Creative Effectiveness in 2025: Lessons from Cannes
Consistency, humour, disruption and authenticity emerged as the winning formulas at this year’s Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions. But the role of AI in proving measurable impact remains unresolved.
At the Cannes Lions Festival 2025, the Creative Effectiveness category once again offered a rare lens on what truly drives brand growth. The winners, analysed in WARC’s latest report, reveal a blueprint: compound creativity, humour, market disruption, and cultural authenticity. While AI loomed large across the festival, the jury found fewer cases where it demonstrably moved the needle on effectiveness. These awards are not just about creative showmanship; they are about linking bold ideas to real-world outcomes. In an industry still wrestling with the balance between short-term sales activation and long-term brand building, The Creative Effectiveness Lions provide a unique vantage point. They highlight which ideas endure, which merely sparkle briefly, and which shift markets.
The Shape of Effectiveness in 2025
The Creative Effectiveness Lions matter because they reward campaigns that not only dazzle creatively but also deliver measurable, sustained business results. As Andrea Diquez, Global CEO of GUT and jury president, put it: “We wanted to recognise work that solves real business and societal challenges and celebrate the brands that make themselves part of the ideas they put into the world.”
This year’s jury, diverse in geography and discipline, evaluated 17 winners from nine countries. They looked for ideas that were not only bold and brave but also culturally authentic and commercially impactful.
Most of all, we wanted the work to feel authentic and be seen by other brands as clear evidence that breakthrough creativity works.”
Andrea Diquez, Global CEO of GUT
The campaigns that last are those that adapt while staying true to their core. This is why Apple could roll out 50 region-specific versions of Shot on iPhone without diluting the concept, and why Dove could integrate influencers and new media channels while staying faithful to Real Beauty’s core message.
If there was one theme that dominated the 2025 winners, it was the power of consistency. System1 research, presented by Andrew Tindall at Cannes, showed that the most consistent brands achieved on average 27% more large brand effects and 28% more large business effects. This is an 'effectiveness goldmine.'
The Grand Prix went to Apple’s long-running 'Shot on iPhone' campaign. Over a decade, it delivered 14 billion views and a five-point gain in global market share. The concept was simple but enduring: showcase what the iPhone camera can do, without showing the device itself. As James Hurman put it in WARC’s Eff Bomb column, 'It ticks every effectiveness box.'
Similarly, Dove’s 'Real Beauty' platform, launched in 2004 and awarded silver this year, has generated over $28 billion in incremental revenue. By consistently focusing on women’s self-esteem, Dove grew faster than competitors and became one of the world’s most efficient brands in driving results.
Fun is a serious business
Humour made a comeback. After years of being dismissed as frivolous, it proved to be a serious driver of results. A Martin Agency study found that 72% of consumers would choose a brand that uses humour, and 91% prefer brands that make them laugh.
Specsavers’ gold-winning 'Misheard Version' campaign re-recorded Rick Astley’s 'Never Gonna Give You Up' with misheard lyrics. It turned into a national hearing test, leading to a 1,220% increase in hearing test bookings and 19% growth in hearing aid sales. The jury laughed and rewarded accordingly.
Other winners leaned into fun too: CeraVe’s 'Michael CeraVe' generated 32 billion impressions, Sheba’s 'Gravy Race' delivered $21.9m in sales, and Xbox’s 'Everyday Tactician' blurred the line between gaming and real-world football jobs.
Going against the grain
Disruption & Cultural Risk-Taking Tebogo Skwambane of WPP in South Africa stressed that disruption is contextual: ‘It is not disruption for its own sake, but disruption that reframes the rules of the category.’
Magnum’s winter campaign, for example, did not just play against seasonality it shifted media behaviour through geo-tagged billboards that showed where sunlight would appear. This created an entirely new media ritual for consumers. Magnum’s 'Find Your Summer' encouraged Britons to eat ice cream in winter, growing sales by 66%.
Another clear theme was market disruption. Brands that challenged category norms reaped outsized results. Vaseline’s 'Transition Body Lotion' co-created with trans women disrupted Thai skincare, driving a 52% increase in sales. McDonald’s Japan’s 'No Smiles' overturned decades of enforced cheerfulness, boosting job applications by 146%.
Authenticity and Social Resonance These campaigns avoided the trap of tokenism by embedding themselves in real issues. McDonald’s Japan’s decision to abandon the 'zero yen smile' was not simply a recruitment tactic it was a recognition that Gen Z employees wanted to bring their authentic selves to work.
The role of AI
The Elephant in the Jury Room Yet the paradox of AI remains it is omnipresent in creative development, but elusive in proof of effectiveness. Campaigns like Heinz’s hyper-personalised ads show its production power, but the jury’s reluctance to award AI-heavy work suggests scepticism about its incremental impact.
‘AI gives us new brushes, but the hand that paints must still belong to a human.’The challenge for marketers is to move beyond integrating AI into creative processes to proving its quantifiable impact on effectiveness.”
Artificial intelligence was everywhere in Cannes, yet its role in effectiveness proved elusive
Dr. Babs Faseesin, SVP Strategy Starcom USA
Campaigns from Heinz to L’Oréal used AI for personalisation and insight, but few could show effectiveness metrics directly linked to AI. Mercado Libre’s 'Handshake Hunt' which used AI to detect handshakes on live TV to trigger discounts was one exception.
What Marketers Should Take Away For agencies and CMOs, the advice is pragmatic: consistency wins, humour humanises, disruption differentiates, and authenticity anchors. The campaigns that triumphed at Cannes Lions were those that wove these elements together into coherent stories that could be explained simply yet carried emotional weight. For investors, boards and procurement officers, this is a reminder that great creative work is not indulgence but disciplined long-term brand investment.
“Focus your energy on telling the jury the story of the campaign’s impact. Connect your results to your objectives, keep it simple, make it interesting.”
John Bizzell, Awards Lead at WARC,
The jury’s verdict shows that bravery, cultural relevance, humour and consistency are not optional extras but core levers of effectiveness. And while AI’s future role is significant, it will only count once it demonstrably drives outcomes.
Conclusion
Towards a New Effectiveness Compact The jury’s emphasis on bravery and authenticity points towards a marketing landscape where safe bets will deliver diminishing returns. In a fragmented media environment, only ideas that combine emotional depth with cultural edge will cut through. The next Cannes Effectiveness Lions may well feature more AI-driven campaigns, but unless they connect to business results with the clarity of Dove or Apple, they will remain curiosities rather than benchmarks.
The 2025 Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions confirmed what many in marketing already suspected: the age of micro-termism is ending. Brands that commit to platforms, embrace humour, disrupt conventions, and connect authentically will build durable advantage. AI may accelerate processes, but for now, the heart of effectiveness still beats in human creativity and cultural courage.
