Three brands claimed top prizes at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Women's Wear Daily reported in its headline dispatch.

WWD's headline wrote that Columbia Sportswear, Adidas, and The Ordinary "scooped" the festival's top honors. The full category breakdown was not detailed in the headline-level announcement.

What are the Cannes Lions?

The festival runs each June in Cannes, France. It honors creative work across roughly two dozen advertising, film, design, and communications categories. A Grand Prix is the top honor within each category.

Brands and agencies submit campaigns in the spring. Shortlisted entries advance to jury deliberations in late June. Winners receive trophies at nightly award ceremonies during the week-long festival.

The festival draws entries from agencies and brands across more than 90 countries, based on prior-year tallies. Past Grand Prix winners include Volkswagen, Apple, and Nike.

Who took the 2026 top prizes?

WWD identified three headline honorees:

• Columbia Sportswear — the Portland, Oregon-based outdoor apparel maker
• Adidas — the German sportswear manufacturer headquartered in Herzogenaurach
• The Ordinary — the Canadian skincare brand owned by Deciem

The three winners span apparel, sportswear, and personal care. The mix represents three industries rarely grouped on a single Cannes Lions top-honor roll.

Two of the three brands — Columbia Sportswear and The Ordinary — operate outside the legacy winners' circle that has long favored automotive and tech advertisers. Adidas is a recurring finalist across sportswear and entertainment categories.

What changes in the awards race?

Top Cannes Lions wins carry weight through the next 12-month cycle. Holding companies cite Grand Prix honors in new business pitches. Agencies use the wins to recruit senior creative talent.

The 2026 results reset category leaderboards heading into the 2026-2027 awards season. Brands with multiple category wins typically lead agency-of-record reviews over the following year.

Independent shops gain exposure through Grand Prix placements. The major network agencies — WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, IPG, and Havas — track Cannes Lions tallies as a competitive scoreboard across the June festival week.

How will the industry read this?

The unusual trio — outdoor apparel, sportswear, and skincare — marks a category mix rarely seen in Cannes Lions top-honors announcements. The result signals continued jury attention to consumer brands beyond tech and automotive.

WWD did not specify the precise Cannes Lions categories the three brands won. The per-discipline Grand Prix tally — typically published nightly during the festival — was not included in the headline summary.

James Calloway covers the awards circuit for Awards Review.