The Cannes Lions organization has made nearly a dozen changes to the awards being bestowed at the 2024 Festival in Cannes next week. 

The group is introducing the Luxury & Lifestyle Lions, for the first time offering a dedicated Lion to the Luxury vertical. 

Meanwhile, the organization is shelving the Mobile Lion, asserting it is no longer needed given that device driven creativity has expanded to most channels and disciplines and is considered as part of the judging process for most Lions now. 

The Innovation Lions have been expanded—to recognize work for environmental, societal and financial innovation.  

There’s also a tweak to the Radio & Audio Lions, which have been renamed the Audio & Radio Lions, a recognition of the technological advances in audio content across channels. 

The Social And Influencer Lions are being expanded to “better recognize and celebrate” the roles of content creators in shaping and amplifying brand messages. 

The PR Lions have been refreshed to recognize work by modern day PR firms that deliver brand messages, change behavior or engage consumers at scale. 

Newly introduced is the “Use Of Humor” category to the Cultural and Context sections that are included in many Lions to celebrate the art of humor in brand communications. 

Submissions also have new mandatory questions including whether artificial intelligence was used in creative work and if so how. A question about cultural context that was previously optional, is now mandatory given that juries have found it useful in deliberations.  

Apparently, submissions also have questions about sustainability and DEI the answers to which have not previously been shared with juries. This year entrants have the option of sharing those responses with juries in the spirit of encouraging “those making progress in these areas to share their success and to ignite conversations in the jury room.”