Catch Up on the Latest Updates for the Upcoming Cannes Lions 2024 Edition
With the creativity festival less than a month away, here's a round-up of all the latest news on what to expect at the 71st edition of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
The Cannes Lions Festival is scheduled for 17 to 21 June this year. Like every year, work from across the globe will be judged, awarded, and celebrated.
Unilever Announced as the Creative Marketer of the Year for 2024
The honorary accolade is presented to a marketer that has amassed a body of iconic, Lion-winning work over a sustained period, with Unilever establishing a reputation for producing brave, creative, and innovative marketing solutions.
Unilever was last honored as Creative Marketer of the Year in 2010 and has amassed hundreds of Lions in the following years. At last year’s Cannes Lions, Unilever was awarded Lions across a number of its brands including Dove, Hellmann’s, Dirt Is Good (known as Persil, Skip, and OMO), Magnum, Vaseline, Marmite, and Pot Noodle.
In 2023, Unilever’s largest brand, Dove, was awarded the Media Lions Grand Prix for its ‘#TurnYourBack’ campaign by Ogilvy, London / DAVID, Madrid. ‘#TurnYourBack’ was deemed by Media Lions Jury President, Christian Juhl, to be “a timely example of how our industry can use the power of media to protect young people and empower them to reject the pressure they feel to conform to artificial standards and be confident in their true, unfiltered selves.”
Unilever was last honored as Creative Marketer of the Year in 2010 and has amassed hundreds of Lions in the following years.
2024's Shortlisting Jury Members Announced - 12 members to represent MENA
Earlier this month, Cannes Lions announced the global line-up of experts that will be shortlisting creative work this June. Experts were chosen across 75 markets, representing the global industry's leading talent from a diverse range of disciplines. Following the announcement of Kalpesh Patankar, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett appointment as the Jury President of the Industry Craft category, the region maintains its hold in the Shortlisting Jury with 11 experts representing the UAE, and one KSA - with a total of 12 recouping for the MENA region at the global world cup for creativity.
Serena Abi Aad, Creative Director and Film Director will be representing the Films Lions jury. Firas Medrows, Executive Creative Director, DDB UAE will be joining the Outdoor Lions. This year, the print and publishing lions will present Mohamed Bareche, Executive Creative Director at Horizon FCB from the region. Rodrigo Scapolan, Creative Director, TBWA\RAAD Dubai will be a part of Film Craft Lions, and Prerna Mehra, Creative Director and Head of Art and Design at MullenLowe MENA. Zahir Mirza, Executive Creative Director at C2 UAE is joining the Engagement Track for 2024. The PR Lions will present Shafaq Tariq, Chief Creative Officer - PR & Comms across PK & MENA at Walnut Communications. Akanksha Goel, CEO and Founder of Socialize / We Are Social will represent the UAE in the Social & Influence Lions Jury, and Shereen Mostafa, Head of Production at Publicis Groupe ME - the Entertainment Track. Jarrad Pitts, Creative Director of Consulum, has been chosen to be part of the Experience Track for this year.
Amr El Kalaawy, Regional Managing Director across KSA and Bahrain for FP7 McCann, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain proudly boasts the Kingdom as part of the Strategy Track this year.
Cannes Lions Presents Lifetime Achievement Award - The Lion of St Mark, to Jacques Séguéla
France’s foremost advertising pioneer and former co-vice-chairman/chief creative officer at Havas will be honored on stage in June. With a career spanning more than 60 years in the industry, Séguéla has produced consistently iconic work for brands like Air France, Apple, Carrefour, Citroën, Louis Vuitton and Microsoft, as well as highly successful political campaigns and authoring numerous best-selling books on advertising.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler - Maria Ressa Honored as 2024 Cannes LionHeart
The LionHeart, regarded as one of the festival’s most prestigious awards - was presented to Maria Ressa this year. The award is given to a person who has harnessed their position to make a significant and positive difference to the world around us. Ressa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, the top digital-only news site leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler’s CEO, Ressa has led their battle for truth and democracy and has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government, forced to post bail 10 times to stay free. Her most recent book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, was released in November 2022 and has been translated into 20 languages, with more to come.
Expressing her regard for the accolade, Maria Ressa told Cannes Lions, “We’re standing on the rubble of the world that was: where technology, violence and war challenge our humanity. The Cannes LionHeart reminds us that imagination and creativity, sparking empathy, are crucial to get us through these dark times; that power and money are not enough; and that inspiration ignites the good in each of us. Thank you for recognizing the work of Rappler, where we continue to fight against the odds to help create the world we want.”
