Cannes Lions 2026 Day 1 Day 2 Report!
Hello, everyone!
I am Asano from SUNNY SIDE UP, Sports Division 5.
We previously shared our members’ predictions on SUNNY DAYS, and now we bring you a breaking report through Day 2 from our on-site members at the “Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity”!
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▼Prediction article here Just Before Cannes Lions 2026! Introducing 5 Must-See Works Our Members Highly Recommend |
On the first day, Monday the 22nd, the results were announced for a new category introduced this year, “Creative Brand Lions,” which evaluates not a one-off campaign, but the “ability to continuously produce outstanding creativity.”
Four SUNNY SIDE UP members attended the “AB InBev: Creative Marketer of the Year” session held first thing in the morning on Day 1. This session slot on the first day is said to be important for understanding that year’s Cannes Lions award trends.
The theme of this session was “how creativity is incorporated not as an advertising activity, but as a management strategy for corporate growth,” and AB InBev Global CMO Marcel Marcondes took the stage. During the session, AB InBev emphasized the idea that “creativity is not only the marketing department’s job, but the growth engine of the entire company.”
The company presented how it has built a system that integrates Consumer Insight × Creative Idea × Business Growth, positioning itself as a company that thinks about creativity across the entire organization. This approach also aligns with what the newly established “Creative Brand Lions” evaluates—”a brand’s own creative capability, culture, and systems”—and is a key perspective to keep in mind when looking at this year’s Cannes Lions works.
With that perspectivein mind, we will introduce the works we found particularly noteworthy among theGrand Prix winners in the categories announced on June 22 and 23!
Creative Brand Lions｜Grand Prix
“AB InBev: Creativity at Scale”
Produced by:AB InBev (in-house led)
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With many global brands such as Budweiser, Corona Extra, and Stella Artois, the company faced challenges such as inconsistent creative quality across markets, ad production centered on short-term campaigns, and difficulty rolling out good ideas at a global scale. In response, from 2021 onward AB InBev shifted toward making “creativity not just a marketing capability, but a mechanism for corporate growth.” It implemented structural reforms such as the following. • Redefined creativity not as “expression” but as a “growth engine” It was recognized for evolving from “a company that makes good ads” to “a company where good ads keep being created,” and won the inaugural Grand Prix in this category. |
AB InBev, which also appeared in the Creative Marketer of the Year session mentioned at the beginning, went on to win the Grand Prix. As a company with global beer brands, it was impressive to see how it scales successful advertising learnings across brands, leverages sports moments in particular, and produces creative work localized to each market.
In moments of global excitement such as international soccer tournaments, the creative work—built on an understanding of consumer insights and sports fandom culture to enhance brand value—is exactly what to watch right now.
Entertainment Lions｜Grand Prix
“ORIGINAL FOREVER— adidas × Oasis”
Produced by:Johannes Leonardo
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A project centered on a collaboration between adidas and Oasis. Rather than a simple advertising campaign, the Oasis reunion tour itself was positioned as the brand campaign, and everything—from tour-limited apparel and video to the fan experience at venues—was designed as an integrated product experience. This work was highly praised for being content experienced as culture rather than being product-centric. It was designed around fans—not consumers—such as Oasis fans, generations familiar with ’90s culture, and street-culture communities. Rather than mere nostalgia for Oasis, it transformed the past into present-day entertainment, reconstructing the music itself as brand culture. |
It was highly praised for becoming an entertainment work that, rather than a typical ad-style music tie-up, put the fans around Oasis at the center and re-edited the culture of the music itself. Personally, I was thrilled by the entertainment experience of turning the entire tour into a campaign, starting from product creation from the fans’ perspective!
Entertainment Lions for Sport｜Grand Prix
THE THOUSAND SPONSORS OF MUNI
Agency: McCann LIMA
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Peru’s historic football club “Deportivo Municipal,” founded in 1935, faced a crisis after falling to the third division and losing its main sponsor. By focusing on local fans, it built a mechanism in which 1,000 small business owners collaborated to provide financial support. The uniform was divided into 1,000 spaces so that the logos of 1,000 sponsor companies could be displayed. It also created benefits such as obtaining the right to sell official merchandise and being able to feature players in advertisements, successfully channeling fans’ passion into rebuilding the team. This work was highly praised for its structural transformation that expanded the very definition of sports sponsorship. |
Normally, sports uniform sponsorship has certain conventions, such as a chest sponsor, but this work was extremely unique in both the idea of creating a uniform sponsorship slot that displays the logos of 1,000 companies and the fact that it was built not by pitching to companies, but by focusing on the passionate fans/supporters who sustain the club—leveraging fan psychology as well. It felt like a work that maximized results through a single shift in thinking. From a sports business perspective, it is also highly instructive, and it made me rethink the definition of sponsorship.
What did you think of the Grand Prix-winning works from the first half of this year’s Cannes Lions? Although they were in different categories, I felt they shared a common point of evaluation: placing importance on consumer/fan insights and effectively translating fan psychology into creative work.
We plan to share a breaking report on the latter half of the festival as well, so please continue to look forward to it! We are also sharing the on-site excitement and what the venue is like on our official Instagram, so we hope you will take a look.
That concludes our update from Cannes, France!
