Image credit: Cannes Lions.

The Lions's content team has carried out substantial research with more than 1,500 industry individuals to develop eight 2020 festival themes.

Detailed interviews were also conducted with more than 100 industry-leading chief marketing officers, chief creative officers, brand leaders, strategists and CEOs to structure the themes around the most business-critical areas of branded marketing and communications to drive the creative agenda globally.

SA ranks joint 18th in 2019 Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report

25 Sep 2019

The eight themes for the 2020 Cannes Lions are…

1. Creativity IS the Business Growth Engine
2. Creative Disruption in Commerce
3. Post-Purpose: Brand Accountability and Activism
4. Your Brand is My Experience
5. Looking to 2030: Making your Business Future-fit
6. Applied Creativity: When Data, Tech and Ideas Collide
7. Storytelling at Scale
8. Let's Get Back to Brand

Celebrating forward-driving creativity

The 2020 Cannes Lions will also introduce a new award, the Creative Business Transformation Lions.

The Creative Business Transformation Lions celebrate the creativity that drives businesses forward – creative thinking that changes how brands organise themselves, how people work and how customers engage with them.

This Lion recognises the ingenuity that leads to the creation of new products and services and the reinvention of operations and customer experiences in companies of all sizes that drive transformative change.

Entries should demonstrate how creative change has been achieved across core business functions and has delivered a positive impact and growth for business, staff or customers.

Including, but not limited to, the creation of new products and services, the use of technology and business design, and the reinvention of operations and customer experiences in order to drive transformative change.

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24 Jun 2019

The Creative Business Transformation Lions is open to any organisation that designs and delivers transformational change within or, on behalf of, a brand. Including, but not limited to, creative companies or in-house teams that provide creative services, consultancy, experience or service design, new product development, innovation and digital transformation.

The Lion is looking for transformative solutions that have fundamentally changed core business functions for a brand/business.

Including transformation of customer-facing functions, reinvention of internal business design and operations, creation or reinvention of new products or services and the introduction and impact of venture models that drive transformative change.

Refresher Lions

Additionally, the PR Lions have also been refreshed for 2020, to ensure the award accurately reflects the current PR industry, and recognises the breadth of work that PR and communications specialists and now excel in including driving earned media at scale.

The new Social Engagement and Influencer Marketing section has been reimagined from the old Digital and Social section. It now incorporates content creation, amplification and production plus social and community engagement and influencer marketing.

#FairnessFirst: #CannesLions2019 roars for gender equality

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The sections – Excellence: PR Craft and PR Techniques – ensure this Lion celebrates PR as a craft. An expanded Culture and Context section recognises that PR specialists are delivering culturally nuanced work at the highest level. It also honours excellence in work focused on the corporate purpose and social responsibility arena.

Full information including categories for Cannes Lions Awards for 2020 will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information or if you would like to talk to an awards expert please get in touch at moc.snoilsennac@sdrawa.