Cannes Lions 2026: Where Did The Best Of Australian Creativity Shine?

SMART EXCLUSIVE: An Australian Cannes Lions Juror's View, with HERO's Ben Lilley

Australia had a strong Cannes Lions in 2026, headlined by two Grand Prix, the Dan Wieden Titanium Grand Prix for Suncorp Insurance's Haven, and the Media Grand Prix for Uber Eats' Build Your Own Super Bowl Commercial. SMART spoke with Ben Lilley, Creative Chairman of HERO and one of just 11 Australians on this year's Cannes Lions jury, sitting on the Social & Creator panel, about what he saw judging the category and what it takes to win at Cannes now.

What it actually takes to win a Lion

Lilley's jury scored entries across four criteria: the creative idea (30% of the vote), strategy (20%), execution (20%) and results (30%). That last figure surprised him more than the others.

"It amazes me how many agencies don't list results, when that's 30% of the vote," he said. "What's the point of a campaign if there are no results?"

That emphasis on proof over polish shaped what stood out across the entries. Lilley noted a handful of patterns repeating across this year's pool, among them a wave of campaigns built around exposing or manipulating algorithms, and AI showing up in case films far more often than the festival's own disclosure rules would suggest, despite entrants being required to declare AI use in their written submissions.

Why Suncorp and Uber Eats stood out

Judging aside, Lilley pointed to Australia's two Grand Prix as the clearest example of what separated the best work this year from the rest of the field.

"The best Lions work, as always, is based on universal human truths that people immediately resonate with," Lilley said. "Suncorp hacked its own risk data and turned it into something genuinely valuable for Aussie homeowners. Uber Eats hacked the single most-watched ad break of the year, the Super Bowl, and let the audience turn it into their own creative moment."

Both campaigns, in his view, succeeded by finding an unexpected way into culture and then having the craft to follow through. "A culture hack alone isn't enough to win a Lion though," he said. "The global creative community has had to reset after last year's Cannes scandals. And that's a good thing. Anything borderline has been banished, and 2026 Lion entries were down by 25%, so the quality was better than ever."

He also pointed to something specifically Australian in both winners. "The very best work has a strong and unique voice that could only have come from the country, culture and brand behind it. This is where both Uber Eats and Suncorp did so well. They're Australian-made campaigns, each with an unmistakable Australian voice that harness the very best of Aussie creativity."

HERO's own results

HERO brought two campaigns to Cannes 2026. Transit Tales, its AI-powered commuter storytelling platform for Mastercard, won a Digital Craft Lion for turning the daily commute into something more personal by pairing real-time transit data with generated stories. Capybarapy, for Hoegaarden, took out Entertainment Lions for Gaming's Outstanding Use of Humour award, built around the recent cultural fascination with capybaras and their association with calm.

"Together, the two shortlisted campaigns reflect the creative ambition that has defined HERO's growth: ideas that are culturally relevant, technologically curious and unmistakably human," Lilley said. "At a festival where juries rewarded work that proved its value through audience engagement rather than simply polished execution, HERO's Cannes success demonstrated that Australian creativity continues to compete on the world stage by finding fresh, locally rooted ways to connect with global audiences."

A juror's-eye view on where Australian creativity sits globally

Lilley's Cannes seat this year adds to a jury and chair record that includes the London International Awards and WINA, alongside three decades in the industry that have taken in Cannes Lions, D&AD, the Effies, New York Festivals, Spikes Asia and Campaign Brief recognition, including his earlier role leading McCann Australia to become the world's most awarded agency off the back of Dumb Ways to Die, still the most awarded campaign in Lions history.

Seeing several hundred entries from the inside, rather than just the winners announced on the night, gives a different read on where the bar actually sits. For Lilley, this year's lesson was less about chasing trends and more about the discipline to back a genuinely distinctive idea with real proof that it worked, the same combination he points to in HERO's own approach to brand and effectiveness work for clients.