Cannes Lions has announced that it will honour Microsoft as this year’s Creative Marketer of the Year. The accolade is presented to an advertiser that has amassed a body of creative and Lion-winning work over a sustained period of time, and has established a reputation for producing brave creative and innovative marketing solutions.
In 2019, Microsoft won 11 Lions, with McCann New York’s ‘Changing the Game’ for the Xbox Adaptive Controller winning five, including a Grand Prix in Brand Experience & Activation as well as a Titanium Lion. Other stand-out winners have included McCann New York’s ‘Make What’s Next’ campaign focused on STEM for International Women’s Day, which in 2017 received a Glass Lion for campaigns addressing gender inequality; McCann London’s ‘Survival Billboard’ for Xbox /Tomb Raider, awarded 17 times in 2016; ‘DELQA’, an immersive installation created by Listen New York; Y&R Colombia Bogotá / Wunderman Colombia Bogota’s ‘FIFA 14’ for Xbox 360; and ‘Xbox Design Lab Originals: The Fanchise Model’ for Xbox Design Lab, which took seven Lions, including the Creative eCommerce Lion Grand Prix. Microsoft has collected Lions for a broad suite of products including Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft Kinect, Windows 7, Windows Vista, OneNote, MSN, Halo 3 Game and Xbox.
The Creative Marketer of the Year award was Introduced in 1992, with past recipients including: Apple, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Google, Heineken, IKEA, Mars, McDonald’s, IKEA, Samsung and Unilever, each of whom have demonstrated that outstanding creativity drives business growth and have won multiple Lions at the Festival as a result.
Microsoft will be honoured with The Creative Marketer of the Year Award on Friday 25 June during Cannes Lions Live, which runs from 21-25 June 2021 delivering the global premiere and broadcast of the Cannes Lions Awards and a programme of on-demand content.
