The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has restructured its award category ‘Radio & Audio’ to ‘Audio & Radio’ to reflect the prominence of audio content in diverse formats, the organisers have announced, as part of a raft of changes to its awards programme for 2024.
Radio spots will still be available to enter across the Lions awards but the change in name “simply depicts the evolution of this medium” as technology continues to advance and other forms of audio content continue to rise in popularity, including advertising in podcasts.
An AI disclaimer is another new aspect for next year's awards, requiring entrants to disclose whether AI was used in the work and how. "This is to help the Jury judge the work fairly, with the full picture," festival organisers said.
There will also be a compulsory question on each entry form about the cultural context of the work. After a successful introduction last year, Cannes Lions organisers explained that as jury members found this so valuable, it will be mandatory for 2024 submissions.
In further changes, agencies and brands entering their work will have the option to share answers to sustainability and DE&I questions with jury members. Cannes Lions said it hopes that this will "encourage those making progress in these areas to share their success and to ignite conversations in the jury room".
Agencies and brands entering the awards next year will also be able to enter comedic work in a specific Humor category, as part of the cultural and context sections. Cannes Lions said the award will aim to "celebrate the art of humour in branded communications”.
It added: "Work entered into this category should use wit and satire to provide amusement and create memorable, laughter-inducing connections with audiences."
Other changes include an end to the Mobile Lions category, a new Luxury and Lifestyle category and an expansion to the Innovation category.
For this year's festival, Cannes Lions recorded 27,000 entries, up 6% year on year. Awards revenue also increased 11%. Submissions for the awards will open on 18 January, with the 2024 event set to take place between 17 and 21 June.
