Earth, according to Cannes Lions

james.nester

ALL

I’m so excited to be in Cannes, judging the Cyber category this week. Ask anyone in adland, this is one of the most exciting festivals on Earth. And winning a Lion is one of Life’s Greatest Achievements.

But there’s always a lot of talk about which countries perform best. So, as you may have read in Adweek or Campaign, we’ve created ‘Cannesogram’ to settle those debates once and for all.

This clever interactive map skews country sizes and colours based on Lions success over the last decade – so the bigger and redder the country, the more successful it has been. It’s fascinating to see how the creative landscape has changed. And it’s also revealing to see that different countries consistently own different categories.

You can explore any year and drill down into the various categories. We’ll let you have fun fiddling and drawing your own conclusions. But here are some patterns I’ve noticed:

Cyber is consistently dominated by US, Europe and Japan, while film is a category the UK rules, alongside the US.

CYBER

FILM

Direct seems to swing from country to country each year – no single country dominating

DIRECT

Outdoor is ruled by Brazil, with Europe also performing consistently. But this category is particularly notable for the frequent underperformance of the US. Does no one go outside in the US?

OUTDOOR

PR – Europe and the US have been doing well in this relatively new category.

PR

As for Radio – South Africa, you are mightily bulbous. Congrats.

RADIO

The rest of this week, I’ll be sifting through hundreds of entries from around the world. I can’t wait to find the campaigns that’ll put countries on the map this year.

For a more detailed look at the global creative landscape, visit We Are Social’s Cannesogram here.