Three learnings from the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions 2025

Embracing compound creativity, fun and disruption are the keys to campaign success, according to a new WARC report that identifies the trends and themes common to the award-winning campaigns of this year’s Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions.

Creative Effectiveness Lions 2025 – Insights from the winnersis based on WARC’s analysis of the entries and the jury’s deliberations. “Marketers will learn a lot from this year’s crop of winners,” says John Bizzell, awards lead at WARC and author of the report. “These campaigns are using the power of creativity to solve real business and societal challenges whilst driving growth.”

Takeaways

• Compound creativity drives long-term success. Brands that stick with creative platforms or themes, and allow them to build and strengthen over time, achieve greater recognition, loyalty, and financial returns. System1 research has found that the most consistent brands generated, on average, 27% more very large brand effects, such as awareness, differentiation, and salience, and 28% more very large business effects.
  
  Shot on iPhone, the longest-running campaign in Apple’s history, and awarded this year’s Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix, reported 14 billion views over its ten-year run and has seen iPhone consistently ranked as the #1 smartphone camera, resulting in five percentage points of growth in market share since 2015. Silver-winning Dove’s Real Beauty, launched in 2004, also demonstrates how consistency delivers results.
  

• Having a sense of humour pays off with audiences. WARC’s report into What’s working in humorous advertising outlined how amusing ads trigger brain reward systems, making messages more memorable and distinctive. Moreover, a study by The Martin Agency has revealed that 72% of people would choose a brand that uses humour over a competitor that does not, and 91% prefer brands to be funny.

  Gold Lions-winning campaign The Misheard Version for British eyecare brand Specsavers, skincare brand CeraVe’s Bronze winner Michael CeraVe, and cat food brand Sheba’s The Gravy Race, which also won a Bronze Lion, all leaned into laughs to increase impact.

• Market disruption creates breakthrough results. Brands challenging their sector’s status quo achieve significant advantages over competitors.

  Skincare brand Vaseline’s Bronze-winner Transition Body Lotion disrupted the skincare category by demonstrating how addressing the needs of an underserved community could lead to business success. Silver Lions-winning campaign Find Your Summer, for Magnum, encouraged consumers to enjoy ice cream during winter months, breaking the seasonal sales slump. McDonald’s No Smiles Silver-winning campaign redefined its workplace culture to attract Gen Z employees by promoting authenticity over forced smiles.