Creative Business Transformation Lions
The Categories
A. Customer Experience
Customer-facing creative transformations that have created new ways for brands to interact with their customers.
A01. Experience Transformation
Creative transformation of the customer experience. Initiatives that strengthen customer relationships by creating seamless journeys that span the digital and physical worlds, characterised by timely and personalised touchpoints.
e.g. an airline rethinks entire customer journey and experience reducing pain-points and seamlessly integrating booking, boarding, passport control, queue times and seat allocation.
A02. Marketing Technology for Growth
The strategic application of marketing technology to improve efficiency, reach more customers, strengthen engagement and deliver results, such as retention and conversion of customers. May include, for example, use of third-party platforms (CRM, CMS, payments systems etc.).
e.g. a sports association reimagines their entire digital presence and CRM mechanisms to increase retention, target new customers and become more strategic and engaging across all platforms to attract youth, connect players, and build a new generation of fans.
A03. Targeting, Insights & Personalisation
Transformative approaches to customer insight and targeting to effectively build new products/services or scale existing ones. Work that uncovers behavioural truths that enable businesses to capture new audiences and/or create more relevant experiences.
e.g. a hotel chain captures insights through guest data then activates personalised experience through a fully integrated AI chat bot who provides assistance throughout their stay and creates a bespoke loyalty program to aid customer retention.
A04. Creative Application of Emerging Technology
Application of new or emerging technology that transformed how a brand/business and its customers interact, including but not limited to the application of AI, data intelligence, cognitive tools, voice assistance etc.
e.g. improving response times to emergency services by creating a digital triage system and patient-facing AI ‘bot’
B. Business Design & Operations
Re-design of internal operations to drive results, engage employees and build culture.
B01. Operational Transformation
Wholesale, internal transformation that has created value through the scaled adoption of new or modified ways of working, such as operating models, processes or tools. Changes may involve staff, suppliers, distributors, consumers, regulators/governments.
e.g. a car manufacturer changes to a ‘mobility solutions company’ through complete overhaul of business model to move towards electrification, autonomy, and mobility. Developing autonomous vehicles, facilitating car sharing and parking through an app, and creating experience centres.
B02. Brand Purpose & Impact
Transformation of a brand’s ethical or socially-driven purpose that authentically connects with customers, culture and society. How purpose has been embedded across core business functions including, but not limited to, product development, customer experience, marketing, people management, supply chain etc.
e.g. a cosmetics company transforms its purpose to commit to sustainability efforts for its people, products, and planet. From sourcing traceable and sustainable natural ingredients, using electric delivery vehicles, to investing in protection and regeneration efforts to protect habitat and communities.
B03. Company Culture
Creative transformation of the internal culture of a business/brand, based around its human skills and capabilities. Initiatives that demonstrate a clear vision resulting in improved experience for employees that strengthen engagement and/or staff retention and positive outcomes for the business.
e.g. a telecom company redesigns their onboarding, recruitment and employee self-service experiences by developing digital tools and service delivery solutions to improve and simplify life at work. The transformation also includes innovative new workspaces that bring together recreation, collaboration, and individual work in novel ways.
B04. New Relationship Models
Reinvention of the way customers use existing products/services, through the creation of new routes to market and delivery methods, such as direct-to-customer models, subscriptions and service-based propositions, often that blend digital and physical behaviours to create long-term customer relationships.
e.g. a car brand introduces a life-long membership model as an alternative to a third-party car dealership means of distribution
B05. End-to-end Transformation NEW
Celebrating how a business successfully transforms inside and out – from internal operations, teams, training programs, policies, to the choice of suppliers and partners, and how all this impacts the products and services, communications and customer experience. Entries should demonstrate tangible results within every stage or touchpoint of the transformation.
There is an increased eligibility for this category of 5+ years
C. Product & Service
New or reinvented product or service design that drives results and business performance.
C01. Product
A new or reinvented physical or digital product, launched by an existing brand, which has transformed the offer of that brand, that addresses evolving customer needs and changes to the competitive marketplace.
e.g. a sportswear brand creates a wearable fitness tracker, transforming their digital offering and creating a new connected community of customers, offering developed methods to collect and turn data into a valuable product offering and new revenue stream.
C02. Service Design
New or reinvented cross-channel service design, launched by an existing brand, which embodies a brand’s vision and delivers a frictionless customer journey that is integrated across multiple touchpoints.
e.g. a national coffee chain introduces digital express machines that replicate, respond and interact with personalised customer experience initiated through website and mobile app.
D. Venture Creation & Design
The creative adoption or design of venture capital models to transform brands and/or businesses.
D01. Venture Models & Corporate Innovation
Solving business problems through an outside-in approach. The successful creation and launch of new products / services developed in venture models including, but not limited to, use of incubators, accelerators, R&D, and investments in start-ups etc.
e.g. A fashion brand creates a new accelerator program to provide a platform for new designers to develop innovative initiatives in sustainable fashion.
Read everything you need to know about entering the Cannes Lions Awards