Why Cannes Lions Now Values How Brands Build Over What They Make

For decades, Cannes Lions has been the world's most prestigious advertising awards show. Every June, thousands of campaigns compete for a golden Lion statuette. The winner: usually the flashiest ad, the most viral stunt, or the most emotionally affecting film.

That formula is changing. Cannes Lions 2026 has introduced a new award category that asks a fundamentally different question. Not "what great work did you make?" but "how did you build an organization that consistently makes great work?"

It's a subtle but significant shift, and one that matters for any marketing leader in Asia.

A New Award for How You Build

The new Creative Brand Lions sits within a newly created Brand Track at the festival. Instead of judging individual campaigns, it evaluates the systems, cultures, and internal capabilities that allow a brand to produce world-class creative work again and again.

To win, brands must demonstrate at least 12 months of sustained implementation. Entries are judged equally across four areas: creative innovation (25%), strategic alignment (25%), scalability and sustainability (25%), and commercial results (25%). Anything entered here cannot be entered in any other Cannes category. It exists in its own lane entirely.

The Jury President Is the Point

The choice of inaugural jury president says a lot about what Cannes is trying to celebrate. Marcel Marcondes, Global CMO of AB InBev, will lead the first Creative Brand Lions jury.

This is not a random pick. AB InBev is the only brand in the festival's history to have been named Creative Marketer of the Year twice. His organization is effectively the proof of concept for what this category is designed to honor.

Marcondes is joined by Jean Lin, Global Chief Brand Officer of Dentsu Group (headquartered in Tokyo), and Rose Herceg, CEO of WPP for Australia and New Zealand. Two prominent APAC figures on the inaugural jury are a clear signal that the festival is not building this award with only Western brands in mind.

More Changes Beyond the New Trophy

The Creative Data category has also been overhauled. Previously, data could inform a creative idea at any stage. Now entries must demonstrate that data originated the idea from the beginning, not just optimized it later.

New "AI Craft" subcategories now explicitly reward work where human creativity and artificial intelligence together produce results neither could achieve alone. Retail media (advertising within e-commerce platforms like Lazada or Shopee) has been recognized as its own innovation domain for the first time.

And in a first for any major global awards program, Cannes has introduced a human-plus-AI verification system to check the accuracy of claims in award entries. The festival is essentially acknowledging what the industry has whispered for years: some results in winning entries have been exaggerated.

Asia's Growing Presence

The 73rd edition of the festival runs June 22 to 26 in Cannes, France. The 2026 jury includes 49 jurors from Asia and five APAC jury presidents across categories including Health and Wellness, Creative Data, and Media Lions.

In another historic milestone, Lebanon has been represented on the Dan Wieden Titanium Lions jury for the first time, through Nayla Tueni of Annahar Media Group. The Titanium Lions, led by Chaka Sobhani of TBWA\Worldwide, remains Cannes' top honor for work that genuinely shifts industry norms.

For marketing leaders in Asia, the signal is clear. Cannes is moving toward rewarding the conditions that produce great creative work, not just the work itself. That argument for sustained investment in brand-building capability just got official validation.