Entries to Cannes Lions dip again

With just days to go before the festival kicks off, Cannes Lions has revealed this year’s entry statistics, revealing a further decrease in the total number of award submissions but a relatively steady year for entries from Canada.

There were 30,953 total entries to Cannes Lions this year, down from 32,372 for last year’s festival, a decrease of 4.4%. In 2018, the festival saw a 21% drop in entries from the year before, which was attributed to structural changes to simplify the awards program.

However, a press release from the festival stated that entries for the three categories in the Entertainment track were up 11% over last year, with Creative Effectiveness entries up 34%. There were also increases in Film Lions (up 29%) and Brand Experience & Activation Lions (8%), as well as newer categories like Creative eCommerce (12%) and Digital Craft (9%). Two new categories for this year’s festival, Creative Strategy and Entertainment for Sport, received 848 and 702 entries, respectively.

Entry numbers from India and China also rose (by 8% and 5%, respectively), representing an increase in two key markets for the festival. The festival also reported campaigns submitted by brands have increased “substantially,” though did not provide exact numbers.

There were 904 Canadian entries to the festival this year, up slightly from 900 entries last year. Most Canadian entries were in the Outdoor category (103), followed by Film (93) and Health & Wellness (82). The new Creative Strategy and Entertainment for Sport categories had 23 and 10 Canadian entries, respectively. Film was the most popular category across the festival (with 2,793 entries), followed by Brand Experience & Activation (2,532) and Outdoor (2,389).

There were four Canadian entries in Glass and five in Innovation, which resulted in three shortlist spots announced last week. There were three Canadian entries in the prestigious Titanium category, though no campaign made the shortlist.