A barcode-made soccer field, endless voice messages on DooH screens, and a textbook example of green signage with a creative twist: Among the winners of the Cannes Lions Outdoor Awards 2026 are major brands and a few surprises.
Cannes Lions: These Are the 2026 Outdoor Winners
Monday night, the Cannes Lions Creativity Awards were presented in various categories, including Outdoor. The shortlist for this category, consisting of 135 campaigns, had already been selected from 1,390 submissions.
The Brazilian online marketplace Mercado Livre, together with the agency Gut, took home the Grand Prix Award in the Outdoor category. The e-commerce platform secured the naming rights to Pacaembu Stadium and transformed the field into an oversized QR code. The code could actually be scanned, unlocking a discount on the platform.
Heineken and Plenitude
A total of 9 entries were honored with a Gold Award. Among them are brands such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. The “Could have been an Heineken” campaign, created in collaboration with the agency Lepub, used DooH video to simulate endlessly long voice messages; according to Heineken, sitting together comfortably over a beer would have been the better option.
The Silver category was awarded 17 times. From a DooH perspective, the “Dark Mode Ads” campaign by the electric mobility company Plenitude and Lepub is particularly noteworthy. They created a special “dark mode” version of their visuals for LED screens in their own stores throughout Italy and in DooH campaigns in Spain and France to save energy.
invidis has highlighted this issue for a long time: that the content displayed on LED screens plays a crucial role in energy savings—especially when, as in the case of Plenitude, the background changes from white to black. According to a study by Certimac, power consumption was reduced by up to 74 percent in some cases. A prime example of how creativity and expertise can come together.
German Campaign Wins Bronze
In the Bronze category, which was awarded a total of 24 times, one German entry made it onto the podium: McDonald’s and Scholz & Friends designed a guerrilla campaign in Berlin in which they placed posters for the fast-food company’s delivery service in such a way that they would be visible in speed camera photos.
With that, the Outdoor Awards have been presented; a list of winners can be viewed on The Work website. However, the festival in Cannes continues through the end of the week. And agencies, outdoor advertisers, and associations will be on hand to further cement OoH and DooH in the minds of brands.
