As another Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity draws to a close, one thing is clear: this year’s conversations were less about predicting the future and more about defining how the industry moves forward.
From the rise of the creator economy and commerce media to AI’s evolving role, trusted advertising environments and a renewed focus on measurable business outcomes, industry leaders agreed that marketing is entering a more mature phase, one where execution matters more than hype.
Here’s what they took away from this year’s festival.
Creators take centre stage
For Olly Lewis, Head of Agency and Senior Vice President at StudioB, creators were impossible to ignore.
“This year, Cannes Lions felt like a world for creators. With more than 1,000 of them at the festival this year, it’s evident that creators are no longer competing for attention. They have earned it and are here to stay. In fact, for the first time ever at Cannes, every session and panel I attended ultimately circled back to creators, underscoring their increasing importance in our industry.”
Lewis also highlighted StudioB’s own presence at the festival, noting that the company became the first creator-led solution to advertise out of home at Cannes.
“The takeaway from this is clear. Everyone needs to start thinking more like a creator if they want to see results. We have seen first-hand that marketing executives have been lining up to speak with creators this week, looking to understand how to build owned attention in a meaningful, lasting way, using the sustained co-authored collaborations that creators are known for. From building new IP to using scripted, episodic content and franchises, the possibilities feel endless at the moment.”
AI grows up
Artificial intelligence remained one of the dominant topics throughout the festival, but many felt the discussion had evolved beyond excitement and speculation.
Lewis said AI is increasingly viewed as a practical creative tool rather than a replacement for human creativity.
“The definitive message was that AI technology is not replacing human storytelling, but it is allowing us to operate faster, test and learn, and storyboard and script in new, more efficient ways. Ultimately, lived experiences will always be what tells stories for brands, but having AI in your toolbox still has a number of real benefits.”
Richard Davis, CEO and co-founder of 51toCarbonZero, agreed that the industry’s AI conversation is becoming more grounded.
“I came away with a sense of AI fatigue. The conversation is becoming more grounded, with less focus on hype and more on practical questions around cost, implementation and long-term value. Increasingly, businesses aren’t asking whether to adopt AI, but how to do so in a way that’s commercially and environmentally sustainable.”
Lily Cloake, Global Head of Subscription Marketing & Sales at Bloomberg Media, also believes the conversation has matured, with AI now viewed as a practical tool that enhances, rather than replaces, human expertise.
“The industry is beginning to see AI as an asset that helps people work more efficiently, make better decisions and amplify human expertise. I especially loved the phrase ‘robot hands’, which I heard at the Croisette, as it perfectly captured the idea of being deeply human while also becoming brilliant at using AI tools to support and amplify those uniquely human skills.”
Maor Sadra, CEO and Co-founder of INCRMNTAL, believes AI has now become foundational rather than transformational.
“Cannes was extra hot this year, and I’m not talking about the record-breaking heatwave. The real heat was the wave of strategic acquisitions announced, and the number of companies scrambling to find their footing in the zero-click AI reality we’re now living in. AI has quietly become the default engine driving intelligence in our industry, and data is the oil it runs on. The companies that figure out how to refine that oil, not just hoard it, are the ones who’ll still be standing when the next heatwave rolls in.”
Trust, attention and measurable outcomes
While AI dominated headlines, many attendees argued that the industry’s fundamentals remain unchanged.
Charmaine Tavassoly Moss, Programmatic Business Development Lead Europe at Bauer Media Outdoor, said Cannes highlighted the growing importance of trust in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
“One of the strongest themes to emerge from Cannes Lions this year was the growing importance of trust and brand coherence in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. While AI dominated conversations across the Croisette, the discussion wasn’t simply about automation or scale. It was about how brands remain discoverable, credible and consistent as consumers engage with a widening range of channels and platforms.”
She argued that this reinforces the value of premium advertising environments.
“As marketers navigate greater complexity, trusted channels that deliver transparency, accountability and real-world attention are becoming increasingly important. Programmatic Out of Home continues to stand apart in this respect, providing brands with a visible, brand-safe presence in public spaces where audiences can engage with messages in context.”
Moss added that scale alone is no longer enough.
“Success will come from combining creativity, contextual relevance and trusted environments to build lasting brand value. As the industry adapts to an AI-driven future, the fundamentals remain the same. Trusted media, strong creative ideas and genuine audience engagement will continue to be the foundations of effective advertising.”
Measurement takes centre stage
One of the clearest themes to emerge from Cannes was the growing pressure on marketers to demonstrate commercial impact.
Cloake believes return on investment became the common thread running through conversations across the festival.
“My biggest takeaway from Cannes Lions this year is that marketers are being asked to demonstrate measurable business impact more clearly than ever. ROI emerged as the throughline across every discussion, with growing recognition that marketers must prove the value of their investment while finding measures that bridge brand activity and meaningful commercial outcomes.”
Sophia Cao, Director of Strategic Partnerships at RTB House, said Cannes also reflected a growing reassessment of how campaign performance is measured.
“Cannes this year has put a microscope on traditional measurement metrics. While clicks, site visits and return on ad spend are useful, they may not tell the whole story. Advertisers run the risk of buying traffic without understanding whether these audiences have a genuine intent to purchase the product.”
“This week has proven that this accountability gap is closing. Technology has reached the point where optimising for meaningful, engaged visits is achievable. The brands and agencies making that shift are the ones getting the most value from their campaigns. RTB House has long led the way using Deep Learning to identify and accelerate real intent.”
Ed Wale, VP International at LG Ad Solutions, said conversations around connected TV reflected that same shift.
“Across many of the CTV conversations at Cannes, there was a clear shift from reach alone to demonstrating measurable business outcomes, with much of that discussion focused on where influence is actually created.”
He pointed to the connected TV home screen as an increasingly valuable point of consumer attention.
“The Home Screen is the first thing a viewer sees, before they’ve chosen a show and before they move into a lean-back environment. Throughout the week, this moment of discovery was recognised as a critical point in the journey, where attention is high and engagement begins before content starts. If one of the defining questions at Cannes this year was how to demonstrate measurable outcomes, the industry should arrive next June with a clearer understanding of how those early moments of discovery contribute to those outcomes.”
Meanwhile, Shane Buckley, Head of UKI Restaurants at Uber Advertising, believes commerce media has firmly established itself within the marketing ecosystem.
“It was promising to see such a strong commerce media presence at the Cannes Lions festival this year. In the last few years, commerce media has been building momentum at the event, and now it’s earned a real seat at the table.”
Buckley said conversations have shifted away from treating commerce media as an emerging channel and towards its broader contribution to brand growth.
“It’s not just about how commerce media networks show up on the media plan. There is a shift to how they are delivering on overall brand objectives, beyond performance metrics to the impact they have on overall market share or brand uplift. What were once simple capabilities, like measurement, are now more advanced and becoming commerce media’s greatest strengths, enabling these platforms to better showcase their campaign success. This year, it’s clear that commerce media brands aren’t just a nice-to-have. They’re growing and scaling for an even stronger future.”
Climate deserves a bigger voice
One area Davis believes received less attention than it warranted was climate.
“It was striking that climate barely featured in the keynote sessions or panels, yet it came up repeatedly in conversations throughout the week. With Cannes Lions taking place during a European heatwave and school closures in parts of the UK and France, there was a growing sense that the climate deserved much greater prominence on the agenda than it ultimately received.”
Looking ahead
Taken together, this year’s reflections suggest an industry entering a new phase of maturity. AI remains central to the conversation, but the focus has shifted from possibility to practical implementation. Creators have cemented their place at the heart of modern marketing, while commerce media continues its rise as a strategic discipline.
At the same time, leaders consistently returned to familiar principles: trusted environments, strong creative ideas, quality data, measurable business outcomes and authentic audience engagement. As Cloake observed, the strongest campaigns still begin with “a human truth rather than a product message”, while Cao’s comments suggest the industry is becoming more sophisticated in how it defines success, moving beyond surface-level metrics towards understanding genuine consumer intent.
If Cannes Lions had a defining message, it was that innovation alone is no longer enough. The organisations best positioned for the future will be those that combine AI-enabled execution with stronger storytelling, trusted communities, measurable business impact and a deep understanding of the people they are trying to reach.
The convergence of tech and brands 