TikTok Dominated in Cannes Lions, Social Media is Now Mainstream on the Podium

87% of Cannes Lions 2022 winners used social media as a core element of the campaign, states the 'World-Class Lessons on Social Media Marketing' by Kurio and Cannes Lions. 

In channel-specific campaigns TikTok reigns as the winner. 6% of all the social media winners were built for TikTok. More than 5,000 winners have been analysed in the research program which has run for ten years. 

“Our analysis, starting from 2012, shows how social media has become an inseparable part of marketing”, says Jari Lähdevuori, the creative director of Kurio and analyst-in-chief of the report. “The use of social media in the winning work has risen steadily over time, reaching a saturation point in the past few years. It is unlikely that we’ll see a leap towards 100%. For me, the most interesting part is the deep dive into these winners, the uncovering of where social is headed.”  

The role of TikTok in the Cannes Lions winners has grown. Looking at campaign built around one specific social media platform, TikTok was the leader. Of all the winners using social, 6% were TikTok-first. Trailing right behind is Twitter (5%), followed by Instagram (3%), WhatsApp (2%) and YouTube (2%)

The metaverse is another trend, which is present in Cannes Lions 2022 social media winners. 16% of all social campaigns were metaverse-related. Most of these tapped into gaming, but also AR and VR technologies were widely used.

”Riding the waves of the world’s best marketing campaigns is naturally a smart move – doing it in your own and novel way, of course”, comments Jari. “Another good starting point is to look at things that have yet to be done widely. One of these is putting influencers at the core of the idea. Only 17% of social winners had integrated creators in their campaign idea. This shows that still, after all the years of influencer marketing buzz, it is seen as a media choice and taken into account at the last stages of planning process.”

Cannes Lions is the most significant competition of the marketing & advertising industry, and a leading festival on creativity. The 70th annual Cannes Lions was held on 20th – 24th June 2022. The World-Class Lessons On Social Media Marketing report was released for the ninth time. Our sample consists of winners in eight particular categories, which differ from another and showcase a wide use of the marketing mix: Brand Experience & Activation, Design, Direct, Media, Mobile, PR, Social & Influencer and Titanium. Altogether these categories had 329 winners.

Download the report here.