Creativity that powers our iconic brands: Mars earns 10 Lions at Cannes Lions 2026

At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Mars showcased how consumer obsession, human ingenuity and a connected and innovative ecosystem deliver iconic brands that are the engine for growth.

Mars received 10 Cannes Lions; 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 6 Bronze – and 33 shortlists, recognizing award winning creativity across iconic brands including M&M’S®, PEDIGREE® and SKITTLES®.
Mars leaders, including Lead Chief Marketing Officer Gülen Bengi and members of the Mars Marketing Leadership Council; Kelsey Agostinelli, Natalia Ball and Rakin Carroll, along with brand leaders from across the business joined discussions exploring how creativity, innovation and collaboration are shaping the future of brand building.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity(Opens a new window) is the ultimate global stage to both demonstrate and progress how creativity and innovative brand building drive value and sustainable growth. At Mars, we build brands for the world we want tomorrow. We help create value by staying connected to consumers and pet parents in their increasingly varied lives; the consumer is at the heart of everything we do. By reimagining brand building to deliver the right engagement at the right time with the right experience at every relevant touchpoint, forming relationships with everyone. As a category leader with a family of iconic brands across the Petcare, Snacking and Food & Nutrition categories, we steward those brands for future generations and the planet. By building strong, capable teams of Associates. And by honoring the values our brands, Associates and consumers share.

Which Mars campaigns earned Cannes Lions in 2026?

M&M’S: Protect the Peanut

Awarded a Gold Lion for Creative Business Transformation and a Bronze Lion for Direct, Protect the Peanut demonstrates how creativity and innovation can help build a more resilient future for peanut farming. The campaign was also shortlisted in the inaugural Creative Brand Lion category, which recognizes business-led creative systems.

Developed in partnership with scientists and farmers, the initiative supports the development of climate-resilient peanut crops designed to better withstand drought, disease and the impacts of climate change. Watch the documentary here(Opens a new window).

M&M’S: RickTok

Awarded a Bronze Lion for Social & Creator.

M&M’S brought superfans together to help one of our biggest collectors, Rick, find an elusive M&M’S salt & pepper shaker. The community-driven campaign became the highest performing organic campaign in M&M’S history. Watch the case study here(Opens a new window).

PEDIGREE: Caramelo

Earned five Cannes Lions including a Gold Lion and a Silver for Creative Effectiveness, and three Bronze Lions for Creative Effectiveness, Brand Experience & Activation and Health & Wellness .

Caramelo celebrated mixed-breed dogs while supporting PEDIGREE’s mission to help end pet homelessness. By giving Brazil’s most famous dog the same recognition as other official dog breeds, the campaign highlighted that every dog deserves to be adopted. This campaign also won the coveted Titanium Lion at Cannes 2025. Learn about the campaign here(Opens a new window).

SKITTLES: Gaming Flute

Awarded a Silver Lion in Entertainment for Gaming and a Bronze Lion for Brand Experience & Activation.

Gaming Flute transformed gaming culture into an unexpected play experience. By replacing a traditional gaming controller with a custom-built flute, the campaign challenged gamers to rethink what it means to play. The campaign amassed 390,000 live views.

Watch the teaser video here(Opens a new window).

How is Mars shaping the future of marketing?

Beyond sharing award-winning campaigns, Mars leaders contributed to the conversation, exploring the future of creativity, innovation and brand building.

Lead Chief Marketing Officer Gülen Bengi joined official Lions programming to share why at Mars, creativity has always been a key driver for long term brand growth, “People, Creativity, and Technology in that order, and by design.”

While at the Festival, Gülen also sat down with The Wall Street Journal(Opens a new window) to share the Mars way of building iconic brands, “Brands need to capture the hearts of people and the math of algorithms. To do this successfully, the fundamentals of brand building must remain. We reinvent how we engage with our consumers, by inviting our fans and communities to co-create brand experiences with us.”

Across every conversation, one message remained consistent: building iconic brands for the world we want tomorrow, requires human ingenuity. Why? Because human ingenuity is irreplaceable.

Gülen Bengi, Lead Chief Marketing Officer, Mars joins Pedr Howard, President Creative Excellence, Ipsos to discuss Creativity Over Clicks at the Palais.

Natalia Ball, Chief Growth Officer, Mars Pet Nutrition (middle) and Rankin Carroll, Chief Brand Officer, Mars Snacking (right) lead Brand Innovators panel, discussing Mars campaigns that ignite culture, including Whiskas Lucky Cat.