Dive Brief:
- Cyber and Mobile campaigns have their own Cannes Lions awards, and now Digital Craft will join them this summer with an award that recognizes user experience and campaign execution.
- The Digital Craft Lions award features five subcategories: form (image, sound, aesthetic), function (design, construction, experience); content (data, including curation of data and data visualization) and technology.
- "We've chosen to split it out so that this specialist area can have its own dedicated jury, which will also make the hugely labor intensive Cyber Lions judging much more manageable going forward," Terry Savage, chairman of Lions Festivals, explained the decision in a press release.
Dive Insight:
The new award topic illustrates the importance of digital marketing, as well as the diversity across digital campaigns.
"The popularity of digital technologies and their ability to gather vast amounts of consumer data has meant a change in attitude towards the role of digital design and user experience. From desktop to mobile, to virtual reality and beyond; digital design is now more than ever driven by user need and point of access. How a digital product performs and functions is just as important now as how it looks and feels," read a post on the Cannes Lions website describing the new award.
The same post explained the new award category will seek to highlight "the skill and artistry required in omni-channel digital creativity." Digital Craft Lions is joined by The Entertainment Lions and The Entertainment Lions for Music as new awards for 2016.
Recognizing user experience is a welcome and interesting element, especially given that both the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the World Federation of Advertisers have both advocated that their members make user experience a priority in part to combat ad blocking software.
Cannes Lions will be held June 18-25 this year with entries opening Jan. 21.
