Social Media Breaks Records at Cannes Lions 2024

Social is more present and effective in Cannes Lions than ever, states a new report by Kurio, part of the social-first group SAMY Alliance. A record-breaking 92% of all the winning work utilised social media. Also, a timeline analysis of the Social & Influencer Lions category shows the results are better than ever – e.g., the average impressions garnered by the winners was 5 billion, almost four-fold compared to previous years.

The report highlights various important trends within social media marketing. Firstly, branded actions correlate with social media success. 95% of Cannes Lions social winners incorporated actions that turn into something that can be experienced – either physically or virtually. This in turn fuels social buzz. Secondly, humour is surging on social. This can be seen from the analysis of engagement motivators, using the Sociability of the Brand framework by Kurio. Campaigns engaging via “entertaining oneself” were awarded 75% more than the previous year. Thirdly, authenticity truly works – with 91% of the social winners using the input of real people as part of the campaign.

“There are so many insights that can be gleaned from our annual analysis which started in 2012”, comments Jari Lähdevuori, the author of the report and the executive creative director of Kurio. “Looking at the best campaigns in the world through the lens of our frameworks has really created the backbone for our thinking at Kurio. For example, we truly believe in doing good with marketing communications – a fact backed up by data showing that year after year, altruism is the number one motivator for engagement in Lions winning work.”

The ubiquitous nature of social media is not only seen in our report but in many aspects of the festival. Its beaches are flocking with all different platforms’ venues and entries are getting ever more social-first. This was evident also to the jury of the Social & Influencer Lions category:

“Us at the Social & Influencer Lions jury of course felt we had the most exciting category in our hands – but there is objective proof to back this, too. Firstly, with over 1790 entries the category was one of the biggest and has been growing exponentially in recent years. Secondly, the Social & Influencer category was the “home” of some of this year’s arguably biggest campaigns such as CeraVe’s Michael Cerave and Orange’s Women’s Football. It was where they fitted best, despite being awarded highly elsewhere too. Social-first has really become the winning recipe – Grand Prix winning recipe”, commented Kurio’s executive strategy director Elli Tuominen, a juror at Cannes Lions 2024.

Cannes Lions is the most important awards show in the marketing & advertising industry and a leading festival on creativity. The 71st Cannes Lions was held on 17th – 21st June 2024. The World-Class Lessons On Social Media Marketing report was released for the eleventh time. Its sample consists of winners in seven categories, which collectively express a wide spectrum of marketing: Brand Experience & Activation, Design, Direct, Media, PR, Social & Influencer, and Titanium. A total of 333 winners were analysed this year.

Kurio is a social-first creative agency, which has been recognized as the #8 most creative agency in the world (Holmes Report 2023), and won awards such as D&AD, WARC Awards for Effectiveness, New York Festivals, and Effies. Kurio is part of SAMY Alliance, a global ecosystem of specialised and integrated marketing and communications solutions founded on consumer understanding and state-of-the-art creativity. SAMY has more than 500 professionals operating from 16 offices in over 55 markets.

Find the full report here.