Cannes 2024 Jury Insights: Universality, Humanity, and Materiality of Craft Rise Above All Else

Geoffrey pointed out that this year “the world came to play” and instead of the usual dominance of the US and Hollywood in the Entertainment category, he was happy to see South East Asia, Europe, and South Africa all contribute meaningfully to the form. 

“We had to make a distinction between entertainment and entertaining. Entertainment can be so many things. It can be humorous, it can be episodic. We found purpose in the category which gave us pleasure. AI showed up in terms of enabling entertainment experiences. The platforms that these ideas came to play on was really important; everything was multichannel, everything attempted to be across a variety of different channels. We felt that all these things were very important.”

Geoffrey called the category “nebulous”. He wants to make sure that brands and entertainment can live together, where the brand’s role “does not feel heavy handed”.

Commenting on the elements that contribute to outstanding work, he said: “All good stories have conflict. All great stories have characters that rise above that conflict to do amazing things.” Geoffrey called the decision to award the Grand Prix to WhatsApp’s ‘We Are Ayenda’ “absolutely unanimous” pointing to the tenacity, trust and resilience at the work’s heart. “The connection of entertainment to a brand was clear. You couldn’t tell the story without the brand.”

For Lydia, the judging experience was defined by the fact that many of her fellow jurors were gamers themselves which meant that they could discuss and pick apart the work using that personal experience. This is only the second year of the category and Lydia wanted to think about the work in terms of what it represents and where it can show that the category is heading in the future. 

“Some of the trends, one which is very close to my heart, is that gaming skills are transferred to the real world and in some cases, like one of our Gold winners, into equity. For so many of us in the room, gaming has completely changed our lives. I moved from the US to Sweden; my entire life changed through games and a trend throughout the work we saw a lot of brands recognising and highlighting how gaming can change lives. The other thing, which is the opposite direction, is that authentic and humorous solutions are great for gamers. We have some pieces of work that are just fun and innovative, almost silly. They’re solving problems for gamers. There’s a deep understanding of what it means to be in a community,” Lydia says. Returning to judge the category once more, Lydia “loved seeing the evolution this year of how gaming has been much more represented in this world of creativity.”

Speaking about the winner - Xbox’s ‘The Everyday Tactician’ - Lydia said: “They created the most holistic work, they looked at every single piece of what they were doing, and they brought hope to smaller [football] clubs. Throughout the process, they just kept a really clear vision and we never had to try and figure out what the vision of this campaign was.”

Madeleine began by sharing what was incredibly important to her experience as an alumni of the category and the jury judge, the diversity of the jury, saying: “We see it grow every year so congratulations to Cannes.” It’s thanks to this diversity, according to Madeline, that the jury was able to “get really deep cultural insights into the wide variety of work that we looked at, which was really meaningful. We were able to understand when there was a work that was very specific to a certain culture that some of us might not understand.”

“We say that music is a universal language. And many of the words were not in my language or someone else’s language, and it was so beautiful to see that it didn't matter if we could understand the lyrics or what we were viewing. What we were understanding about these stories was the visceral feeling and it genuinely came down to music being a universal language; the importance of that stood out in our room. We saw so much purpose driven work. It was refreshing. It was fun to see brands not be performative with that purpose driven work, and see how music played into that. 

“One of the most interesting things for me was seeing how tech was being used to do some very interesting things. Seeing technology used in really new and unique ways, when you think there's nothing new for us to think of and everybody's just repeating things that happened before, was also refreshing,” Madeline adds. 

Diageo’s ‘Errata at 88’ for Johnnie Walker was awarded the Grand Prix and brought together many of the positive trends that Madeline was glad to see in this year’s judging. “This was an example of a brand really leaning into a story, taking the time to build an authentic campaign around making something right - a woman who had been wronged for many years and who was an integral part to the beginning of bossa nova music,” Madeline explained. 

Louise was impressed with the quality of the work this year, saying it was “sky high” but the top prize could only be awarded to the work that fulfilled a few precise criteria. The idea had to be original, it had to work in the real world, capture fan insights, connect sport to culture, and  deliver on its business objectives too. 

Louise and her jury spotted five key trends in the category. “The first one was around women’s sport. I’m super excited to see how much work had come from the major events of last year; the quality of the work moving away from just a parity story towards using women athletes for creative storytelling in their own right. The second one was really around big brands. This really showcased sports marketing as an effective brand marketing tool. The third one was that a lot of work coming off of major live sporting events with amazing nuances of individual sports, tapping into social conversations and cultural behaviours. We saw that you don't have to always have a big event to activate and a lot of brands were really moving into a fan first approach. Lastly, humour because it was a new category for Cannes this year and it had some fantastic pieces. We want to be entertained again.”

Commenting on the Grand Prix Winner, ‘Women’s Football’ from Orange, Louise added: “By showing the prowess and excitement of the French women’s football team, Orange really challenged and dismantled some of the really quite wrong stereotypes about women’s football. And because they didn’t just engage sports fans, it went so much wider to a mass audience, and it sparked conversation.”

Fura found the category particularly interesting and diverse this year, adding that it was “very inclusive” and commending the sense of playfulness that was present across the shortlist too. She noted that the industry can be quite serious as reflected in the amount of purpose-led work but that purpose can also be fun and interesting which she was pleased to see a lot more of. “That’s definitely a theme and I don’t want to say that it’s fun, I want to say that it’s playful.”

For Fura, the theme of playfulness encapsulated a couple of vital features of design and she was happy to see it emerge as a trend. “It’s the choice of mediums. It’s how we apply visual language. It’s actually how we apply the senses into the work. It’s about tactility and touch. All of these things - physical space, optical - make me really happy because at the end of the day design is shaping the world that we live in.” She also drew attention to the power of simplicity in design. “How can we take a really complicated problem and actually bring a really simple solution that's easy to understand. We talked about is it simple enough? Sometimes simplicity means trying to reinvent, to simplify interactions and experiences, and how we engage in life.”

Commenting on ‘Sightwalks’ by Sol Cement, Fura said: “What we really liked is that it goes back to simplicity. It’s a really big global problem for blind people to navigate cities and spaces. It gave us an insight into a world that I didn’t understand. It comes down to the simplicity of a solution to a problem that’s going to make lives better globally, it’s a very inclusive approach to design.”

For Kentaro and his team, the Grand Prix-winning work had to fulfil three criteria. It had to be transformative and come from ambitious and aspirational goals; to demonstrate  innovative implementation, not in the tech that was used but how it was used creatively; finally, it had to move the brand and industry forward. Two strong themes emerged during the judging for Kimura, reflected in the two contenders for the top award, and it pulled the digital craft conversation in opposite directions. One was all about innovation and the use of the latest digital technology like AI, AR, and real time data visualisation. The other was all about human craft and ingenuity, a distinct statement in the age of AI. 

Spotify’s ‘Spreadbeats’ was awarded the top prize. “This is a very transformative idea and its truly innovative implementation because it achieved an amazing level of craft through the use of decades’ old, nostalgic technology. It also moves the brands forward as it highlights how the brand stands out and how unique it is among the competitors. It's really relevant to the Spotify brand,” he explained. “Unanimously, finally, we decided to celebrate great human creativity rather than the great use of technology.”

Prasoon and his jury wanted whatever won to recapture the feeling of being a young creative attending an awards show for the first time and the wonder that seeing great work inspired. 

Crucially, for Prasoon, the Film Craft category should be without trends. “I’m so glad that there is no trend in film craft as there should not be. Filmcraft should only be designed to support the idea. If we find a trend, I think there is a problem. Judging film craft is really, really tough because great film craft is that which enhances the idea without ever trying to shine above it. Which basically means that while it is trying to do amazing things to raise the idea to another level, it is also cleverly trying to keep itself invisible,” Prasoon said. 

For Prassoon, the craft in Hornbach’s ‘The Square Meter’ deserved the Grand Prix because it demonstrated “a magical coming together of all crafts, like synchronised swimming, and raised the idea to another level.”

Kalpesh’s jury, prior to meeting in real life, wanted jurors to bring snacks from their respective counties to the judging. Kalpesh saw this as indicative of everyone’s desire to come together as one but to also celebrate each other’s differences which is exactly how they all approached awarding the Grand Prix. He noted that when it comes to the discussion of craft in the Industry category, it’s always talked about through a traditional lens which can be suffocating. By getting rid of those parameters, the jury started to see what the category can and should be today. 

‘The 100th Edition’ by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung won and Kalpesh says: “We are living in this very divided world, unfortunately. When here is a message of hope which goes out into the world and we were trying to celebrate that. One picture can tell you the story of what these people have gone through. That’s the power of the image, the power of emotion; it has its own story, you don’t need to know anything, but it hits you hard.”