually a Pride party the previous night on a different beach. There was a suggestion that maybe the Google Pride party wasn't proud enough.

Speaker D: Gadget's face is really making me laugh.

Speaker A: Sorry, sorry.

Speaker B: Just looking around.

Speaker D: This is great talk.

Speaker A: I missed all this. Uh, we saw the boat.

Speaker D: Um, Canva boat.

Speaker B: No. Was it a Canva boat? It was. No. So this. I was. We were having a dinner on a Thursday night, and there was a Virgin Voyager, uh, cruise ship, absolutely ginormous cruise ship in the Can Bay in the distance.

Speaker D: In the.

Speaker B: In the sea in the distance that you would say. And on the windows of the ship, it spelled out different things. And as it got darker, we could realize what it actually said. But it was. The first one was hashtag pride, which is pride in French. Then it was Canva. So I think it was a Canva.

Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker B: Branding.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: Which is the best?

Speaker D: I enjoyed the one at, uh, Google and YouTube on the beach the most, I'd say. And because also we had special. A special guest, James Butters, who is in charge of the Cannes campaign party.

Speaker C: Does that mean James Butters is a better guest than Bo?

Speaker B: I was gonna say.

Speaker A: I was just about to ask.

Speaker B: That was my favorite episode. My least, uh, was the Friday, because I don't know if anyone's seen it. You can tell that I have no energy and.

Speaker D: No, you might enjoy the Friday one, though, because I think the fact that we had no energy meant we.

Speaker B: We were more relaxed.

Speaker A: I was like, hi.

Speaker D: Um, I'm not saying that James was a better guest than Beau. I'm just saying we did it on a beach.

Speaker C: I think these are. And these are all very. I think Maisie's teasing.

Speaker D: Yeah. You can judge for yourselves.

Speaker A: My standout moment was, uh. And I've said this to a few people, I really enjoyed your debate, Maisie. On Taste, we had Orchard Creatives Chief Creative Officer David Colbouche, um, Baby Teeth's founder and partner, Lindsay Atkin, argue that taste is objective. And then TBWA Worldwide's global cco Shekha Sibani, and Ace of Hearts founder and, um, CCO Rick Brim or Richard Brim, then argue against that. So whether taste is subjective, it was really engaging because all four of them gave such different, I want to say, performances.

Speaker C: Well, they were tasting style as much

Speaker A: as forms, which was so interesting. And I think that's why the audience was so engaged. There was a lot of laughter, and I felt like the audience were there with them. Um, which is why I wrote A

Speaker C: column talking about how they were wrong.

Speaker A: So Maisie asked at the end, is taste an objective truth? And by a show of hands, they all sided with Shaka and Rick. And then, yes, you wrote the column

Speaker C: a comm saying they were wrong, but

Speaker B: then they were arguing that it was a subjective.

Speaker C: Yeah, they're arguing it's subjective. And I do think that there is. In, specifically, in a world of creative work, there is a reliability in decisions that comes from experience and, um, cultivating a broad cultural life, which all those poor people have. They might argue that the sort of aperture is wider than maybe a Lindsay or a David would say. And it should be said that I gave them the sides to argue, so they weren't necessarily arguing their personal opinions. Although David and Lindsay were absolutely arguing their personal opinions.

Speaker A: Yeah, it was funny, wasn't it, at the end when the. In the Q and A, they ended up just agreeing.

Speaker C: I had, um. Yeah, so can challenge you to be creative in the form of it. So it was actually Rick's idea to do it like a boxing ring. Um, because I was going to do it like a courtroom, but that would have been a bit more boring.

Speaker A: Oh, I love a courtroom drama.

Speaker C: I've got a friend who's a basketball.

Speaker B: See if I could borrow a wig.

Speaker A: But in that heat, wearing a wig, that would not have been fun.

Speaker B: Um, but the gavel, that could have been fun.

Speaker D: The gavel, though.

Speaker B: Pros and cons. Pros and cons. Anyway, let's get to the UK work. So before Cannes, we draw up a list of our own Cannes contenders work that, ah, we would like to see win. Not all from the uk, actually, but should we have a look at how they did? So, Charlotte, do you want to kick us off? Do you want to talk about some of the Cannes contenders that we had chosen ourselves?

Speaker D: So we had chosen Waitrosen Partners, the Perfect Gift by Wonderhood Studios, which was the Christmas ad last year starring Jo Wilkinson and Keira Knightley. This was shortlisted in the film craft category but did not take home m any awards.

Speaker C: Wasn't shortlisted for the film.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Amazing. I think there is an issue with very local market campaigns in these international jewelleries.

Speaker D: Exactly. It was quite obviously referential to uk.

Speaker A: Christmas is hard. I think Christmas work is hard, but that's why I thought Tesco's Christmas Work was shortlisted. Did it win as well? I don't think it won, did it?

Speaker D: No.

Speaker A: Tesco Christmas work to be shortlisted in film was. Was amazing. Um, it's a hard category that is hard for other people. From other countries to understand.

Speaker B: Well, it's relating to, isn't it? The point of a lot of Christmas campaigns, unless they're a global campaign, is that they own. Well, not only, but they speak directly to that specific market.

Speaker C: But there'll be versions of this in all. In most M countries there's something that's really specific for their regional market which is difficult to translate.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And you know, and it should be said that probably a lot of these juries were previously over saturated with the UK and US people. So there's, there's a reason, uh, positive

Speaker D: reason, but nonetheless, like we think it's an excellent, excellent piece of work. So probably one of the more notable films on the, on the shortlist was Anthropic's Claude. A Time and a Place campaign by Mother. And this was four films that were spotlighting how ADs are coming to AI but not to claurge. And this was shortlisted in four categories. Creative strategy, Film, Film, Craft and Social and creator. It won the Grand Prix in film for two of the ads in the campaign. How can I communicate better with my Mum And Can I get a six pack quickly? But the campaign also won a silver in Creative Strategy and a gold and a silver in Film. I think we were very, very pleased to see that it had won the Grand Prix in the film category.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's great. I mean it's the uh, I think the third film Grand Prix we predicted in the contenders in a row. So that's nice.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: It's a great campaign though. And it's got, it had good talkability is what prompted Sam Altman to respond. Why they were wrong in terms of like having real world impact. Getting your, you know, the market leader, CEO of the market leader to respond to your ads is quite high.

Speaker A: The work really kind of resonated.

Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. And the six pack, um, one was obviously reminiscent of the pull up OpenAI ad as well.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker C: So there was.

Speaker D: Yes, yes. Yeah. Me and Lucy were in the uh, press conference for it when they announced it and I think it was just nice seeing like obviously journalists from all over the world hysterically laughing at the examples when they were showing them when they won the awards. It was, it was really nice. And speaking of the press conference, Pella, uh, Chanel, who is the worldwide Chief Creative Officer Officer at NLS Corp, um, and president of the Film Lions jury, said during judging this year they'd noticed a trend that AI is being used to celebrate and elevate humanity. Which is quite funny because when I was talking to Frankie Goodwin At Saatchi and Saatchi, she's the chief Creative officer. About the new creators showcase, we talked about how AI was being used as a punchline in a lot of creative work that was coming out. But, yeah, back to what Pella said. He said that humor is back in all its forms. And then speaking specifically about Claude and Mother's work, he said it had wit, nerve and craft in every frame. And also said the risk was profound and the execution was immaculate.

Speaker C: I mean, it's particularly interesting, isn't it, that that's a comedy ad that's resonating globally, so it obviously is possible to do. But I guess, you know, it was a sort of international brand with an international comms.

Speaker D: I think it made me consider Claude a lot more as well. In that category. Everyone talks about ChatGPT, so, yeah, it's definitely made me way more aware of Claude, so it's worked. And also, Claude has a reputation for being a bit more savage than ChatGPT, which I think is great.

Speaker B: But talking about humor and, you know, in more local markets. He did also mention that Thailand had really lent into the surreal, that that was very much a theme that he was seeing in among that work as well.

Speaker D: Yeah. And then we also wrote about Bournville, made To Be Enjoyed, Not Endured by VCCP as one of our Cannes contenders. And this was also shortlisted in the film category, but did not get any

Speaker B: L. Okay, well, thanks to some of the UK work, let's have a look at, uh, how the UK did this year compared to previous years. So last year the UK took home 86 trophies and this year it took home 84. However, it did double in Grand Prix thanks to wins like Claude. So we took home six as opposed to three. Last year took home 14 gold, 28 silver, 36 bronze and one titanium lion. So a successful year for the UK, but especially in film. It was the most successful category this year, followed by outdoor. And film had 11 trophies, compared to six last year out of 35 shortlists, which was 17 more than the previous year. However, the UK was down in craft categories, so in Film craft, while we did really well in film, in Film craft, it dropped from nine wins to four. And there were, uh, zero wins in Industry craft, Digital craft and Creative Effectiveness. So what, another huge award.

Speaker D: I wonder why that is, though. I don't know if it's because were there fewer shortlists in Film craft?

Speaker C: Does fewer entries necessarily mean the craft is worse, or is it. You know, there are other market forces and things about the production company. Market is Obviously having a difficult time at the moment. We've seen a number of post houses and music houses struggle or go bust. I wonder if, you know, that might have some. You've got this sort of the disruption in the agencies, but then possibly even more intense change on that side had something to do with it as well.

Speaker D: I just wonder if budgets, um, are tightening and people were. If they're going to select which category to enter, uh, would they prefer to go for film?

Speaker B: Well, interesting. I've actually now just had a look because our wonderful, uh, campaign Red Data team have done full UK shortlists and winners tables with adding up how the UK is doing across all the different categories and industry craft. It had 18 shortlists last year and only one this year. Creative Effectiveness had 10 shortlists last year and zero this year. Digital Craft three last year, zero this year.

Speaker C: On Creative Effectiveness Campaign, Canada's editor Chris Powell has spied that. I think that was the category that had the steepest decline in entries this year. So it was down over half down, um, on the previous year.

Speaker B: And that's the one award that you have to have won last year, or at least in the last three years. I think it is.

Speaker C: I guess the sense was, in a world where you have to prove a lot more than you did have to previously in the Creative Effectiveness category, you're

Speaker A: really going to have to.

Speaker C: It's going to be quite a lot of work there to demonstrate.

Speaker B: Do you mean prove that in the world generally or like within Cannes?

Speaker C: Within can. So with the whole proof of impact documentations that needed. I get the sense that the Creative Effectiveness category was already the most work, if that makes sense. So presumably that was exaggerated or you'd expect it to have done Girget.

Speaker B: What other Cannes contenders did we select this year and how did they do

Speaker A: so coinbase your way out By Isle of any. They won the Grand Prix in Film Craft and also Gold, silver and Bronze in that category and they had gold and silver in film. I'm sure everybody knows what this is about. It's set in a gaming universe where this player is in a queue at a traditional bank, but then runs away into the countryside where his human self appears. And then it's about your way out of their system is what the copy at the end reads. And it was directed by Oscar Hudson through mjz. So I was in the press conference for this one and Pip Smart, who's the executive producer and partner at, uh, Revolver in Australia, she was the jury president and she said the work naturally rose to the top So I think the jury naturally found it better than the others in that category for her. She said it was about the depth and the originality of the craft and that was just quite an easy decision. And that the other ones, like the bronze ones, were harder to award. Then Instacart was another one that we did. I really liked Instacart a lot. I really liked it.

Speaker D: Bananas.

Speaker A: Well, yes. So it's actually called.

Speaker C: Hey dad,

Speaker D: is it called Bananas?

Speaker B: It is.

Speaker A: No, no, no, it is. Bananas is a shorter one.

Speaker C: Uh, and then Four Papa is the longer.

Speaker A: Four Papa is the longer one. And it's interestingly, uh, It's a longer one that. That one Silver lion in Film Craft and a Bronze in Entertainment and a Silver in Film.

Speaker C: I mean, you guess on that comedy point that that's sort of a slightly quirky form of humor that maybe, you know, doesn't necessarily translate to all cultures potentially, perhaps.

Speaker A: Yes, exactly. So that's by Local Produce, which is their in house agency, and then also in McCann and BBDO, we're credited for the work as well.

Speaker B: What's interesting to mention, actually. So those two pieces of work from the US and they were shortlisted for far more than the UK work that we also had in can contenders as well. So Andre's first School Poo by FCB London was. Had five shortlists, which was the most shortlisted piece of work from the Cannes contenders in the UK. But Instacart had eight shortlists and Coinbase had 15. Which just shows obviously how much it's been entered, how well it's obviously done as well. But we don't know how much the other work, um, was entered.

Speaker C: Yeah, I guess, yeah. You don't know how many entries are behind the shortlisted.

Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like from talks and everybody talking about these pieces of work, Coinbase was a bit of a no brainer. Uh, like everyone did say they thought it would win.

Speaker C: There's a few people probably who thought it was. Yeah, it won in the right category. The sort of idea that there wasn't necessarily a clean link to Coinbase. Obviously they have the analogy is the idea that you're breaking free of this kind of oppressive structure. But it's one of those ads that's not trying to particularly tell you something about their specific brand and how they can help me do that.

Speaker A: Yeah. And if you're judging it for film craft, really, really good in terms of the craft they use.

Speaker D: What's interesting about it though is that if I hadn't seen like the behind the scenes stuff and how it was made, I'd be like, that just looks like it's done with cgi. Like you don't know straight away. This is what Anna Ballerin was saying, who's joint CCO at Wyden Kennedy. She was saying at one of the campaign house sessions that, uh, the reason why she liked it is because it's not super obvious how they've done it. It's more of a subtle craft than when you realize was made. It's even more impressive because it's not obviously done in camera.

Speaker B: Can I ask a quick question, actually? Because obviously this was the first year that AI was a subcategory in craft. Did that come up in the press conference?

Speaker A: A point in one of my stories that I made that in terms of using AI for the entry, they noticed one entry used AI and they asked. Went back to ask them what it was for and they used it in terms of writing the actual entry. The jury president said, which it's totally fine because we all know how difficult these things are to write.

Speaker C: So I can't remember if I said this on the previous podcast, but obviously can. When they first announced the new transparency guidelines and things, they announced they were going to be using AI as part of the process, but they found the only way I think they used AI was to cross check whether an agency said it used AI or not, and then whether it included the words AI in the actual submission. And so that was to corroborate, obviously, if they'd said, no, we didn't use AI, but then they mentioned AI in the submission and they would look and check it. And if they mentioned AI in the context of we didn't use AI, it was all human crap, then that was fine. And so I think there was a sort of a hope that potentially they could use AI to determine whether the work had been made by AI M. But that's not possible yet.

Speaker B: Well, quickly on the AI point, actually, Chaka Sivani, when she was talking about the Titanium, she was jury president for Titanium with me and Charlotte was sat together and obviously it was Friday morning. She also had almost m Lost her voice. And she said to the whole room, um, quite emphatically, can everyone calm down about AI? Ah, she said, we just need to chill out. She said, leave us to play around with it. It's all going to be okay, basically. And she says it's what's next for creativity and it's, you know, it's helping us be more creative. So, yeah, chill out, guys.

Speaker A: Chill out.

Speaker B: Okay, so should we m. Quickly mention some other UK work that did well.

Speaker A: Yeah, the KitKat work by VML. A, uh, Grand Prix in PR. There were also several more. So, 1, 2, 3, 4 golds and 3 silvers. So that did really well.

Speaker C: It's interesting, there's a campaign that they weren't really allowed to talk about having done, I think. Well, I'm presuming that on the basis that they didn't make any hang of it when it was actually happening, um, which is obviously a bit of a trend with clients with brands being a bit more secretive about how their campaigns are communicated.

Speaker D: There was also John Lewis's Tableau by Saatchi and Saatchi, which got four bronze lions and one silver.

Speaker B: Missing People by BBH got a Gold in Film and the Columbia sportswear work by Adam and Eve TBWA that picked up the Titanium, got the Grand Prix for brand experience and activation, among a few other gold, silvers and bronzes elsewhere too. And of course we also have uncommons, the periodic fable for the ordinary, which also picked up a Grand Prix.

Speaker C: Congratulations.

Speaker B: Congratulations.

Speaker A: Adidas was really good as well. It was two Grand Prix and one bronze lion. That was the oasis work from last year.

Speaker C: So it was entered by Adidas and Johannes Leonardo based in New York. So it had a dual uk, US entrant country.

Speaker B: Let's get to our three words. As we always do at the end of our episode, we ask the, uh, title question in three words, but I'm slightly rewording it for you because Charlotte and I have done a word of the day every day for the last five days.

Speaker C: So delirious.

Speaker B: So, yeah, we're making. We're slightly rewording the title, but hey, who's going to complain? So, in three words, how would you describe the UK's performance at Cannes this year? Charlotte, let's get yours out of the way since you've done it enough this week.

Speaker D: And I also have not been able to form a sentence out of them, so they are three individual words. Well done. Collaboration, humour. AI. Nice.

Speaker C: I was just going to go, like, pretty darn Good.

Speaker A: Better than 2025. Nice.

Speaker B: Well, thank you all very much for joining me in the studio to Talk through Cannes 2026.

Speaker D: You are so welcome, Lucy.

Speaker A: Anytime.

Speaker B: We'll do it next year.

Speaker C: Bye.

Speaker B: Thanks for listening to this episode of the award winning Campaign podcast. To read more about what we have been discussing today and, um, to subscribe, head to campaignlive.co.uk if you enjoyed this episode of the Campaign podcast, please follow us like us and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you to Haymarkets producer, producer Jude Owen. I hope you will join us next time. So on, um, behalf of the campaign team, goodbye.