CANNES LIONS 2025

Cannes Lions 2025 has gone down in history, leaving behind a predictable mix of declarations of courage, panels on authenticity, and behind-the-scenes conversations about how afraid everyone is to make decisions that might offend anyone. Expectations for so-called bold statements are waning, with only half of PR professionals believing that companies should engage in social issues (according to SC Annenberg’s 2025 Global Communication Report, ‘Mind the Gap’).

The rainbow disappears from the Croisette

This year, there was no rainbow over Cannes. Rather, there was a sense of embarrassment here and there as MAGA swept away the former enthusiasm of many brands to actively support the LGBTQ+ community. As Dr Marcus Collins (former head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy New York and former digital director for Beyoncé) put it, we now have ‘more corporate silence’. In his view, this shift reflects a deeper pattern in marketing: a disconnect between what brands say and what they are willing to stand for when it matters. Collins argues that part of the problem is that marketers often confuse popularity with culture, when culture is a system of meaning-making and popularity is a matter of prevalence. This misunderstanding leads to campaigns that chase virality but overlook the deeper context of the communities they are trying to reach. True cultural engagement requires understanding and contributing to the systems of meaning that shape people’s lives. I particularly like his statement that the word ‘belief’ means action. You can have a goal and fail to achieve it, but you cannot have a belief without being convinced.

For three years, PR professionals were asked whether companies should engage in social issues. Each year, the percentage of ‘yes’ responses has declined: from 89% in 2023 to 85% in 2024 and 52% in 2025. That’s a 37% drop in three years (data from SC Annenberg’s 2025 Global Communication Report, ‘Mind the Gap’). The reason for this dramatic shift is polarisation. It is becoming increasingly risky for companies to take a stand in a divided society. The data also shows a strong generational divide — younger people still believe in ‘purpose-driven PR’, while older people do so less and less.

Creativity: a verb we are afraid to conjugate

During the CMO Spotlight panel, Gülen Bengi, chief marketing officer at Mars, Incorporated, said, “Creativity is a verb.” Bengi explained that it is not a position or a department; it is an action for which everyone in the industry is responsible. Spot on!

Just as we no longer have a common cultural code as a society, we no longer have iconic advertisements. The famous ‘hoof’ created by PZL and Mumio has no chance of success in a reality where messages are super-precise, targeted and focused on efficiency. That’s why Marc Pritchard, Chief Commercial Officer at P&G, reminded us that the fundamentals of brand building haven’t changed and that it’s still important to build memory structures through consistency. Pritchard suggested that ‘building memory requires 10-30 seconds or more of attention to encode important brand information… Advertising campaigns are a proven way to build memory, and I’m talking about long-term brand campaigns, not short-term media buying campaigns.’ He continued: “Too often we change [the creative] because we think campaigns wear out. In fact, the opposite is true. Repetition is necessary for ideas to wear out, to build and reinforce memory… consumers don’t get tired of campaigns. In fact, repetition and consistency are required to stand out and be remembered amid all the clutter.‘

According to Mark Pritchard, digital content has ’taken over” the role of advertising. ‘We can’t seem to get enough of it. It’s easy to produce, and we’re trying to catch the algorithm as much as possible. But it’s just mindless content activity, too often lacking in craftsmanship. Consumers deserve the highest level of advertising craftsmanship, wherever and whenever our brands are expressed.’

At P&G, Mark Pritchard has redoubled his efforts to get marketers back to basics with a six-point checklist that he believes remains unchanged despite huge changes in how media is distributed, presented and consumed:

• ‘Know your customers better than anyone else.’
• ‘Find insights that matter.’
• ‘Know your brand better than anyone else – the fruit is in the roots.’
• ‘Consumers deserve our best craftsmanship, wherever and whenever the brand is expressed.’
• ‘Build memory with advertising.’
• ‘Build lasting creative relationships – it’s the key to creating the best creative work.’

Great, Mark, except that the latest data from The State of Creativity 2025 survey of 1,000 marketers and creatives shows that the industry is constrained by risk aversion, leading to poor performance and lower profits. Meanwhile, less than half of marketers believe their insights are strong enough to build something bold and different, and just over a tenth of the industry feels capable of responding quickly to ‘cultural moments.’ – with an approach that puts safety first and cumbersome, process-oriented hierarchical structures that leave money, profits and growth on the table, while more and more marketers struggle for short-term wins at the bottom of the funnel.

Nearly 90% of brands are afraid to take risks, resulting in marketing and communication that are equally risk-averse, and these bring significantly lower returns and profits (according to a survey of 1,000 marketers and creators for Cannes Lions). Brands that take risks and support bold, top-quality creative solutions generate four times higher profit margins (according to a WARC and Kantar study), while brands with a high appetite for creative risk are 33 per cent more likely to see long-term revenue growth (according to Deloitte).

Only 13 per cent said their insights were strong enough to do something interesting with them – although marketers tend to rate them higher than the agencies tasked with turning them into something good. The report found that the lack of high-quality insights exacerbates the sluggishness that prevents many large brands from responding to trends and cultural moments – often fleeting in nature and at odds with multi-layered structures and hierarchical processes.

According to the survey, 57 per cent of brands said they found it difficult to respond quickly enough to cultural moments, with only 12 per cent rating their ability to capitalise quickly highly – with risk aversion also a key inhibiting factor.

Last year, 53 per cent of marketers surveyed said they were increasingly focused on short-term wins; this year’s survey found that figure had risen to 63 per cent, meaning that just over a third of marketers prioritise long-term growth.

So we’re chasing our tails after all.

Wholesale personality exchange

‘They are everything,’ says Craig Brommers, CMO of American Eagle Outfitters, and TikTok calls them ‘marketers of the new era.’ Half of Unilever’s advertising budget is becoming ‘social-first,’ and the number of creators working with the company has increased twentyfold compared to previous years.

One of the most striking conclusions of the WPP Media report is the rapid growth of advertising revenue generated by creators (creator-driven), which is beginning to exceed the revenues of traditional media: television, radio and print. WPP Media forecasts that in 2025, 58% of global advertising revenue (USD 625 billion) will come from so-called “content-driven advertising. In this group, for the first time, revenue from advertising based on content created by users and digital creators will exceed that generated by professional editorial teams and productions.

The ‘many-to-many’ model is beginning to dominate, which is why influencers are flocking to Cannes today. These include those with ‘normal’ careers, such as Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds, as well as ‘native’ influencers popular among Generation Z. For those who are less well-known but on the verge of mega-reach, coming here is an investment calculated to gain direct contact with brands and, possibly, agencies. This is confirmed by intuition from my own backyard, where you achieve the greatest success not when you have a lot of views on YouTube or Spotify, but when you have your own hot dog at Żabka.

For old stars, it’s a chance for a ‘second youth’. I am most fascinated by such celebrity pivots – by putting themselves at the centre, they have become media outlets with millions of followers, sales platforms, franchise generators, and… the list goes on, there is no shortage of ideas here.

And so, during Cannes Lions, Jimmy Fallon announced a new reality show about marketing called ‘On Brand’. The programme will involve participants presenting marketing ideas to brands such as Dunkin’, KitchenAid, Pillsbury and Southwest Airlines. The winner will receive £100,000 and the chance to implement their idea in a real advertising campaign. ‘It’s basically a love letter to a brand. That’s what it’s all about. It gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind the big brands we all know,’ Fallon explained. He also emphasised that the programme is in line with the spirit of the younger generation, which seeks authenticity and transparency in its relationship with brands.

Reese Witherspoon (my favourite person with the most impressive personal brand repositioning) presented a sister project to her media empire Hello Sunshine – the Sunnie brand, aimed entirely at Generation Z. It is an initiative that aims to inspire young women through stories and experiences. Sunnie aspires to ‘build a community based on joy, curiosity and authentic self-expression’. The strategic partner of the project is e.l.f. Beauty, and the whole thing is being developed with the support of an advisory board consisting of 20 teenage girls.

Paris Hilton (whom I met on the promenade) has expanded her personal brand into new categories and today has an impressive portfolio of global media brands that include television, films, books, perfumes, fashion and her own line of skin care products. Paris has also teamed up with Motorola to revive the hype for the iconic flip phone from the 2000s. The celebrity has a children’s clothing line at Walmart and will be launching toys. In addition, she has said that she will follow in her family’s footsteps and go into the hotel business. Admit it, not bad for an icon of the ‘empty blonde’ stereotype.

When lead generation meets storytelling

New this year is the inauguration of the LIONS B2B Summit and the creation of a new hub for the B2B community at the Carlton in Cannes. Although B2B Lions has been discussed since 2013, it will not be launched until 2022. Meanwhile, by 2026, spending on B2B digital advertising is expected to almost triple its pre-pandemic level. The Brand Finance Top 150 B2B Brands 2024 index shows that the top 100 B2B brands increased their brand equity by 10% (a total of a quarter of a trillion dollars) compared to 2023. B2B brands now account for almost half of the companies on the Fortune Global 500 list. It is therefore no surprise that LinkedIn has become a strategic partner for the category.

Thanks to its presence in the main Cannes Lions programme, B2B communication, for years the ‘ugly sister’, was finally able to show its potential. Proof? GoDaddy’s sensational ‘Act Like You Know’ campaign, which won the Grand Prix in the Creative B2B category. It’s a very honest (and funny) look at the problems of small businesses, which, like actor Walton Goggins in the spot, have no idea how to market themselves (but sometimes pretend they do). In a marketing reality where (still) 81% of B2B ads fail to achieve the right level of engagement and memorability, campaigns like this are pure gold.

A grocery basket instead of prime time

Customers who traditionally attended the festival to discover places to spend their advertising money are themselves becoming advertising platforms. United Airlines celebrated the first anniversary of its new advertising network, Kinective, on board flights to Nice: ‘In 2024, we carried 174 million people, so we certainly have scale. By definition, these are not bots. These are real people,’ said Richard Nunn of United MileagePlus, expressing what is key today. And yes, the multitude of screens that customers interact with during a flight – from apps on their mobile devices to screens in the lounge, at the gate and on the plane – provides the company with a ‘multi-channel’ digital platform to reach people through marketing and advertising.

And the fact that I can’t escape from the plane seems to be an added bonus. Scattered across different platforms and media, we all meet while shopping for essentials at the local corner shop. Albertsons, a supermarket chain that appeared in Cannes with a grocery store activation, showed how it intends to combine physical and digital shopping.

The future of retail media looks more than bright, and the retail offering is ‘Not just transactions, but brand stories,’ according to Jen Saenz, Executive Director of Albertsons. There is a bit of spin in this, because the reality is simpler: Albertsons Media Collective is coming to Cannes Lions 2025 to launch a network of digital displays in stores.

However, it is doing so without any complexes at the world’s largest advertising festival. Food is now a new marketing platform with an unprecedented scale of importance. It has always been about selling goods on the shelf, but today it is an elaborate brand experience using multiple media and new technologies, infused with data about us.

‘The right place, the right message, the right channel becomes much easier when you have 10,000 feet of insight into who your customers are,’ summarised Sarah Leinberger of yoobi.

Companies with a large audience, such as various types of shops, pharmacies and travel companies, have developed their advertising activities as a way to earn more money and increase sales to their existing customers. According to the World Advertising Research Centre, by 2026, spending on retail websites, apps and in-store displays is expected to exceed spending on television advertising. Cannes Lions itself has also noted and monetised this trend by introducing a dedicated subcategory for retail media in both its Media and Creative Commerce Lions awards this year.

The marketing game of appearances

Cannes Lions 2025? It’s starting to look more and more like a well-managed hypermarket where everyone has their own stand, customer data, subscription models and mailing lists. Bold campaigns have turned into ‘purpose’ statements that are easier to hang up than to implement. Creativity? Still on the agenda, but wrapped up in safe formats just in case.

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