The best of the best from advertising and creative communications industries from all around the world descended onto the South of France for the 72nd Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Days one and two of the awards saw Australia and New Zealand bring home several bronze, silver and gold awards, as well as a couple of Grand Prix titles across the Health & Wellness, Outdoor, Film Craft, Industry Craft, and Design categories.
Australia’s big winners were FINCH Sydney, DDB Group Melbourne and Sydney, Ogilvy Sydney, Bear Meets Eagle and AKQA. Meanwhile New Zealand’s Motion Sickness Auckland nabbed plenty of attention for it’s hilarious campaign.
Cannes Lions: Day One
The first day of the festival saw the collaboration between FINCH Sydney and Motion Sickness Auckland on the NZ Herpes Foundation campaign bag the first Grand Prix and a Gold Lion in the Health & Wellness category at the Festival.
“The Best Place in the World to Have Herpes” features a first-of-its-kind ‘Herpes Destigmatisation Course’, a global ranking system underpinned by live data and irreverent humour.
This campaign took an unusual approach to reducing the herpes stigma – framing it as the key to restoring New Zealand’s diminished sense of national pride.
Jury President, David Ohana, Chief Communications & Marketing Officer, United Nations Foundation, said: “This year’s Lions Health Grand Prix for Good unabashedly uses humour to tackle a challenging subject and stigmatisation. Forget doom and gloom, there’s enough of that already to go around.
“Our 2025 awardee took a taboo topic and turned it on its head – showing that with a great strategy, a big, bold crazy idea…can only imagine the pitch…and humour for days, that anything is possible. Brilliant.”
DDB Group Melbourne also took home a Bronze Lion in the same category for its “DyslexicU” for Made By Dyslexia and Virgin in collaboration with adam&eveDDB New York and Collider Sydney, beating out 1,169 entries.
Ogilvy Sydney nabbed a Silver Lion for Coca-Cola’s “Meet me at the Coke Sign” campaign in the Outdoor category and was the only Australian winner in the category, where 57 Lions were awarded from 2,001 entries.
In the Audio & Radio category, DDB Group Sydney won a Bronze Lion for its kangaroo deterrent RooBadge for Volkswagen in collaboration with Nakatomi and Vert Design in Sydney.
The Sydney outfit was the only Australian agency awarded in the category where 21 Lions were handed out from 714 entries.
Cannes Lions: Day Two
Day two of Cannes Lions saw Australia’s Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and Telstra dominate the Film Craft category as it claimed the Grand Prix. The campaign included 26 individual spots, each representing lesser-known regional towns and remote areas that benefit from a better network.
Bear Meets Eagle on Fire and Telstra won an additional two Gold awards, one for its Donkey campaign and one for the Better on a Better Network spots. Donkey also won a Silver Lion and The Shoemaker took home a Bronze Lion.
President of the Jury Ali Ali, Co-Founder and Film Director, Good People Films, said: “Before we could vote, the Grand Prix revealed itself slowly, like great work often does. In a year dominated by AI and digital gloss, Telstra’s Better on a Better Network felt like a breath of fresh air. Tactile, intimate, and deeply human. It reminded us why we fell in love with this industry.
“Fifty-six unique puppets animating 42 voices from regional Australians, across 26 stop-motion gems. All simple, all funny, all full of soul. Measured writing, inspired characters – and yes, a bird flying backwards. In a fast-content era, ‘Better on a Better Network’ felt like a warm, slow-cooked meal.”
VML Sydney won a Gold Lion in the Industry Craft category for the 101 Optometry ‘Eye Test’ campaign from 779 entries.
Meanwhile in the Digital Craft category, a Bronze Lion went to an Australia/New Zealand/Brazil collaboration for AKQA for Netflix Body Swap.
Two Bronze Awards in the Design category went to Clemenger Sydney for the Samsung Packed Full of History campaign and to DDB Group Sydney for the RooBadge for Volkswagen. In this category, 33 Lions were awarded from 1,087 entries.
Top image: Cannes Lions gold