Innovation Lions Shortlist

We're thrilled to announce Wunderman Thompson Minneapolis' 'Speaking in Color' campaign for Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings has been named to the coveted Innovation Lions Shortlist for Cannes 2022!

'Speaking in Color' is the first AI, voice-controlled tool that generates colors based on a user’s spoken color memory or vision, such as “The French Riviera at sunset, with champagne.” From there, they can fine-tune their custom color palette (“darker blue”, “moodier”, “a sliver of sun”)…until they’ve finalized their perfect color.

The Innovation Lions' shortlist is one of the first to be announced for the much-anticipated Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022, with only 14 projects making the cut.

Congratulations to all teams!

An Innovation Lion is a tough beast to hunt down, but to get within range like this is a great first step! ‘Speaking in Color’ is just the beginning of Sherwin-Williams' quest to create one of the largest data sets of color attribution in the world, so we're delighted with this recognition at such an important stage. Not to mention, the shortlist announcement comes off the back of our Innovation Grand Prix for ‘Degree Inclusive’ and being named Cannes ‘Most Innovative Network’ for 2020/21, so it’s particularly exciting to see our work feature in this coveted category for the second year running.