Talent Programmes

The LIONS Academies help rising young talent, aged 30 years and under, fast-track their careers and become the next generation of industry leaders. They combine inspiring classroom sessions with world-class speakers, hands-on learning and coaching from industry legends.

The Roger Hatchuel Student Academy is a unique learning experience designed to help students interested in pursuing a creative path in advertising launch their careers. It is open to full-time students, aged 18-23 years old, in their last year of studying.

Designed to support the next generation of underrepresented talent, the scholarship offers a group of young people from around the world a fully-funded place on the Cannes Lions Brand Marketers and Creative Academies. The first cohort of LIONS scholarship winners took part in the Festival in June 2023.

The ‘See It Be It’ talent programme was founded in 2014 by Cannes Lions with the mission to achieve equal gender representation of creative directors and leaders across the global industry. Over the past 9 years, we’ve elevated a worldwide community of 100+ creatives - positively impacting the gender representation we set out to equalise.

Future Lions is AKQA’s annual initiative that celebrates bold and progressive ideas from students all over the world aged 18-25 years old or less than 6 months’ industry experience. Five winning teams are granted full access to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and honoured with a limited edition Future Lions trophy.

#CannesForAll is an initiative launched by Brixton Finishing School in London, UK, DigiLearning Foundation and Lollipop Mentoring that aims to place their emerging and diverse talent at the heart of the Festival. In support of the initiative, Cannes Lions provided Festival access to the 12 talents chosen for the programme in 2023.

Honoring the late AB InBev leader Jodi Harris and her legacy of championing creativity in the industry, this scholarship, open to client side marketers between the ages of 31-36, offered ten future marketing leaders a fully-funded curated programme during the 2023 Festival. In partnership with AB InBev.

Cannes Lions continued its partnership with Cephas Williams and the Black British Network in 2023. As part of the initiative, Cannes Lions provided Festival passes for Black talent and worked with Cephas on a curated Festival programme that provided an incredible experience, opportunity and access for Black talent.

The Perifa education programme runs throughout the year, culminating in a brief-led competition where four winners will receive complimentary passes to Cannes Lions.

In partnership with Cannes Lions, Perifa Lions, founded by Leticia Rodrigues (See It Be It Alumni), Irina Didier and Flavio Salcedo, is on a mission to bring young people from the Brazilian peripheries to Cannes Lions - all paid for. The programme runs throughout the year, promoting several activities to highlight and connect diverse talents with big names and opportunities with leading agencies.

The Black Executive CMO Alliance, BECA, launched in 2021 with a mission to increase retention and representation of Black marketing professionals in the C-suite, through four core pillars; share, learn, elevate, and pay-it-forward. The latter is accomplished through 'The BECA Playbook', a 2-year bespoke program for Black mid-level marketers co-developed with Deloitte. Eight Future Leaders from The BECA Playbook attended Cannes Lions 2023. For the second consecutive year, Ascential and LIONS sponsored airfare, hotel, and Festival passes for all.