Cannes Jury Insights: Entertainment Lions

Speaking at a press conference at Cannes Lions 2023 earlier today, the jury presidents for the Entertainment Lions revealed the winning work from their respective categories, discussing why the awarded work succeeded and pulling the curtain back on the jury room experience.

Joining Cannes Lions’ CEO, Simon Cook, for this talk was Brent Anderson, global CCO at TBWA \ Media Arts Lab and jury president for the Entertainment Lions; Danielle Hinde, Doomsday Entertainment’s owner, EP, and jury president for the Entertainment Lions for Music; Rob Doubal, co-president of McCann London, joint CCO of McCann UK and jury president for the Entertainment Lions for Sport; and Francine Li, global head of marketing at Riot Games and jury president for the Entertainment Lions for Gaming.

The latter is a debuting category at this year’s awards, something that LBB’s Ben Conway asked Francine about during the conference. To hear what she and each of the jury presidents had to say about their categories, read on.

Entertainment Lions

Grand Prix Winner: Clash of Clans - ‘Clash From the Past’ 

Jury President: Brent Anderson, global CCO at TBWA \ Media Arts Lab

Kicking off the discussion, Brent shared that one of the messages that his jury wanted to send was “risk is important.” Elaborating, he said, “If it doesn’t make your knees knock a little bit in the ideation stage… or bring that level of trepidation, pause or nervousness, then maybe going bigger and taking some risks will get you there.”

Describing the Grand Prix winner ‘Clash From the Past’ as “a very ambitious idea, executed perfectly,” he said that it succeeded in making a community feel and believe they had experienced something beyond an advertising campaign. He described the piece as a “masterclass in community building” and praised the “staggering detail” that went into it - from creating three playable games to producing an associated cereal product with General Mills.

Entertainment Lions for Music

Grand Prix Winners: Apple - ‘The Greatest’ and Michael Kiwanuka - ‘Beautiful Life’

Jury President: Danielle Hinde, owner and EP at Doomsday Entertainment

This category can award two Grand Prix, which is exactly what Danielle and her jury have done. The jury president explained that she laid out three main criteria in the form of questions: “Is this purposeful?”, “Does it make you feel?” and “Does it push culture forward?”. Both of the Grand Prix winners are intrinsically difficult to compare, as one is a brand film and the other is a music video, however they undeniably share the qualities outlined by those three prompts. Among several themes that the jury recognised was “the continued pursuit to figure out gen z,” as well as "empowerment" - both female empowerment and a celebration of diversity - and the use of emerging or innovative technology like the Metaverse, AI and social media platforms.

Describing ‘The Greatest’ and its unanimous support from the jury, Danielle said, “It celebrated diversity and inclusion but not in an exploitative way - which a lot of pieces can do.” She also pointed out how the influencers were used in an active way to actually make the song, and how infectious the track is in general.

For ‘Beautiful Life’, Danielle distilled her words into one: “Visceral.” Of the judging process, she explained that another key question was "Are you going to remember it?" - something that she and her fellow jurors thought Michael Kiwanuka’s video achieved comfortably. “As soon as i saw this piece in early judging, I just knew this was the Grand Prix winner,” she said. “It’s such a gut punch, while the craft and execution is just flawless.”

Entertainment Lions for Sport

Grand Prix Winner: Michelob Ultra - ‘Dreamcaster’

Jury President: Rob Doubal, co-president of McCann London and joint CCO at McCann UK

The criteria that Rob’s jury adhered to included a notion of growth and self improvement that also took into account the effect on the world, a focus on capturing the truth and, ultimately, whether the piece was entertaining - as per the category’s title. 

Discussing the Grand Prix winner ‘Dreamcaster’, which saw a blind man commentate a basketball game through the use of innovative haptic technology, Rob highlighted the campaign’s “intrinsic inclusivity.” He said, “One of the big trends this year is inclusivity, and generally in previous years, inclusivity has been the ambition of the work. But in a way, with this piece of work, inclusivity was the method.”

Entertainment Lions for Gaming

Grand Prix Winner: Clash of Clans -  ‘Clash from the Past’

Jury President: Francine Li, global head of marketing at Riot Games

2023 was the first year at Cannes to have an Entertainment Lions for Gaming category, so there was plenty of added pressure for the jury to set the standard for its Grand Prix award. “We all felt a profound responsibility,” said Francine, “so in addition to looking at the work individually, we were very careful to look at the body of work we were awarding. Was there work that spoke to each part of the gaming ecosystem - whether that’s gameplay, or engaging a community, or the streamers around that.”

She also said that they ensured both gaming-native brands and names that aren’t endemic to gaming were represented, as well as differnent sizes of company from a variety of regions.

Summarising the trends she noticed while judging, Francine said that a lot of non-endemic brands were using gaming to specifically target a largely gen z audience - but noted that there was a distinct and recognisable difference between work that was created for gamers, versus work that was created by gamers. In these circumstances, execution made all the difference - especially as gamers are particularly sceptical about advertising.

“Community was the core to so many ideas we saw,” she said. “There were a lot of ideas where brands were listening to or inviting the community in, or even co-creating with them.” In addition, she expressed the importance of campaigns that kept gamers’ “entertainment mindset” at the forefront when being created.

“We were looking for brave and creative work that respected the nuances of gaming culture and creatively added value to our experience,” she added, saying that the Grand Prix winner, ‘Clash from the Past’, does this in spades. “The campaign taps into a universal truth,” she continued. “Gamers don’t just love games - they love the universes around them.”

Agreeing with Brent’s earlier praise of the campaign’s “meticulous execution,” Francine also highlighted the insider winks and nods that gamers love to pore over as something that helped it resonate with the audience.