Cannes Lions winners — where are they now?

In the words of the Cannes Lions committee, winning a Lion is a career-defining achievement. As one of the most desirable awards in creative communications and advertising, Cannes Lions celebrate some of the best and most innovative creative work and often bring their winners global recognition.

“Creative industries like ours offer the most aspirational of roles, and winning at Cannes – or even having something entered – puts you among the best in the world at one of the most desirable jobs in the world.”

- The Moon Unit

In this post, I’ll explore eleven of the most notable and memorable Cannes Lions’ winners, exploring: 

• Who they are

• Their agency

• The year of their first or most notable win 

• What award they won 

• How their career started and where it’s heading 

• How many times they’ve won (if more than once)

• Remarks on winners and their work from others in the industry

• Ad track they were featured in

To find out more about how the Cannes Lions Award Festival works, how winners are chosen and what successes Cannes Lions winners for 2025 can expect to see in the career ahead — be sure to check out our past post before you keep reading. 

What they won

Design Lions, Bronze

Brandenburg Iceland's Reykjavik-based Founder and CEO, Bragi Valdimir Skúlason, and Creative Director and Managing Partner, Arnar Halldorsson made history in 2024 by taking home Iceland's first ever Cannes Lion — making them one of the most noteworthy Cannes Lions winners of the year. The creative duo won Bronze in the Design Lions for their work ‘New Gen Energy‘ for Ölgerðin’s Orka — a popular Icelandic drink brand.

What experts say

Bragi, a multi-faceted creative across mediums like music, lyric-writing and TV, says he hopes the win continues to push other Icelandic creatives to make bold choices and take more daring approaches on the global creative stage. 

Here’s what The One Club says about the winning design:

"Orka sets out to become an authentically inclusive brand that allows people to think outside and beyond boxes. Dancing to a different beat. Positioning the drink as an "Icelandic Moodenhancing Drink Traveling at the Speed of Culture.

Differentiation can be challenging due to the vast number of competitors in the category, but the good thing is: Macho is driving the category. So our approach was going AntiMacho! The identity expresses this fluid direction. An ambigram, where you maintain the readability regardless of how the can or brand is oriented. A seamless blend of art and identity, suggesting that Orka is not just a product, but a platform for expression.

Orka celebrates the spirit of the creator generation, empowering them to contribute to and evolve the brand's identity. This approach transforms the packaging into a dynamic canvas for artistic expression, ensuring Orka remains vibrant, unexpected and deeply intertwined with cultural movements."

To take a look at some of the most effective creative from Cannes in the past — take a look at our past post.

Beyond furthering creative careers, Cannes Lions awards often celebrate the lifetime achievements of some of the most powerful creative forces in the industry. 

With over 17 years in the ad industry, Rajdeepak Das is currently the Chief Creative Officer of the Leo Group across South Asia — overseeing 7 offices across 4 countries.

What they won

Grand Prix for Sustainable Development Goals

Das won the 2022 Grand Prix for Sustainable Development Goals for his work on Procter & Gamble’s ‘Missing Chapter’ campaign. The Sustainable Development Goals Lions, developed with the United Nations, celebrates work that helps advance environmental or social sustainability.

The campaign was created by Das for Procter & Gamble’s Whisper sanitary products and featured a young Indian schoolgirl handing out red flyers to help encourage other girls to stay in school. The campaign was designed to help bring period education to girls in India and encourage them to stay in education. 

What experts say

The win established Das as one of the most notable creatives in purpose-driven advertising and gave him a wider platform to promote period education across India. The One Club says the win was, "Very close to his heart as it makes a real difference by getting a chapter on Periods in School books and by breaking period taboos and helping 23 million girls stay in school."

Das has won more than 20 Cannes Lions — including a Cannes Innovation Silver for HP Lubricants’ “Roads that Honk” and a Cannes Creative Effectiveness Gold for “Bajaj V” The Nation's Bike.

What they won

Cannes Young Lions PR Competition, Gold

Going up against 17 other creative teams from across the world, Michael DiSalvo and Ben King, account directors at Ogilvy PR's New York office, won gold at the 2016 Cannes Young Lions PR Competition. 

After spending all of his early career at Ogilvy after landing an internship right out of college, Disalvo said his win filled him with renewed confidence in his talents and reassured him he was following the right career path. 

Here’s how he said the win impacted his career: “Working for an agency that holds the Cannes Festival of Creativity in high esteem pays off (literally). Within two months of returning from Cannes, both I and my partner took on new positions within Ogilvy and its parent company, WPP respectively, with greater responsibilities and shiny new titles for our LinkedIn profiles.”

He adds:  

“Along with the upward mobility and résumé-building accolade, new opportunities arose, like participating in the unprecedented Common Ground initiative in support of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals or helping to shape the future of Ogilvy in its "Next Chapter" initiatives. We were fortunate that Ogilvy made sure to celebrate our success, plastering the office with streamers, offering champagne toasts from senior leaders, and printing our photos on cakes. Lesson learned: if you want someone to remember your face, paint it in frosting.”

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including the coveted Lion of St. Mark Award

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein are the founders of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, one of the most well-known agencies in the ad industry. Jeff began his career as a reporter and illustrator at The Boston Herald American. While Rich started out as an art director at Rolling Stone Magazine. The duo met at Ogilvy & Mather, going on to start Goodby Silverstein & Partners in 1983. 

In 2003, they won their first Cannes Lion for the Mill Valley Film Festival — increasing their credibility and drawing several notable creatives to their agency including Paul Venables, the founder of Venables Bell & Partners, and Jamie Barrett — who founded barrettSF.

Following their 2003 win, they went on to take home several Cannes Lions over the years — including several wins for their infamous 'Got Milk?" campaign, the Epuron wind power campaign, and Squarespace's Jeff Bridges' "sleeping tapes" album. 

Goodby and Silverstein were awarded the Lion of St. Mark Award at the 2019 Festival, an award given each year to an individual recognizing them for a lifetime of services to creativity in communications.

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including the coveted Lion of St. Mark Award

Lee Clow was the creative powerhouse behind Apple's iconic "1984" ad, winning a Cannes Lions award in 1984 at the 31st Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Following the win, Apple and his Californian agency Chiat/Day, where he worked as an art director, became renowned in the advertising world. Lee Clow became the Creative Director of the agency in 1977 — with a denizen once naming him "Art Director of the World." 

"There are only two people I've ever worked with in advertising who can stand in a war room papered with a thousand ideas that run the gamut from awful to promising and, without seeming to think or ponder, point to The One that's right, that will work, that will make the clients rich and the agency famous. Lee Clow is one of them."

- The One Club

In 2013, Clow was awarded the Lion of St. Mark at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — honoring his legacy in the advertising industry. 

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including the Creative Marketer of the Year award

"Our biggest fear is not having something backfire. Our biggest fear is to create something that doesn’t stand out, that doesn’t get noticed. That‘s expensive. The biggest risk is taking no risk. That's the philosophy we have when creating our campaigns."

- Fernando Machado

Marketer of the Year award. Along with the creative team, Machado also left Cannes with 28 Lions — breaking records for the brand. The win helped solidify Machado as a marketing powerhouse — highlighting his capacity for innovative, disruptive campaigns. 

What experts say

Since joining RBI, where he headed up the marketing team for seven years, Machado was instrumental in raising Burger Kings’ profile — with memorable campaigns such as the one built around moldy Whoppers that showed off the “beauty of real food” that wasn't pumped with preservatives.

“We thought, let’s show that the beauty of real food is that it actually gets ugly. Right? Let’s show that because we don’t have preservatives from artificial sources, our product does decay. And let’s show that in a beautiful way. I think that is what works well here.”

- Fernando Machado

In 2021, Machado resigned from the company and went on to join Activision Blizzard as their Chief Marketing Officer. He then joined plant-based startup NotCo. He currently has more than 200 Cannes Lions awards. 

What they won

Several Cannes Lions, including: Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness, Grand Prix in Outdoor and Grand Prix in Entertainment for Sport

In 1982 Dan Wieden founded Wieden+Kennedy. Landing their first client Nike — then just an upstart headed by Phil Knight, who told them that he didn’t believe in advertising. Soon proved wrong — Wieden created the iconic Nike tagline ‘Just Do It’ in 1988, creating some of the industry’s most memorable campaigns. 

Since its conception, Nike has gone onto win several Cannes Lions awards thanks to the creative smarts of Wieden and his agency, including:

• Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness   

• Grand Prix in Outdoor   

• Grand Prix in Entertainment for Sport

Of particular note, during Cannes Lions 2019, Nike's Kaepernick campaign won three Grand Prix. Created by Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, the Dream Crazy campaign featured Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL player who protested against police brutality towards black people by kneeling during the national anthem at football games.

Originally starting out with a creative team of just five employees, over the next three decades the agency expanded with thousands of creatives across Portland, New York, London, Amsterdam, Delhi, Shanghai, Tokyo and São Paulo. 

In 2012, Dan was presented with the Lion of St. Mark in Cannes — recognizing his legendary contributions to the industry. On winning the award, he joked to Campaign Brief: “This is a pretty big honour. To be honest, I’ve always identified with that renown military leader, of whom it was said, his men would follow him anywhere. Mainly, out of curiosity.”

Head here for an in-depth analysis of Nike’s “Stairs,” ad. 

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including two Golden Lions and the Lion of St. Mark

"Piyush Pandey and his iconic moustache have been the face of Ogilvy India and Indian advertising for decades. The partnership between the man, Indian advertising and Ogilvy started in 1982, when Pandey was a 27-year old cricket player who tried everything from tea tasting and construction before he landed in advertising."

- Delshad Irani and Priyanka Nair, Storyboard 18

Check out this special episode of Storyboard18 featuring Pandey on LinkedIn.

Executive chairman of Ogilvy India for several years, Piyush Pandey has built his reputation as an advertising legend across his 40 years in the industry. 

"India has enough richness and energy to make an impact around the world."

- Piyush Pandey

Throughout his time with O&M India, Piyush Pandey has won the agency countless Cannes Lions — winning his first two Golden Lions for his anti-smoking campaigns in 2002. He was awarded the Lion of St. Mark at the Cannes Lions festival in 2018. 

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including a Titanium Lion

"In the early days of my career I probably seemed insane. I never stopped working. I slept under my desk some nights. We all drove ourselves hard back then at Crispin. It’s something I had to learn how to manage – to not place the same expectations on others as I set on myself."

- Tiffany Rolfe, Shots Magazine

With plans to become a designer, Tiffany Rolfe quickly found a talent for advertising. She graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and immediately interviewed for Crispin Porter + Bogusky — where she stayed for ten years. 

During her career, Wolfe helped the agency win a number of Cannes Lions. Her biggest win? Counterfeit for Mini Cooper by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami.

Speaking to Shots Magazine, she says on the win:

“MINI Counterfeit was one of the first fully integrated marketing campaigns of its kind – it won a Titanium Lion at Cannes 2005. And we actually built a real chop shop in Brazil. We taped motorcycles together and painted Lincolns with white roofs. It was hell to produce, and I had food poisoning for a week, but it was so worth it.”

She says that the success of the campaign lies in its tension: 

“There are different kinds of tensions to get to great work. Tension in the insights and tension in the thinking. Finding the tension in the work is getting to the heart of what’s holding people back from buying into your brand. It’s much bigger than awareness. It’s the truth that’s hard to admit. If you don’t tackle it head on, you’ll never get to the root of the problem. So, with the MINI campaign, we were launching a small car in a Hummer world, where bigger was better. That was our tension. We had to take that on and reverse the narrative in culture. And luckily we were able to get ahead of the tension that big cars would soon face – that they’re worse for the environment.”

Wolfe's wins have helped build her reputation and increased her visibility — helping her land the position of Chair and Global Chief Creative Officer of R/GA.

What they won

The first-ever female to win the Lion of St. Mark award

“Mary Wells Lawrence’s career shattered glass ceilings, redefined the possibilities for women in advertising and paved the way for future generations of ambitious visionaries.” — Shelley Zalis, Founder and Ceo at The Female Quotient 

What experts say

Mary Wells Lawrence was the first ever female recipient of the prestigious lifetime achievement award the Cannes Lions’ Lion of St. Mark award in 2020. Mary Wells Lawrence was the first woman to found and run a major marketing firm — Wells, Rich, Greene, which she allegedly founded after being denied a promotion at Jack Tinker and Partners. She would become the first female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. By 1969, she had become the highest-paid ad exec in the industry. 

She helped write the legendary "I <3 NY" campaign. During the 1970s, New York City was struggling under the weight of financial crisis and urban decay. The campaign went on to entirely revamp New York's image — revitalizing the city's status as a cultural icon and bringing new tourism and business to the city. 

The campaign was built around a memorable minimalistic icon:  “I ♥ NY”, designed by popular graphic designer and New Yorker Milton Glaser — who reportedly sketched the logo on the back of an envelope in the back of a yellow cab. 

What they won

Multiple Cannes Lions awards, including two gold and silver awards for Creative Strategy and Creative Commerce

Judy John began her career as a copywriter — working for small independent shops like TAXI. She later put her creative smarts to work at some of the biggest multinationals such as Ogilvy & Mather and BBDO. 

Judy was the first ever Global Chief Creative Officer at Edelman, the world's largest independent communications firm — which she joined in 1999. Since joining Edelman, she has won several Cannes Lions.

In 2009, Leo Burnett Toronto was the only Canadian office ranked in the top 20 in North America in the Cannes ranking. In 2024, Edelman won Double Gold and Silver for their Dove and Ikea for the Creative Strategy Lion (Ikea), Creative Commerce Lion (Dove), and the Creative Strategy Lion (Dove) respectively. 

Following these wins and continuing to build her reputation as one of Canada’s most talented creative leaders, Judy has been named Titanium Lions president. 

Many creatives look to win a Lion to solidify their “creative genius” and gain greater visibility, but winning a Cannes Lion doesn’t always lead to the acclaim and opportunities people hope for. 

Reddit User u/InternetArtisan says: "From my observations and experiences, I will say though I have not seen any big career progression of award winners like we're told happens. I bold that one part because I live in Chicago, which doesn't necessarily represent the industry as a whole. So I'm going by my own experiences.

I've seen people win Lions and Pencils, but stuck on bland accounts while it seems others who never won a single award end up on big exciting accounts. I've seen middle-aged award winners shortly handed a pink slip because their client left the agency, so the company didn't boot a non-award winner to keep the award winner.

I will also say, I'm sorry to go there, but I've often seen young white male winners seemingly get offered opportunities over female winners, minority winners, or older winners."

u/ROFLFALAFUL talks honesty about how a Cannes Lion win is just one component to building a strong portfolio and getting industry recognition. They say: "Nothing changed proactively. But after putting in a couple good award show years (3 or 4 pieces which all made the rounds of bronze/silver/shortlist at the shows) people are very receptive when I apply. It's just part of the bigger, "make your portfolio as strong as possible" strategy. It's never gonna be an overnight success unfortunately."

While u/gabrielpadiha notes that a win only holds relevancy for a short amount of time and should be used quickly to advance a creative’s position: "Lions are made of ice. They melt and lose relevance really quickly. Try to use it as leverage to get a better position as fast as you can."

Cannes Lions are some of the most coveted awards — helping rising creatives and some of the biggest names in advertising and similar fields to increase their visibility, advance their careers and even make an impact on the wider culture. 

While many creatives seek the recognition of a Cannes Lion, the charm of winning can easily wear off if they don’t use their wins strategically and leverage the increase in recognition quickly.