Gold Lions roar and platforms reveal AI plays
It also brought a smile to the faces of those who bumped into old friends from across the globe, which led to a meaningful catch-up or heartfelt conversations along the Croisette.
There were those who braved the long queues to access key panel discussions and beach activations, while others celebrated their latest metal cats on the red carpet outside The Palais.
Speaking of metal cats, the MENA region's tally of coveted Cannes Lions trophies has jumped from seven on Day 1 to 15 on Day 2, with BigTime Creative Shop leading the pack and contributing to five of the region's total tally with 2 Gold Lions, 1 Silver Lion, and 2 Bronze Lions.
The MENA wins include:
AUDIO AND RADIO CATEGORY:
1 GOLD LION, 1 SILVER LION
Campaign title: The Second Release
Agency: SRMG Labs, Riyadh
Client: Billboard Arabia, Riyadh
DESIGN CATEGORY:
1 SILVER LION
Campaign title: Sounds of the Land
Agency: SRMG Labs, Riyadh
Client: Billboard Arabia, Riyadh
DIGITAL CRAFT CATEGORY:
1 SILVER LION
Campaign title: The Shaded Route
Agency: VML, Riyadh
Client: Hungerstation
Campaign title: Agency: Client: Hungerstation 1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: Read Better
Agency: FP7 McCANN, Dubai / McCANN, Bristol
Client: Waterstones
DIGITAL CRAFT CATEGORY:
1 GOLD LION, 1 SILVER LION
Campaign title: The 4th Judge
Agency: BigTime Creative Shop, Riyadh
Client: The Ring
Campaign title: Agency: Client: The Ring 1 GOLD LION
Campaign title: Obsession
Agency: BigTime Creative Shop, Riyadh
Client: Riyadh Season
FILM CRAFT CATEGORY:
1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: Everything or Nothing
Agency: BigTime Creative Shop, Riyadh
Client: Riyadh Season
Campaign title: Agency: Client: Riyadh Season 1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: Obsession
Agency: BigTime Creative Shop, Riyadh
Client: Riyadh Season
HEALTH AND WELLNESS CATEGORY:
1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: The Shaded Route
Agency: VML Riyadh
Client: Hungerstation
OUTDOOR CATEGORY :
1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: The Shaded Route
Agency: VML Riyadh
Client: Hungerstation
Campaign title: Agency: Client: Hungerstation
1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: Not For First Dates
Agency: FP7 McCann Dubai
Client: McDonald's
PRINT AND PUBLISHING CATEGORY :
1 SILVER LION
Campaign title: NOTES ON NOTES
Agency: IMPACT BBDO, Dubai / AdPro& Jordan
Client: Capital Bank
Campaign title: Agency: IMPACT BBDO, Dubai / AdPro& Jordan Client: Capital Bank 1 BRONZE LION
Campaign title: THE GREAT INDIAN DUNK
Agency: LEO Dubai
Client: NBA India
Platforms claim their seconds in the spotlight
For those who brought their running shoes along, Day 2 began with a 6.1km run with the Strava Business Club, while others who preferred an early morning stretch chose the morning yoga session on The Terrace.
The morning then began with a fascinating panel discussion, which witnessed Elizabeth Rutledge, CMO, American Express; Aude Gandon, CMO, Nestlé; and Sumit Virmani, CMO, Infosys discuss the marketing priorities for the months to come; how CMOs must be good internal stakeholders, and measure and communicate the value of marketing within their businesses; and the new skills CMOs need to incorporate within a rapidly evolving brand and marketing landscape.
However, platforms – YouTube, TikTok, Meta, and Spotify – claimed the spotlight on Day 2 at Cannes Lions with key announcements.
YouTube: With the aim to continue connecting communities and content creators with advertisers, YouTube has released Open Call, a feature within the platform's Creator Partnerships hub, powered by the YouTube BrandConnect tool, which permits brands to discover and partner with creators at scale.
Through this feature, brands and advertisers will now be able to share a creative brief listing the requirements of their campaign. This will allow multiple content creators within the YouTube Partner Programme the ability to pitch to the advertisers with video content created and designed specifically for that campaign. Once the brands and advertisers view, review and approve the host of video submissions, then the promotions or the partnership ads get activated.
In conversation with Campaign Middle East at Cannes, Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, Director of Product Management for YouTube Ads, said, 'It's really about the creators and the authentic content that they're making that resonates with YouTubers and the communities. In particular, with Open Call and Creator Partnerships hub, it's really about bringing brands alongside to find creators who can tell their stories authentically, while giving creators of all different sizes an opportunity. We think there's a lot of power in that, providing people with a lot more ways to connect with brands.'
Watch her take on how the ROI on this is measured in the link below.
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TikTok: At this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, TikTok unveiled updates to TikTok Symphony, its suite of generative AI tools designed to streamline creative production and spark bold new ideas. These new updates aim to make scaling on TikTok faster, easier and more efficient.
With Symphony Image-to-Video, TikTok will bring static images to life to help unlock new creative formats, generate multiple variations of existing on-brand content or bring a full product catalogue to life. Next, with Symphony Text-to-Video, all it takes is short text prompt to bring an idea to life, enabling advertisers to rapidly generate, test and iterate on a range of creative executions or customise content at scale.
Finally, with Symphony Showcase Products, advertisers will be able to place their products front-and-centre by showcasing them with digital avatars. This gives marketers a new way to feature a product in TikTok-first creative content.
Commenting on these new features, Andy Yang, Global Head of Creative and Brand Products, said, 'We're entering a new era of creativity, one where ideas move at the speed of culture, and where AI doesn't replace imagination but rather accelerates it. With TikTok Symphony, we're empowering a global community of marketers, brands, and creators to tell stories that resonate, scale, and drive impact on TikTok. By blending cutting-edge technology with human creativity, we're building a new creative standard, one that's more accessible, more agile, and more inspiring than ever before.'
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Meta: Cannes Lions 2025 also witnessed Meta announcing a bevy of AI-powered features, including AI agents integrated into advertisements, which permits users to chat with an advertisers' bot immediately when clicking on an ad. In addition to merging creatives with conversational commerce, Meta also showcases ways for brands and advertisers to set up these AI agents on Messenger and WhatsApp through smart prompts. They also highlighted how performance insights can be derived to hold the 'AI agents' accountable to their knowledge and usefulness.
Additionally, Meta also revealed voice-activated business AI agents, which opens out the possibility for customers to query branded business bots – especially for users who don't like typing and want a faster, hands-free experience. Add to this Meta's AI-powered translation tools, which further bring empower copy and creatives by translating ad content in 10 global languages, therefore, enabling advertisers to take their campaigns global faster. The number of languages that Meta's AI can translate is set to double by the end of 2025.
Similar to TikTok, Meta is also rolling out an AI-powered image-to-video ad tool across Facebook and Instagram. Through this tool marketers will now be able to convert up to 20 static product imagess into multi-scene videos with music and subtitles right in the ad interface.
WhatsApp: Advertisers can now become channel owners and run ads within their WhatsApp Status, unlocking a new ad revenue model inside the application. Meta is also reportedly testing native ads inside the WhatsApp Updates tab, making it the first time ads will appear inside WhatsApp rather than as a click-through from Instagram or Facebook. However, these chats and channels will be clearly differentiated from the encrypted personal chats, the company clarified.
Spotify: Right before Cannes, Spotify revealed two new initiatives to help brands further tap into Spotify's creative playground: the Creative Lab Hub and its inaugural Creative Council. The Creative Lab Hub is a new global destination where brands and advertisers can access Spotify Advertising's most effective tools, formats, and insights — making it easier to create breakthrough campaigns.
Meanwhile, its Creative Council brings together industry-leading creatives to help shape the future of advertising and brand storytelling on Spotify. This group includes top creative leads from agencies including R/GA, BBDO, McCann, Anomaly, VML, and GUT, as well as brand leaders from Ulta, AG1, and Coca-Cola.
Where are the conversations happening?
Meanwhile, Campaign Middle East continues its coverage live from Cannes Lions 2025, conversing with top leaders such as Reda Raad, Group CEO of TBWA\RAAD, and Tom Otton, CEO of Create. Group.
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Tune into Campaign Middle East's social media channels to stay updated on the latest of what's happening at The Palais, the Rotonde, The Carlton Hotel and stay tuned for exciting events at the Campaign House Hilton Canopy.
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