Deloitte Digital won big at Cannes Lions this year. Learn more about our presence at Cannes and how our award-winning work uses creativity to solve today’s business problems.
Our presence at
Cannes Lions
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has been championing creative excellence since 1954 to provide a global destination for recognizing creativity that drives progress. This year, Deloitte Digital earned awards and helped shape key conversations about the creativity gap and how marketing leaders can use innovation to solve business challenges.
Deloitte Digital has been active at Cannes Lions since 2016, and 2022 was our best showing yet. Over the week, we:
- Sponsored the “CMOs in the Spotlight” video series
- Launched our Creative Business Transformation research with LIONS and hosted a panel covering our research, featuring Global Chief Creative Officer Andy Sandoz and US Chief Creative Officer Leslie Sims
- Sponsored “Next Gen Academy” and the Cannes Lions School
- Celebrated Cannes Lion wins globally
The Creative Ladder
The week kicked off with some big news as we proudly announced our role as a founding donor and strategic collaborator to Ryan Reynolds’ new nonprofit endeavor, The Creative Ladder. The organization is dedicated to helping students from marginalized backgrounds learn about careers in marketing, design, advertising, video production, and more.
The Creative Ladder
Janet Foutty (Deloitte US executive board chair) and Suzanne Kounkel (Deloitte US CMO) were excited to celebrate the launch of The Creative Ladder with the organization’s founders.
“As a founding donor of The Creative Ladder, Deloitte is thrilled to support their mission to strengthen the pipeline of racially and ethnically diverse professionals seeking careers in the creative field and create more leadership pathways for the next generation of creative professionals,” said Foutty.
Reynolds’ new charity is on a mission to make creative careers more accessible to underrepresented communities in the industry. His work aligns with Deloitte Digital’s investment in and dedication to supporting equitable career advancement opportunities.
CMOs in the Spotlight
As the week continued, we shared our perspectives during panel discussions as part of the “CMOs in the Spotlight” series. The series provided audience members with insight from chief marketing officers about the most challenging issues they are currently facing and how creativity drives progress for some of the world’s most ground-breaking, bold, and innovative brands. Additional topics discussed included how creativity can drive change, economic good, and the importance of learning to act like a startup.
Suzanne Kounkel, chief marketing officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP, participating in a CMOs in the Spotlight panel. “If you’re not failing, you’re probably not pushing hard enough,” said Kounkel while participating in one of the panels. “It’s not about failure per se; it’s about taking risks."
Creative Business Transformation
Andy Sandoz, global chief creative officer and Leslie Sims, US chief creative officer, Deloitte LLP, presenting at Cannes Lions on Creative Business Transformation
In addition to the CMOs in the Spotlight series, Sandoz and Sims led a discussion covering our research on Creative Business Transformation. They emphasized the power of creativity to help drive growth and brand evolution.
“Together with LIONS, we hope to inspire many organizations to think differently and use new ideas to shape successful futures,” said Sandoz.
The discussion highlighted research from our joint study conducted with LIONS covering creative business transformation. Our analysis included:
- 26 Creative Business Transformation Lions pieces of work
- Eight in-depth interviews with shortlisted and award-winning agency-brand teams
- Four interviews with members of the Creative Business Transformation Lions jury
Our study revealed that innovative approaches are needed for businesses to continue addressing and solving different challenges. As reported in the study, “the brands that succeeded in winning a Creative Business Transformation Lion recognized that to be truly transformational, they needed to expand the scope of transformation beyond the original brief or business objectives.”
The most innovative brands are constantly looking for ways to reinvent themselves, and at Deloitte Digital, we help brands do just that.
Taking home the gold
In addition to our participation, Deloitte Digital won big, taking home the Gold Lion in the Creative Business Transformation category.
We worked with Southern California Edison’s team to integrate data from drone and ground inspections, using machine learning and proprietary AI to help prevent wildfires. This creative business transformation won gold. The award celebrates creative thinking that changes how businesses organize themselves, how customers engage with them, and how people work.
“Around 3% of the work judged over the week of the festival will go on to win,” according to Cannes Lions. “A Lion recognizes work being done at the cutting-edge of creativity, [and] work that wins represents the most powerful work in the world.
Click here for a full list of Cannes Lions award-winners.
A Bronze Lion with a heart of gold
Alongside the Gold Lion, Deloitte Digital won a Bronze Lion in the Outdoor category for DiscovHery Billboards on behalf of Terre des Hommes. DiscovHery Billboards was the first child-height billboard campaign designed to inspire a change in perspective by inviting children to discover female role models.
Winning a Bronze Lion in this category demonstrated how our idea, above many others, leveraged public spaces to communicate a compelling message about gender equality.
This award and our Gold Lion in the Creative Business Transformation category are proof of how creativity can drive business transformation, and they signify our expertise in using creativity to solve some of the world’s biggest and messiest problems.
That's a wrap
“Cannes 2022 was an inspiring blur for our Deloitte Digital attendees who left the week full of new ideas and connections,” said Sims. “We were proud to see our Deloitte US team take the stage for the first-ever CBT Gold Lion.”
“Leveraging creativity on behalf of clients to create new solutions and innovation is what it’s all about here at Deloitte Digital,” she said.
We had a monumental impact this year, from key sponsorships and presentations to big wins on the award stage. We look forward to continuing to use creativity and design to solve problems for some of the world’s biggest brands and institutions.
See you next year, Cannes!
