Rise New York & Partners has put 20 years of Cannes Lions history into a blender — or more accurately, an AI engine — to see if machine learning can crack the Titanium code. Led by Flavio Vidigal and Christiano Abrahao, the team fed jury commentary and case studies into a model built to simulate Cannes’ most mysterious category. The result? A predictive AI that mimics a “generic jury” and even names its own Grand Prix pick. Its choice: Heineken’s Pub Succession. The jury’s actual winner? AXA’s “Three Words” from Publicis Conseil.
But this wasn’t a bid to become the oracle of the Croisette. It was part social experiment, part industry Rorschach test. By visualizing jury conversations and publishing the process on LinkedIn, Rise wanted to peel back what really drives creative acclaim — snappy copy? Social relevance? Charm? Or just good old “bad-assery,” as Abrahao put it. The Titanium category was intentionally chosen because it defies polish and rewards instinct — and that’s something AI can’t fake (yet).
Importantly, Rise isn’t pitching this tech to replace creatives — they’re inviting them to see the patterns behind what gets remembered. The Cannes Titanium Lions AI engine strips the pageantry and lets the machine reflect the industry back to itself, raw. It’s a tool, not a threat, says Vidigal—though he cheekily warns that if you’re not experimenting with machines like this, you might already be part of the furniture.
Read more at Campaign.