Alexander Koene

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11-05-2026

Article: Cannes Lions 2026: trophies vs impact

BR-ND People at Cannes Lions 2026 with Amsterdam Impact on the Stad Amsterdam (VIA + City of Amsterdam). A brutal take on awards culture, costs, sustainability and real impact.

Cannes Lions 2026: trophies vs impact

We’re going to Cannes Lions 2026 with a special kind of badge.

Not as a delegation. Not as a festival tourist.

Kim Cramer and Alexander Koene (BR-ND People) will be on board as part of Amsterdam Impact’s Frontrunners in creative communications: a floating initiative on the clipper Stad Amsterdam, together with VIA and the City of Amsterdam.

Background: Coalition of Impact Frontrunners: from ideas to action and Amsterdam Impact.

Cannes Lions 2026: trophies vs impact image

We’re looking forward to it, and we’re on our guard. Cannes decides what the industry gets to call “great”, then sends the bill for joining the applause. Our feelings are mixed. We love the craft and still see real class in the room, but we distrust the scoreboard; trophies often reward the packaging, not the progress. We’re there as guests and as critics, looking for work that holds up once the case film ends.

An honest caveat belongs here: we have to watch out for jalousie de métier. We’ve never been there ourselves, so our verdict rests partly on prejudice. This piece is that prejudice, on paper. We’ll test it that week in Cannes. Or throw it overboard.

Our slot on the programme

Tuesday 23 June, 15:00 - 16:30 on the Clipper Stad Amsterdam, anchored in the bay of Cannes. As part of On Board with Sustainability (VIA, together with Kantar, Ad Net Zero and Amsterdam Impact), Kim Cramer moderates the launch of the Coalition of Impact Frontrunners: a growing group of Amsterdam agencies that want collaboration on impact to be the starting point, not the next one-off campaign.

Three concrete tracks are on the table. Under the label Inspiring Agencies - 020 Agency it’s about shared talent development and cross-agency collaboration on the city’s challenges. Inspiring Clients - Factor20 puts impact at the start of the brief, not as an afterthought. And Inspiring Citizens - It Takes a City to Raise a Child makes growing up a matter for the whole city.

A panel with voices from the sector, the City of Amsterdam and young talent. One clear ask to the crew on board: join, partner, or fund.

Full programme on the Clipper: vianederland.nl/cannes-2026.

Cannes Lions in one sentence

A week where the industry applauds itself so loudly it starts to look like progress. At its best, you see work that genuinely shifts how people behave. At its worst, it’s a reputation market where visibility becomes value, and “impact” a styling choice.

The price is the real gate

At Cannes, the price isn’t a detail; it is the gate. It decides who walks in and who stays out.

The entries alone add up. Many categories run an indicative €690 to €865 per entry for the earliest 2026 deadline, and prestige categories like Titanium head towards €2,375 and beyond, with late fees on top. Then there are the festival passes, plus 20% VAT at checkout. Indicative for 2026 (excl. VAT): Classic €4,465, Gold €6,600 and Platinum €11,595; Streaming €99, Young Lion €2,180, Student €1,035, Start-Up €1,345 and Challenger €2,500 (canneslions.com/pass-picker). And we’re not done, because travel and accommodation during festival week treat surge pricing like policy, and food, drink and transport rack up fast. Add the invisible costs: hours, case film, PR, hosting, dinners.

Roughly: “doing the full week” with a Classic pass, travel, lodging and food easily lands at €7,000 to €10,000 per person. Gold or Platinum plus hosting? Five figures, fast.

The result: Cannes rewards not only creativity, but also spending power.

The trophy economy

Agencies pay to enter, pay to show up, pay to host; and the same club hands out the prizes. A business model with applause.

What tends to happen is easy to guess. Case films grow into a genre of their own, with a hero edit, round numbers and the mess cut out. Short spikes win out over long outcomes, while the system underneath stays untouched. And work starts auditioning for the jury more often than for the people it claims to help.

From “selling more” to “making better”

Advertising is built to sell more. It turns destructive the moment “more” becomes the highest goal. If Cannes really wants to celebrate something good, it rewards work that moves from volume to value, where less, better and sharing are the starting points. From attention alone to accountability, with an eye on the supply chain, policy and governance. And from virtue signalling to honest trade-offs and transparency.

Why we still go

Despite everything, Cannes is one of the few weeks a year where the sector briefly behaves like it understands its own influence. That’s our stake: do we keep playing the reputation game, or do we put creative communications to work for something that genuinely moves society forward?

Sources