For years, XP Land has been shouting about experiential getting its due at Cannes Lions. It started on the Croisette in 2025 with Jimmy Knowles of Canva and Shelley Elkins of NVE. This June, our founder, Erica Boeke, took the stage with Jimmy and Bryan Buckley of hungryman to talk about how wildly creative it is to do this work live. Then, on the last morning of the festival, we got a sit-down with Marian Brannelly, Cannes Lions’ global director of awards.
Over breakfast at COLLINS House with a group of senior experiential leaders, we made our case:
All of Cannes Lions is experiential, and leaving the work unrecognized was out of step with where the world is headed. Covid showed how much people need to gather, and now that so much online feels fake, live experiences are how you change the way people see the world.
A few months later, Erica was invited to join a committee to discuss a possible change, alongside Jimmy Knowles, Patrick Bennett, Christine Shoaf of Momentum Worldwide, Allison Barrie Rand of Walmart, Lauren Kimball of Edelman and others.
And as of last week, experiential finally has a Lion, with new sections, new definitions and a new way of scoring the work. For 2027, Brand Experience & Activation becomes the Experiential Lion.
We interviewed Marian to understand more.
Geraldine Campbell: Why now? What tipped the decision to rename the Lion for 2027?
Marian Brannelly: It’s something we’ve been exploring for a while. Each year, we look closely at the data from the Awards, and analyse wider industry trends, to understand how creativity is evolving and where we need to adapt. We’ve also spent time with leaders from across the experiential community, testing our thinking, and building on the research.
What’s come through is the breadth and ambition of experiential creativity today. Brands are placing more emphasis on live, immersive and participatory experiences, and audiences are playing a more active role in shaping them. That momentum made this the right time to evolve the Lion, with a name and framework that better reflect the work and the creative contributions behind it.
GC: The jury weighs idea, strategy, execution and results at 25 percent each. Why an even split, and how does that compare with how Brand Experience & Activation was judged?
MB: We’ve adjusted the weighting of the criteria slightly. Previously, idea and strategy accounted for 20% each, with execution and results weighted at 30% each. For 2027, we’ve moved to an equal weighting of 25% across all four criteria, to give equal recognition to the distinct elements of what makes an exceptional experience. A powerful idea and a thoughtful strategy are as important as the craft of bringing it to life and the impact it delivers.
The best experiential work needs to serve a clear purpose for the brand, the strategy needs to show an understanding of the audience and how they’ll participate, and the execution needs to deliver on that ambition. The results then demonstrate what the experience achieved. The even split gives the Jury a balanced framework for considering the work as a whole.
GC: Experiential still doesn’t have a shared way to measure itself. What will the jury look for as results?
MB: Results don’t need to come from a universal metric as each idea will be unique — a different brand, different challenge, different business context. What matters is that the outcome is credible, relevant to the objective and properly evidenced. The Jury will be looking for proof that the work changed something that mattered, whether that was behaviour, perception or business performance. That could mean different things depending on what the work set out to achieve. But the key is that any results are clearly linked to the ambition of the idea.
GC: Brand Experience and Brand Activation each get their own section. How should an entrant decide where their work belongs?
MB: We've structured the sections so that there is a distinction between brand experience work and brand activation. The clearest way to decide is to consider the centre of gravity of the work. If the core achievement is creating a world or environment that people step into and experience, they should choose Section B. Brand Experience. If the primary goal is to prompt a specific response such as trial, purchase, sign-up or participation then they should focus on Section C. Brand Activation.
GC: Production Build & Craft is new, and conferences and summits now have a section of their own. Can you say more about both?
MB: The Production Build & Craft sub-category has been introduced to recognise the makers who bring ambitious experiential ideas to life. It’s designed to value build quality, technical ingenuity and production excellence as creative contributions in their own right.
We introduced a dedicated section for Brand Owned Events to recognise that these events have evolved far beyond traditional corporate gatherings. At their best, they are thoughtfully designed brand experiences that bring together content, community, environment and participation in a way that changes perception, builds influence and creates real commercial value. Recognising them formally reflects the fact that this is a significant area of experiential creativity, requiring as much strategic thinking, design rigour and production craft as any other part of the sector.
GC: What does a great first year for the Experiential Lion look like?
MB: We’d love to see ideas that capture the breadth and evolution of experiential creativity today — standout work from all over the world, across different scales, sectors and formats. Ideally, the kind of work that sparks plenty of discussion and makes the Jury’s decisions difficult.
More than anything, the goal is to help define a clearer shared benchmark for what world-class experience-led creativity looks like and the impact it can have for a brand.
