Cannes Lions 2026 Concludes! A Return to “Humanity” That Will Drive the Future of PR—Insights from the World’s Premier Festival
Hello, everyone! I’m Yamaguchi, a PR planner at SUNNY SIDE UP.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s largest celebration of creativity held annually in Cannes, southern France. Did you enjoy our pre-event highlights and reports from the team members who attended this year?
We’ve safely returned to Japan, and while the overwhelming creativity and energy we experienced on-site still lingers, I’m writing this final report!
This time, I’ll introduce the highly anticipated Titanium category Grand Prix winner announced on the final day, and share the learnings we gained through on-site sessions and case studies that will inform communication in the coming era!
The Pinnacle of Cannes Lions! Who Won the Titanium Grand Prix?
On the final day of Cannes Lions, the Titanium category—evaluated comprehensively across all categories—was announced.
Titanium Lions | Grand Prix
HAVEN
Suncorp Insurance
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Due to the severe impacts of climate change, including large-scale wildfires, Australia faced a situation where insurance underwriting became extremely difficult. While the insurance industry continued to focus on post-event “recovery,” Suncorp Insurance shifted its focus over the past five years to “resilience” (disaster preparedness and recovery capacity) before natural disasters occur. They researched, designed, and built “one house” that would serve as a blueprint for future resilience, clearly highlighting inadequate building standards. By applying these insights to existing homes, they proved that resilience could be enhanced even in existing housing. Subsequently, they deployed the world’s first data and digital platform providing risk assessments for 11 million homes across Australia. This enabled precise analysis of what should be done to prepare for disasters, influencing insurance products, the establishment of cutting-edge disaster monitoring facilities, and national building codes as well as government and industry spending on disaster prevention. |
For the second consecutive year, an insurance company won the Grand Prix. In an industry that generally carries a somewhat negative image of “insurance = money taken away, rigid procedures,” this fundamentally overturns that perception and returns directly to the original social significance (purpose) of “why does our company exist = to protect people’s lives”—a commonality with last year’s winner.
I felt that this “thoroughly sincere attitude” moved the hearts of the world’s premier award judges and led to high evaluation. Indeed, I was strongly reminded that at the root of creativity valued in this era lies not just gimmicks, but corporate “sincerity.”
Learnings from Our On-Site Team
Our on-site observation team engaged with a vast number of case studies from around the world beforehand and absorbed lectures from top creators. While there are many challenges in directly applying overseas examples to Japan due to differences in language, culture, and media structure,
the essence of “how to capture insights” and “creative approaches” at the root of ideas is universal. There were many learnings we should apply to our future work.
In the AI Era, “Target Human ‘Emotions and Passion'”
In recent times, with AI as a technology making PR communication more efficient and accessible, the works evaluated at this year’s Cannes seemed to thoroughly spotlight “a return to humanity” and “seemingly wasteful but lovable behaviors.”
Campaigns that brilliantly converted the unnecessary obsessions and passion (emotional margins) that only humans possess—such as “It would be fun to become a detective searching for my stolen Kit Kat,” “Sports supporters can’t help but care about ‘luck,'” and “Seeing a brand littered as trash makes you feel bad”—into creativity garnered attention.
Precisely because we live in an era where AI can streamline everything, analog approaches that capture human “emotions” and “passion”—things that become boring when streamlined—are now the trend that moves people’s hearts. I felt that correctly reading the psychology of each economic sphere and incorporating the passionate emotions that arise only from being human into ideas will be an absolute requirement for moving people in the coming era!
How to Engage with AI! “AI = Divergence Partner, You = Editor-in-Chief”?
Ideas are often described as “how well you can combine existing elements.” However, a single human cannot recall that many “existing elements” at once.
Many of the award-winning works at Cannes Lions applied the fundamentals of ideation: “breaking what people are accustomed to or take for granted and showing it differently” and “giving new meaning or roles to what already exists.”
What we learned this time is “utilizing AI as the best partner for expanding human ideation.” For example, having AI instantly diverge a large number of related words like “wings, windows, seats, aircraft number…” in response to the prompt “airplane.” In other words, clearly recognizing the roles: [AI = mass divergence partner], [you = editor-in-chief selecting interesting combinations from those]. I felt that this relationship is the weapon that will enable creators to survive the AI era.
Finally: Case Studies as the Ultimate Textbook for Tomorrow’s “Fun Commotion”
In preparation for this Cannes dispatch, the work of previewing and summarizing vast case studies ourselves was challenging, but experiencing the real works and explanations on-site made that preliminary learning return with multiplied value!
Even during our stay, when I thought “This idea could be useful for that project in Japan!” I immediately shared it with team members internally—it was an incredible experience that greatly expanded my own creative repertoire.
Precisely because we’ve gained a global perspective, I want to pay more attention to domestic awards and earnest, passionate campaigns that deeply resonate with Japanese consumers.
We will bring back the souvenirs (insights and seeds of ideas) we gained at Cannes to share internally, and create even newer “fun commotion” that moves people’s hearts for our clients and society—so please look forward to what SUNNY SIDE UP does next!
Thank you so much for reading our four-part Cannes Lions 2026 report series to the very end!
