Changes for Cannes Lions 2026

For over 70 years, we’ve celebrated the campaigns that capture hearts and drive demand for brands worldwide. In 2026, we’re recognising what makes those breakthrough ideas possible in the first place.

The Creative Brand Lion will celebrate how brands strategically use creativity across their organisation to drive sustained business success. Instead of judging individual campaigns, this Lion recognises the systems, cultures, and capabilities that deliver measurable business growth and long-term brand value.

This Award sits in a new Brand Track and benchmarks how brands build the foundational architecture that makes continuous creative excellence inevitable. Entries will focus on longer-term capability building initiatives that demonstrate business impact rather than campaign performance.

Data’s role in creative marketing has fundamentally shifted. What once supported campaigns now acts as the catalyst. Today’s most effective work doesn’t just use data; it’s born from it. To recognise this evolution and reflect how data is reshaping creative opportunities, we’re redefining the Creative Data Lion.

The updated categories will celebrate work where data fundamentally drives the creative concept, not just informs it. From privacy-first personalisation to breakthrough media innovation, entries must prove that data was essential to both the idea and its measurable business impact.

We’re introducing a new AI Craft subcategory to celebrate the sweet spot where human creativity meets artificial intelligence to create something neither could achieve alone. This isn’t about best use of AI as a tool; it’s about recognising the craft and artistry of work that couldn’t exist without it.

Entries must demonstrate that the core concept, execution or impact wouldn’t have been possible through previous methods alone. This new subcategory will appear across the Design, Digital Craft, Film Craft, Industry Craft and Creative Data Lions.

Retail media continues its explosive momentum, set to be the fastest-growing medium in 2025. Last year, we introduced retail media subcategories in the Media and Creative Commerce Lions.

Now we’re expanding across the Creative Strategy and Creative Data Lions, recognising that retail media excellence spans both strategic thinking in connecting brands with shoppers and innovative applications of first-party data for targeted advertising. This creates more opportunities to celebrate the breadth of innovation happening in this space.

Following on from the Integrity Standards announced in July 2025, we’re introducing enhanced measures to ensure that the work that wins Lions demonstrates genuine impact.

These include additional layers of declarations of factual accuracy, requesting sources at point of entry, using AI for an initial feasibility study, introducing a new formal process for enquiry and producing the LIONS Integrity Handbook, a practical guide for use across the industry.

Full details on these standards and a link to download the Integrity Handbook can be found on our dedicated hub.

• We’re updating the Design Lion with a new IP and Branding subcategory to recognise intellectual property creation and comprehensive brand system development in contemporary design practice
• We’re updating the Health & Wellness Lion with a new Holistic Wellbeing & Mindful Living subcategory to celebrate comprehensive wellness approached beyond traditional medical messaging
• We’re adding Use of Humour as a new medium in the Health Track for brands employing humour to destigmatise health conditions