What It Takes for Mongolia to Win a Lion: Goyol Cashmere, Go Mongolia, and What’s Next
Two Mongolian campaigns have now competed at Cannes Lions. One made the shortlist; one didn't. Here is an honest look at both, where Mongolia can compete, and what each should enter next.
In 2026, Goyol Cashmere’s “Best Dressed Nation” became the first Mongolian campaign on a Cannes Lions shortlist. That same year, the government’s Go Mongolia brand film was entered in the Film Lions and did not make the shortlist. Both are serious, ambitious pieces of work. Comparing the two against what juries reward is the fastest way to Mongolia’s first Lion. What follows is our view, based on public materials and award entries.
What Cannes juries reward?
The advice from Cannes itself, its jurors, and the brands that win most is remarkably consistent.
Solve a real problem. Winning work solves a genuine business or societal problem. Ryan Verschoor of AB InBev, three-time Cannes Creative Marketer of the Year, advises against trying to win a Lion at all: find a problem only your brand can solve, and solve it in a way that drives results.
Keep the idea simple. Jurors review hundreds of entries and must get the idea instantly. A former jury president says juries are often left asking “what is the idea?” and can usually spot work made just to win awards.
Be bold. WPP’s Rob Reilly urges entrants to “get a little weird.” Safe work rarely stands out.
Pick the right category. Read the category descriptions, not just the names. Cannes’ jurors advise finding the most impressive part of your campaign and the category that showcases it. A mismatch wastes money: entry fees run from €690 to over €2,000 per category.
Make a sharp case. The case film is often the first thing the jury sees. Cannes’ entry guide asks for under two minutes, with cultural context, the original objective, and the final outcome. Hook early, tell the problem, solution, and result, and write tightly.
Prove it. When juries pick winners from a shortlist, the first thing they check is whether results match the objective. Since 2026, every statistic must be backed by verifiable evidence, and the client’s CMO confirms the facts. The stakes are real: in 2025, Cannes withdrew a Grand Prix after finding manipulated AI material in the case film.
Commit over time. Only around 10% of entries are shortlisted and 3% win. Few brands win on a first attempt; older Cannes guidance put the typical journey at around three years.
One way to read this list: the factors multiply rather than add. A brilliant execution in the wrong category can lose; a worthy cause without an original idea can lose; big numbers with ordinary creativity can lose. A weak score on any one of them can sink the whole entry, which is why strong ideas still miss out. That is our framing, not a Cannes formula.
As Enkhbayasgalan Tungalag, Mongolia’s first Cannes Lions juror, told Campaign Asia: “Awards like Cannes might seem distant, but they start with a local idea done brilliantly.”
The three entries in detail
What each campaign actually submitted at Cannes Lions 2026, and what happened.
Two things stand out. Too Good’s claimed results are smaller in scale than either Mongolian case, but every one maps directly to its objective. And the Go Mongolia film entry claims national outcomes, such as trade turnover and a credit upgrade, that a film alone could not plausibly cause. Juries weigh that kind of claim carefully.
The table tells you what happened. It does not tell you why. For that, each campaign has to be read against the seven things juries reward: what it got right, and where it fell short. Our view, based on the public record, starts with the one that got furthest.
Goyol: Best Dressed Nation
Shortlisted, PR Lions, Cultural Engagement, 2026. Produced with Serenity Magazine and entered with the National Olympic Committee of Mongolia.
Mongolia has never won a Winter Olympic medal and sent three athletes to Milano Cortina. Goyol, which won the uniform tender, went back to the 13th-century deel, handmade from cashmere and yak down, under the line “What we carried through winter, we carry to the world.” Goyol reports 111 million earned media views, 7.72 million engagements, USD 2 million in earned media value and a 1,178% rise in online sales, with coverage from the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, NBC and Reuters.
What is working
The idea is instantly clear. “How Mongolia won the Olympics without a medal” explains itself in one line. Any juror gets it in seconds.
The brand has every right to the story. Goyol makes cashmere; the uniform is the product. Nothing is borrowed.
It earned real fame. Coverage in global titles before Cannes matters. But fame is necessary, not sufficient: PR juries want to see what the coverage changed.
It reported a business result. Most local campaigns stop at reach. Goyol at least claims sales.
What is not working
The public proof is incomplete. A 1,178% sales rise with no period or starting point invites doubt. Jurors have long warned that results that look overblown can hurt an entry. Earned media value has no stated method. And four of the five headline figures measure attention; only the sales figure is business evidence. The entry itself may have included more detail; the public materials do not.
The territory may have felt familiar. Olympic uniforms get coverage every Games, and Mongolia’s own 2024 uniforms were already a global story. A jury may have needed convincing that this was more than a great outfit.
The business story stops at the Games. Nothing public yet shows what happened to exports, international orders, or distribution afterward. That is the question a Lion-winning case answers.
Our view: a genuine breakthrough that won attention on merit. It reached the shortlist on idea and fame. The clearest way to go further is stronger, verifiable proof of business impact.
Next entry: Creative Effectiveness Lions, 2027. Under current rules, the Creative Effectiveness Lions are open only to work shortlisted or awarded at Cannes in the previous three years, so Goyol’s shortlist should qualify it. Results count for 50% of the score, and the entry must explain “discounting factors”: anything else that could have driven the numbers. Best fit: Consumer Goods, or Breakthrough on a Budget. What it needs: dated sales before and after the Games, export inquiries and new stockists, and brand search data. Before submitting, a simple test helps: show the case film once to five senior people who did not work on it, then ask what the idea was, why Goyol could do it, and what they did not believe.
Go Mongolia
Brand film entered in Film Lions, 2026; not shortlisted. Built by Edelman with Mongolian agency Brainstorm; film produced by Mr+ Positive.
The government, supported by the World Bank, commissioned a nation brand to attract export-sector investment and tourism. The answer was hidden in the name: MonGOlia. It launched at Davos in January 2024, Mongolia opened one of the first three country pavilions in Cannes Lions history in 2025, and the work won Gold at the SABRE Awards Asia-Pacific.
What is working
The idea is ownable and simple. No other country can say “GO” from inside its own name.
It is a real platform. Davos, the pavilion, the film, embassy events: it works across tourism, trade and diplomacy, and it has lasted.
It wins where strategy is judged. Gold at SABRE, a PR and communications award, shows the strategic story lands with the right jury.
What is not working
The platform’s evidence
The proof does not match the goal. The main objective was investment, yet the headline numbers are about tourism. Tourism revenue is reported as USD 1.2 billion in some case studies and USD 1.5 billion in others, and the figures are unaudited.
Other causes are not addressed. A new United Airlines route from the US and the government’s “Years to Visit Mongolia” campaign also drove tourism. Lonely Planet’s 2024 top-country ranking is listed as an outcome but was published in October 2023, before the launch.
Continuity is fragile. The film’s own award entry says production nearly stopped when the government changed mid-shoot.
The film’s Cannes entry
The category worked against it. The film’s real value is as part of a national strategy, yet it competed on film craft and storytelling in Film Lions, against 1,468 other entries and the world’s biggest brands.
The film plays it safe. Landscapes, eagle hunters, city skylines: well crafted, but a format many national brands use. In a category judged on the film itself, that is a hard place to stand out.
Our view: a strong, ownable idea whose platform results are not yet proven to the standard Cannes now demands, and whose film was entered where its strengths count least. The ingredients for an award exist; the entry strategy did not use them.
Next entry: Creative Strategy Lions, Long-Term Strategy. That category is built for platforms that run over years, and judges insight and interpretation of the challenge, where Go Mongolia is strongest. It only works with one agreed set of figures, an investment metric such as qualified investor inquiries, and an honest account of other factors like new flights. It is not eligible for Creative Effectiveness, because it has not yet been shortlisted. Note that Cannes does not allow work to be re-entered into a Lion where it was entered before, so neither campaign can simply go back into Film or PR.
Where Mongolia can compete?
Mongolia will not outspend global brands, and it should not try. Its edge is what others cannot copy: a living nomadic culture, extreme climate, a young and digital population, and the habit of doing a lot with very little. Here is our honest view of which territories give Mongolian brands a real chance, and where to enter.
The common thread: Mongolia competes best where culture or a real local problem is the idea, and where the category rewards insight and impact over production budget.
The opening for other brands: stop saying, start doing. The clearest trend in recent winners is a shift from message to intervention. Kenya’s Too Good paid farmers instead of advertising milk safety. AXA won the 2025 Titanium Grand Prix by adding three words, “and domestic violence,” to its home insurance cover. Peruvian bank BCP turned its payment terminals into emergency points for blocking stolen-phone bank access, and won the 2026 Creative Data Grand Prix. None of these needed a big media budget. Each used something the brand already owned: a contract, a network, a supply chain.
Mongolian brands own similar assets. An insurer could add dzud protection that actually pays out when herds are lost. A bank or telecom could use its network to reach herders no one else can. A cashmere brand could prove where every fiber comes from. Heritage brands can also follow KitKat, whose 2025 Outdoor Grand Prix simply applied its 50-year-old “Have a break” line to phone scrolling: an old brand truth made newly relevant.
One test applies to all of them: would the idea fall apart if you changed the logo? If not, keep looking. These are business problems worth solving for their own sake; if a brand solves one and can prove it, the Sustainable Development Goals, Glass, Creative Strategy and Creative Data Lions are where that impact is judged.
Takeaways
Mongolia already has the ideas. What it lacks is the proof, the right category, and the patience.
Mongolia’s strengths are real. Both campaigns are strongest on the problem and the idea, matching Kenya’s Grand Prix winner. Cultural material and simple, ownable ideas are not the bottleneck.
Proof is the gap between a shortlist and a Lion. In PR, Strategy and Effectiveness, results must answer the objective and be verifiable: Goyol needed a baseline, and the Go Mongolia platform needed numbers that matched its goal. In Film, the film itself has to be extraordinary; no case can rescue an average one.
Category is strategy. The same work can win in one category and vanish in another. Enter where your real strength is judged.
The fastest route to the first Lion is already open. Under current rules, Goyol’s shortlist qualifies it for the Creative Effectiveness Lions, if the sales evidence is gathered now.
Clients decide most of this. The brief, the approval, the measurement, and the budget for re-entry all sit with the brand. If you sign briefs, the next Mongolian Lion starts with you.
Sources
Cannes Lions: Creative Effectiveness Lions, what you need to know
Cannes Lions: Creative Strategy Lions, what you need to know
WARC: Government of Mongolia, Go MonGOlia (SABRE Awards APAC, Gold)
Contagious: Cannes Lions 2026 Sustainable Development Goals winners
Campaign Asia: interview with Enkhbayasgalan Tungalag, Mongolia’s first Cannes juror
Campaign Brief Asia: 2026 Film Lions shortlist, Asian entries
Bizcommunity: The Partnership Agency wins Bronze in Creative Strategy
AdNews: Cannes Lions 2026 day three winners, including PR Lions entry numbers
Cannes Lions: 2025 final winners, including AXA “Three Words”
Cannes Lions: 2025 first winners, including KitKat “Phone Break”
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