A week is a long time at Cannes Lions
June 30, 2025
At the end of a long, hot Cannes Lions week I sat chatting over a morning coffee and croissant with a creative client as they mused whether this was still a festival of creativity
There were certainly moments this Cannes Lions when it felt like the world was on fire but everyone in the rosé bubble could act like all was fine.
Inevitably by the Wednesday – my Cannes Lions doom day – the exhaustion and existential angst start to bite. The extravagance, the million-dollar stars, the fawning, the bragging, the corporate speak, the disconnect from the real world and the sheer scale of it all. It starts to take its toll. As a friend said to me before I flew, if it wasn’t in Cannes, no one would suffer it. But, well, you know, the sun, the beach, the restaurants, the vibe – it all helps.
So yes, Cannes Lions can be horrible and yet – it is still glorious.
In one week, you hear more people talk about more things than a year of trudging the conferences and networking events back home will give you. Whether it’s a panel in a laid-back café – shout out to the excellent WACL Gender balance leadership isn’t ‘woke’– it’s winning or a sports megastar on the Palais’ mainstage – I happily fangirled over Serena Williams talking about investing in female entrepreneurs creating community-based health and hygiene solutions – Cannes Lions gives a lot in five days.
Here are some of the standout themes:
- Adland’s uncomfortable relationship with AI. Publicly everyone says ‘play with it, embrace it’; mostly privately, people will tell you they’re scared. But never older creatives who fear looking out of touch. The worst-case scenarios of job losses were terrifying; as Dan Schulman, ex-president and CEO of PayPal said – the ramifications are profound and most of us aren’t ready for the new reality.
- Trump was everywhere and nowhere. Almost unmentioned on stage despite his impact on businesses globally – too scared of saying the wrong thing or just keen not to give him any oxygen; the jury was out.
- Several sessions followed a theme of big global brands being in trouble, unable to adapt to the current consumer and media climate. Created in entirely different times, they were failing to adapt and the change/disrupter brands were winning. Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at P&G, didn’t look too concerned being one of many marketers to champion consistency to build brands.
- Generations are a blunt tool focusing on milestones rather than mindsets (25% identify with a different generation to the one they’re born into). While inclusion is no longer the subject du jour for many organisations, one session argued for age inclusion to be as important as all other forms of inclusion. Just a shame it opened with the audience being asked for a show of hands as to who were millennials; who were gen Z; any gen alphas? – too soon. And so, it began, as if gen x (ahem) and boomers were an irrelevance.
- The business imperatives for brand purpose haven’t disappeared, but they’re not being talked about anymore in many corners. When purpose is, it’s being reframed. Richard Edelman, of Trust Barometer fame, argues its now moved from a ‘we’ focus to a ‘me’ focus.
- Sport is big business. Not just thanks to the dominance of Sports Beach and the raft of sports stars making an appearance but because sport is so interlinked with live experiences which were much discussed. Live experiences in a world of screens, streaming and disconnection are powerful. Real life events offer emotionally connected collective experiences – in-person and, when done well with pre- and post-event content – online, to maximise the effect. The amalgam of athlete/business person/influencer was a strong theme and one that may lead to more brands dealing directly with individual sportspeople over team collabs.
- As you would expect at a festival of creativity, the defence of long-term brand building when metrics tempt so much shorter-term performance marketing was robust. There was many a session proving the value of brand building advertising and how creativity – especially brave, risk-taking creative – gives those brands better financial returns.
- Photos are the new notetaking. The generation who writes things on paper – or even into a mobile or laptop – is rapidly disappearing. It was hard to see the screen for mobiles at times.
By Jane Bainbridge