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Final Lion-winners announced at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
Mumbai: In the final Awards Show of the week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the following Lions were awarded: Film, Glass: The Lion for Change, Sustainable Development Goals and The Dan Wieden Titanium Lions.
Special Awards were also announced, and after a strong performance by Apple across the Lions in 2023, the brand won its first Creative Brand of the Year award, a title held by Burger King for three consecutive years. DDB Worldwide won its first Network of the Year award, and Argentina took its first-ever Agency of the Year spot, won by GUT, Buenos Aires.
LIONS Chairman Philip Thomas said, “The body of Lion-winning work that emerged from the Jury rooms points the way forward, and demonstrates the power of the industry to drive change, build businesses and shape society. Congratulations to all those who entered, who made the shortlists, and who won a Lion at the Festival’s 70th edition to set the creative benchmark on the global stage.”
In the Film Lions, celebrating the creativity of the moving image, 1867 entries were received and 49 Lions awarded: six Gold, 16 Silver and 25 Bronze, and the Jury chose to award two Grands Prix: ‘Relax, it’s iPhone – R.I.P. Leon’, for Apple, by Apple, Cupertino, USA; and ‘The Last Photo’, for ITV X CALM, by adam&eveDDB, London, United Kingdom.
Film Lions jury president, & Le Pub Global CEO, Publicis Worldwide global chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe Italy & Publicis Worldwide Global chief creative officer Bruno Bertelli said, “The first Grand Prix is awarded to the best piece of work in the TV/Cinema section. This winner is a 30-second advertisement that stands out for its sharpness, focused approach, and clever twist. In this case, we aimed to acknowledge simplicity and high-quality crafting. The second Grand Prix, awarded in the sections that cover online films and other formats, is an incredibly bold idea that required overcoming numerous challenges to execute. Despite this, it remains a straightforward piece of work.”
Glass: The Lion for Change, which honours culture-shifting creativity, received 184 entries and seven Lions were awarded: one Gold, two Silver and three Bronze and the Grand Prix went to ‘Knock Knock’, for the Korean National Police Agency, by Cheil Worldwide, Seoul, South Korea. Inspired by Morse code, the work offers a solution that allows victims of domestic violence to alert the police without saying a word. After dialling 112, they simply tap any number twice, and a link is sent to them.
The Sustainable Development Goals Lions, which celebrate creative problem solving, solutions or other initiatives that harness creativity and seek to positively impact the world, received 691 entries. The Jury awarded 21 Lions: two Gold, eight Silver and 10 Bronze and the Grand Prix went to ‘Where To Settle’, for Mastercard, by McCann Poland, a platform that enables Ukrainian refugees to check the cost of living and income opportunities in selected cities and towns in Poland.
In The Dan Wieden Titanium Lions, honouring provocative, boundary-busting, envy-inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry, 176 entries were received and the Jury chose to award three Titanium Lions, and the Grand Prix went to ‘The First Digital Nation’, for The Government Of Tuvalu, by The Monkeys, Part of Accenture Song, Sydney, Australia.
Titanium Lions jury president, & Accenture Song Global CEO David Droga said, “How does a nation that is sinking keep its borders, sovereignty and rights? How does its people keep its culture, heritage and identity? By completely reorienting the rules and laws of what it is to be recognized as a nation on the global stage. This is far more than a creative or tech idea. It’s not even about a disposable execution. It is about recognition, policy, and safeguarding GDP. It is also about creating new precedents for dozens of other countries facing a similar future. This work was the highest scored entry from day one of the prejudging, to the very last vote on the Grand Prix on the final day. It is an idea that needed to happen and should live on far beyond any of us.”
The Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Good recognises and celebrates the use of creativity to positively impact not only businesses and brands, but also the world at large. The Jury chose to award this year’s Grand Prix for Good to ‘Anne De Gaulle’, For Fondation Anne De Gaulle Association, by Havas Paris, France.
The Lions Awards sit within nine Tracks, which were all announced throughout the week: Classic Track, Craft Track, Engagement Track | In partnership with LinkedIn, Entertainment Track | In partnership with ESL FACEIT Group, Experience Track, Good Track, Health Track, Strategy Track | In partnership with Bain & Company, Titanium Track.
During the final Awards Show, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) was awarded as Creative Marketer of the Year; Wieden+Kennedy chief creative officer Susan Hoffman was honoured with the Lion of St. Mark; and the Cannes LionHeart was accepted by EMEA Patagonia marketing director Tyler LaMotte on behalf of founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard. The inaugural Creative Maker of the Year award was presented to legendary filmmaker, screenwriter, actor and producer, Spike Lee.
The following Special Awards were also announced:
Creative Company of the Year
- Omnicom
- WPP
- Interpublic Group
Network of the Year
- DDB Worldwide
- Ogilvy
- BBDO Worldwide
Independent Network of the Year
- GUT
- Wieden+Kennedy
- Rethink
Agency of the Year
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Publicis Conseil, Paris, France
- adam&eveDDB, London, United Kingdom
Independent Agency of the Year
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Rethink, Toronto, Canada
- Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, USA
Palme d’Or
- Somesuch, USA
- SMUGGLER, United Kingdom
- Biscuit Filmworks, USA
- Spoon., Japan
- Rebolucion, Mexico
Creative Brand of the Year
- Apple
- Dove
- Heineken
Agency of the Year by Track
Agency of the Year – Classic
- adam&eveDDB, London, United Kingdom
Agency of the Year – Craft
- Dentsu Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Agency of the Year – Engagement
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Agency of the Year – Entertainment
- Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, USA
Agency of the Year – Experience
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Agency of the Year – Good
- McCann Poland, Warsaw, Poland
Agency of the Year – Strategy
- Ogilvy, Mumbai, India
Independent Agency of the Year by track
Independent Agency of the Year – Classic
- Rethink, Toronto, Canada
Independent Agency of the Year – Craft
- pgLang, Los Angeles, USA
Independent Agency of the Year – Engagement
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Independent Agency of the Year – Entertainment
- Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, USA
Independent Agency of the Year – Experience
- GUT, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Independent Agency of the Year – Good
- Howatson+Company, Sydney, Australia
Independent Agency of the Year – Strategy
- Special, Auckland, New Zealand
NATIONAL: Amazon Ads has laid out a sharply tech-led vision for the advertising industry in 2026, arguing that artificial intelligence, streaming TV and creator partnerships will combine to turn brand building into a more precise, performance-driven business.
At the heart of the shift, the company says, is the fusion of AI with Amazon’s vast trove of shopping, browsing and streaming signals, allowing advertisers to move beyond blunt reach metrics to campaigns designed around real customer behaviour.
“The future of advertising is not about reaching more people, but the right people with messages that resonate,” said Amazon Ads India head and vice president Girish Prabhu. “By combining AI with deep customer insights, we help brands move from broadcasting campaigns to having meaningful conversations wherever audiences spend their time.”
One of the biggest changes, according to Amazon Ads, will be the collapse of the wall between media planning and creative development. Retail media, powered by first-party data, is increasingly shaping everything from brand discovery to final purchase, pushing marketers to design campaigns around audience insight rather than internal instinct.
AI is also moving from a support tool to a creative engine. Agentic AI, which automates and accelerates production, is expected to make high-quality creative accessible even to small businesses, compressing weeks of work into hours and giving challengers the ability to compete with larger brands on speed and scale.
Behind the scenes, AI-driven analytics will take on a bigger role in campaign optimisation, identifying patterns, spotting opportunities and recommending actions that would previously have required teams of analysts.
Streaming TV is another big battleground. With India’s video streaming audience now above 600 million and connected TV users at 129.2 million in 2025, advertisers are set to treat streaming not just as a branding channel but as a performance engine, measured increasingly by sales, sign-ups and bookings rather than just reach.
Finally, Amazon Ads sees creators and contextual advertising reshaping how brands tell stories. Creators will act less like influencers and more like long-term partners, while scene-aware ads on streaming platforms will allow brands to insert hyper-relevant offers into the flow of what viewers are watching.
Taken together, Amazon Ads argues, these shifts mark a move towards advertising that is both more human and more measurable, where AI handles the complexity, and creativity does the persuading.
