LIONS Creativity Report Series 2024: Innovation Unwrapped
The fourth instalment in our series of reports bringing together insights from the 2024 Festival content streams and winning work
Introduction: Beyond tech
Hi-tech health
AI ambivalence
Lo-fi ideas
Introduction: Beyond tech
This report centres on the Innovation Unwrapped content stream at Cannes Lions 2024 and features winning work from across all Lions. It will show you how to place humanity at the heart of creativity – in both tech-focused and low-fi solutions.
The human touch remained prevalent in winning work, despite Cannes Lions data indicating AI’s growing role in the creative process. As the chart below shows, there was greater AI use across all Cannes Lions entries this year compared with 2023. However, the decisions made by Innovation Lions Jurors demonstrated that life-enhancing – or even life-saving – ideas didn’t need to rely on AI or tech. They were often simple, analogue adjustments or inventions – from bottle caps serving as portable filtration to tactile paving helping visually impaired people to identify shops and services around them.
Cannes Lions entries using AI: 2024 vs 2023
Three themes from the Innovation Unwrapped stream
Hi-tech health
Innovation played a central role in the diagnosis and management of specific conditions, as well as in soothing patients.
AI ambivalence
While winning work at Cannes Lions 2024 often showed AI’s advantages, there were notes of caution from Festival stages to hang onto the human aspect of creativity.
Lo-fi ideas
Innovation wasn’t limited to tech, with many lo-fi ideas showing how ingenious solutions can often be found inside the simplest answers.
“Innovation is about making humanity better.”
Kyoko Yonezawa | Head of Innovation, TBWA\HAKUHODO, Tokyo | Juror, Innovation Lions 2024