Cannes 2025: That's A Wrap! 9 Top Industry Voices Report

Forbes

30-06-2025

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: Spectacular setting for the ad industry to ... More set the future and celebrate great work
Herein, a fuller report than most, with insights and takeaways from the Cannes International Festival of Creativity 2025, all in one place, gathered from the industry's top agency creatives, marketers, ad tech trail blazers and other leaders on answers to my questions on what they heard, saw, learned and want more of.
Read on for learnings on AI, creativity, platforms, what's happening with the holding companies, CTV, ad tech, what surprised people the most and much more:Susan Credle
Global Creative Advisor, InterPublic
Former Global Chair & CCO of FCB
The good news: Tech, data, platforms and AI language finally took a backseat to a consistent declaration: creativity is the human additive that will give real economic value to our rapidly commoditizing businesses.
The bad news: No one was asking the harder question — Why aren't creative businesses and people valued economically? And more importantly, how does that business model change, ASAP?
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The yachts anchored next to the Palais des Festivals were dialed down this year. They seemed less like floating parties and more like quiet respites from the chaos of the beach — that sand in front of the Mediterranean you can hardly see anymore. While the perception of yachts remains indulgent, the reality is they remind me of what the piers in front of the hotels used to be: intimate spaces for quiet, important conversations that build relationships lasting long after the festival breaks down and Cannes returns to a lovely seaside town in the South of France.
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What still irks me is how many people tied to the creative side of this industry skip the Palais each night — we miss the celebration of the work that should make this festival matter. Worse, we plan parties and dinners during the show. If we, the stewards of creativity, don't value the original purpose of Cannes, why would anyone else? Next year, let's set a better example: Go to the shows. See the work. Celebrate it. It's why we're here. Or it should be.
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The Carlton took the Carlton to the next level this year — at times, it felt like the first vestibule of Dante's Inferno. And the quiet Majestic I once retreated to now feels like the old Carlton. (I hear the Mondrian was less of a Charlie Foxtrot, but I'll let someone else confirm that.)
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My favorite moments were the small gatherings with clients discussing the work that was winning at Cannes. Be it a tour of the work in the basement of the Palais or small gatherings with a focused conversation leading to vulnerable Q&A moments. Did we agree? Disagree? Were our apertures widened about what creativity can do — solving business problems, creating opportunities, building brands? Would we rethink our partnerships? Were we inspired? Were we in this together? The body language leaning forward seemed to say, yes.Nick Law
Creative Chairperson
Accenture Song
What I saw in Cannes
I can't remember a Cannes being so divided into three worlds - the tech platforms, the agencies and the brands. The platforms were bubbling with optimism as they demonstrated more concrete creative applications of genAI. The agencies felt lost, unable to articulate a coherent model for a future that is arriving too fast. And the brands seemed to be watching and waiting with a detached curiosity.
What I heard most often
'AI needs humans.' A handwavy statement that is true, but achingly unspecific. The details of what we make, who makes it and how we make it, are still fuzzy. (Incidentally, I tried to answer these questions in my presentation on stage at the Palais on the afternoon of June 19.)
What surprised me the most
The mindboggling progress of the AI video generators. The creative control and production values of engines like Veo 3 leave no doubt that soon almost every video will be made without a camera. Next Cannes we'll have a much better idea of how this changes what we see in our feeds, what our jobs look like and how our businesses will compete.David Shing, Best Known as 'Shingy'
Digital Prophet & Storyteller
What I heard the most:
AI, of course. But not in the way it will change creativity—more like how it might replace it. That's the wrong question. The right one? How can AI unbox us from decades of dusty workflows, overproduced sameness, and rinse-repeat formats?
I argued for something different: let's not use new tools to recreate the same old cage. Let's use them to break it. Let's use AI to breathe—because creativity needs oxygen, not automation.
What I saw the most
White linen. Influencers in pastel. Ad tech throwing parties that don't mention tech. But amidst the haze, the work that stood out whispered instead of screamed. A train ticket that doubles as a lottery ticket. A KitKat replacing a phone in your hand. Vaseline verifying the unfiltered. Subtitles designed with intention, not as an afterthought.
Each one a heartbeat.
Each one solving something real.
What I learned
That sometimes, the best work hides in plain sight.
Not on stage, but in the quiet genius of the Titanium shortlist. Not in the panels about 'authentic audiences,' but in the pavement art that made me pause mid-scroll.
The future isn't more noise. It's better signal.
What surprised me the most
That we're still talking about 'authenticity' like it's a trend, not a truth.
That we invite creators to panels but don't always treat them like co-conspirators in invention.
That no one seems to notice—we've already entered a post-interface era.
The best brand experiences won't be seen. They'll be felt.
What I want to see more of next year:
Less orchestration. More improvisation.
Less 'innovation theater.' More soulful utility.
Less 'build it for culture.' More 'build it from culture.'
And maybe—just maybe—someone brave enough to show up with nothing to sell but something to say.Kerel Cooper
CMO
GumGum
What I heard most often in Cannes
Two themes kept popping up: consumer attention and emotional connection. There's this growing need to not just get eyeballs but to mean something to the people consuming the content. Marketers are trying to bridge performance with real emotional resonance. It's no longer just about reach, it's about impact.
What I saw most often
This one is easy - content! You couldn't walk a block without running into a panel, a recording, a creator with a camera crew or some branded moment happening in the background. And not just fluff—there was actually a lot of thoughtful stuff happening. But with so much going on, the real challenge was figuring out where to be and when.
What I learned
CTV standardization stood out. While industry demand is growing, a lack of standards is slowing adoption. That's something we as an industry must address as the potential of the channel grows.
What surprised me the most
Of course, the beach was full of activations as usual, but there seemed to be many more restaurant and store takeovers this year by both brands and tech companies.
What I want to see more of next year
There was lots of talk about AI moving beyond simply streamlining workflows to usage in publishing technology and creatives. I'd like to see more concrete use cases and case studies of how this is working in practice next year.Famous red carpet at the Palais des Festivals where every creative wants to hold a Lion
Antonia Faulkner
Head of Corporate Communications & Ads Marketing, Analytics and Insights EMEA
Samsung Ads
What I heard most often
AI was certainly a hot topic and it is exciting to see its capabilities in making ad tech more effective in terms of optimization and targeting. There was a lot of talk about its role in creativity, but I don't think AI can replace it. Authentic stories are created by people, not AI.
What I saw most often
It was great to see more creators present, redefining what content—and more specifically TV content—is. Chef and creator Ian Fujimoto joined a panel we hosted which described how CTV and streaming platforms are reshaping the traditional 'television show,' bringing a new world of creative and commercial opportunity. Streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney also had a larger presence this year, and so it's great to see TV in all its shapes and forms taking center stage.
What I learned
TV is having a real renaissance, and this is a great time to be working in this space. There is so much buzz about the possibilities around TV.
What surprised me the most
As per what I said above, just the sheer number of creators this year was a driving force—instead of just attending, creators were actively involved in keynotes, collaborations and shaping the event's agenda. The festival's introduction of creator and start-up passes a few years back has clearly led to a shift in the event's dynamics, with this group now playing a more central role.
What I want to see more of next year
More creativity in TV advertising. I want to see brands getting more experimental and truly harnessing all the capabilities that come with CTV.Taylor Guglielmo
President
Chemistry
Cannes was, as one might predict, a crescendo of 2025 trend-chasing, hitting the high notes with extra color, more candor and much better views. It reinforced what I know, but even more so, it set me to brace for what I don't know. My favorite truth of the week (outside of Jeff Goodby's mic-dropping that fear and jealousy are essential in this biz) was that when it comes to AI, we're all in danger of looking the wrong way. Everyone's talking about how to use AI to market. But no one's ready for when we have to market to AI
I went to Cannes expecting to learn-and-burn (southern girls don't sweat, they glisten), but I didn't expect the airport. The AIRPORT. The great equalizer where all of us marketing-obsessed masters of corporate sports are stripped of our accolades and VIP positions and find ourselves in the exact same boat. A lovely metaphor for marketing as a whole this year, actually, at least in part. We come to Cannes to network, and some of the best networking happens while you're waiting, and waiting, and waiting in line with peers and role models who, in between airline announcements, put their brands down and commiserate with glorious adland war stories—wild pitches, creative miracles, marriage proposals, accidental espionage and every charmingly self-effacing tale in between. Cannes is about the work. But it's also about the people behind the work. The cultures behind the cultures. The best conversations, insights and connections don't always happen at the Palais or in planned meetings, they happen at gate C12.Katy Hornaday
CEO
BarkleyOKRP
What I heard the most
AI was the headliner—again—but this year the conversation matured. It wasn't just 'look what it can do,' it was 'look how we should be using it.' Clients now expect agencies to be fluent in AI across workflow, data and content creation. The best creative teams are figuring out how to use these tools not just for efficiency, but for personalization and real brand-building. Craft, taste and great ideas matter more than ever, especially now that it's incredibly easy to flood the world with mediocre content.
What I saw the most
The festival is increasingly leaning into trade show style noise, with multimillion-dollar stages, beach houses and over-the-top activations everywhere. Yet for many of us, the most valuable conversations happened in smaller, private forums, intimate gatherings and meetings with clients, peers and press. It'll be interesting to see if this sparks a shift toward more thoughtful, focused experiences at Cannes. I think we'd all welcome that.
What I learned
Integrating creativity and media is still a giant opportunity. The best work—the kind that wins at Cannes—doesn't separate the two. The real task ahead is in smashing those silos: media, strategy, data and creative working as one from the jump.
What surprised me the most
The growing skepticism around the holding company model. Aside from Publicis, the energy around the big networks felt...jittery. Between leadership uncertainty, structural shake-ups and looming mergers, there's real vulnerability there, and that might mean big talent (and clients) shifts in the future.
What I want to see more of next year
More work that connects marketing to business outcomes. This old line, 'I'm wasting half my budget, I just don't know which half,' was repeated a lot last week. CMOs are more willing than ever to experiment, but they're hungry for results, not just vibes. The future belongs to those who can measure creative impact and make it repeatable.
Le Vieux Port where yachts berth for parties, content and networking
Natalie Silverstein
Chief Innovation Officer, Collectively
The Brandtech Group
What I saw
I've seen creators start to play a bigger and bigger role at Cannes over the past several years, and it definitely felt like they've finally been fully embraced across the festival. Walking up and down the Croisette, I ran into so many creators we work with. Marketers across the spectrum were talking about seeing big creators as important multiplatform media partners.
I personally had a lot of conversations about what's ahead at the intersection of generative AI and the creator economy. From digital twins, synthetic creators and 0 to 1 video in social feeds to deeper measurement through LLMs and personalization of creator media at scale, there's no doubt that we'll see a ton of innovation in the year ahead.
What I heard
Gen AI isn't going to negate the need for human creativity. Instead, we're going to see totally new skillsets and novel applications of foundational storytelling experience emerge.Carole Irgang
President/Founder
Red Shoes Marketing
Former SVP Marketing at Kraft Foods and GoDaddy
What I heard
A lot of healthy discussion about the human element and the need for it given AI. So, while we all run to test, learn and activate with every form of AI, the outcry was to elevate the human element or 'human-ness' that is required to drive the nuance and empathy that AI often misses. This is an encouraging sign. Let's let AI do the grunt work, the data sorting and analysis, and let's let the humans bring pure creativity and new thinking to the table. It could be a best of both worlds if we manage this right.
What I saw
The Festival has gotten very commercial and while that's good for the Lions' business, it takes some of the objectivity and authenticity away from the experience. It has become too much of a world of have and have-nots, access and no access, VIPs and just regular Joes. Somehow, that doesn't feel right for an industry that wants to open its messages to the world and drive growth. Cannes Lions seems to be embracing growth for the biggest spenders or biggest brand titles.
What I learned
People are what makes his industry great. Meeting old friends and finding new ones is what got me excited all week. Every conversation was a new stimulation to another POV, perspective and idea. Our differences and openness to connect is what makes being in this business wonderful. That's a spirit that will never die.
What surprised me the most
Despite a chaotic global economy, brand spending reductions and a cautious outlook on growth, the spending and cash was flowing, flowing, flowing. The activations on the beach were outrageous (in a good way) and must have cost a fortune. The dinners, yachts and free-flowing extravagance seemed somewhat out of sync with current business conditions.
What I want to see more of next year
Less content, but longer richer discussions. Too many 15- and 30-minute panels that took two hours to get into and not enough time to really get deep on topics. This is an industry that thrives on curiosity and creativity, and I would love to see more time to dive deep and explore.