Boundless creative possibilities were unleashed at Cannes Lions, with human touch taking center stage
Author
Emma Chiu and Marie Stafford
The 72nd Cannes Lions Festival wrapped on a high note, with WPP named Creative Company of the Year.
With more than 150 hours of content and 500 speakers, the VML Intelligence team was on the ground, distilling the best talks, activations and standout work into a concise round-up of the key trends.
This year, the creativity on display was truly global, with first-time grand prix wins for Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic, plus a first time Lion for Uruguay, while Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Mongolia joined the shortlisting jury for the first time—pointing to a growing diversity of creative expression and talent.
Meanwhile, AI continues to monopolize the chat. Though P&G’s Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard made a conscious point of sidestepping the topic in his keynote, he still spent time justifying why “technology has always created potential for new sources of creativity, and AI is doing exactly that.” “But” he added, “at the heart of building brands is humanity.”
Other speakers insisted that AI will elevate expression, like YouTube's Neal Mohan who predicted that “cutting-edge AI technology will push the limits of human creativity.” Even so, the most audible gasp in the Palais came when Mathilde Delhoume-Debreu, Global Chief Brand Officer at LVMH, shared an image of Louis Vuitton’s New York flagship store exterior dressed as giant LV trunks while it undergoes renovation, proving that in-person spectacles are still much cherished. For more, read “The Age of Experiences.”
So from heart-stirring storytelling and fan-powered creativity to women breaking boundaries and the irrepressible rise of creators everywhere, here is our roundup of the can’t-miss trends that lit up Cannes Lions 2025.
Six key trends that emerged during Cannes Lions 2025
In the clash of human emotion and artificial intelligence, Cannes Lions 2025 revealed a powerful truth: that while AI will transform and democratize the creative landscape, the human touch will always add the magic.
“Humanity is not our limitation, it’s our superpower,” said Unilever Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Esi Eggleston-Lacey explaining that the future of marketing lies in harnessing human emotions to disrupt and evoke desire.
Even AI agrees. At a live session of the podcast and event series Get Sh*t Done led by Rebecca Rowntree, speakers hosted a live AI-powered creative sprint to answer a brief in less than thirty minutes, arriving at the conclusion that humans are the “special sauce”, a glorious glitch that sparks genuine creativity.
We’re now in a moment where the friction of producing an idea and getting imaginative thought out is going to completely collapse.
Mustafa Suleyman
CEO, Microsoft AI
AI will continue to democratize creativity of course, offering tools that allow anyone to build what they can imagine. CEO of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman predicted that the power of AI will be transformative: “Computers are going to speak natural language. You won’t really need to look at the code very much, if at all.” He added, “We’re now in a moment where the friction of producing an idea and getting imaginative thought out is going to completely collapse.”
Building on this vision, Dominik Heinrich, Senior Director, Global Design Intelligence and Technology Experiences at Coca-Cola, tells VML Intelligence that “creativity is fundamental in the future to elevate design, push the boundaries and create things that lie underneath.” He believes “designers lead” and will take “AI to the next level.”
Despite the enthusiasm, some voices advised caution. Musician James Blake argued for the importance of craft and technique urging artists not to short-circuit the learning to skip straight to the technology. “Techniques are the fundamental building blocks of why I feel confident to come out and perform,” he said. “I had done fourteen years of study before I even went near a laptop.” He foresees a division between human- and machine-generated creativity in the future, adding, “Companies are about to make a big miscalculation, which is the potential for human connection with AI-generated content.”
James Blake performing at Cannes Lions 2025
This perspective was reinforced by Tor Myhren, VP of Marketing Communications at Apple, who also made a compelling case for the human touch in creativity. While AI is “the most exciting creative tool we have seen in our lifetime,” said Myhren, “the human touch is our superpower… and the path to long-term brand love.” Marketing is all about touching hearts and making you feel something, he added, and “people are so much better at this than machines.”
At the Defying Gravity
session Debbi Vandeven, Global Chief Creative Officer at VML agreed: “I know everyone is talking about AI and it’s a huge part of Cannes this year, and probably our entire world right now, but no matter what we do, we must remember a person is at the center of what we are creating.” Looking to the future, this is fundamental to “being authentic,” she said, especially for brands. “All the tools that are around are awesome, but not at the expense of the creative.” (Back to contents)
2. Emotive storytelling
VML’s session Defying Gravity
The power of storytelling was a prominent theme on the Palais stages this year, in particular its ability to inspire and connect with human emotion.
In VML’s session Defying Gravity, comedian and actor Bowen Yang said that at a time when we are all talking about AI, “storytelling is all emotional and that is the engine it runs on.” Wicked director Jon Chu agreed that a sense of humanity is essential to filmmakers: “That’s our connection point, our nerve ending.”
Writer Dan Fogelman, known for shows including This is us and Paradise, explained how he draws upon his life experiences for his scripts—from the nostalgia of childhood to adulthood and the loss of his mom. “Much of my writing has become about the little moments and the big moments,” he said, to better capture the emotions he felt and continues to feel. “I don’t know how a robot does that…without just emulating somebody else’s experience.”
Esi Eggleston-Bracey, Unilever
When it comes to brands, Apple's Tor Myhren believes “the best marketing makes people feel, laugh, cry, wonder, or fall in love with a person or an idea or a brand. We all want to feel. And there’s no technology or algorithm, or artificial intelligence that worked in the world more capable of making us feel than the human mind.”
Unilever’s Esi Eggleston-Bracey shared that the company is transforming its marketing approach to deliver “desire at scale.” She explained, “Desire is emotional, it is not rational. It’s about taking our brands beyond simply meeting people’s needs and want to meet their desires.”
The power of human emotion in storytelling was evident in the work too. Grand Prix winner for Brand Experience and Activation, “Caption with Intention” campaign by FCB Chicago brings expression and emotion to closed captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to ensure films are more accessible. Jury President Jessica Walsh, Founder & Creative Director of &Walsh, said, “‘Caption with Intention’ is a design system that brings emotion and depth and context into the caption experience,” and believes it will transform the viewing experience for people using captions. (Back to contents)
3. Creator supremacy
The creator track launched at Cannes Lions last year and seemed to balloon in 2025. Creators were everywhere—fronting talks on the beaches as well as sitting alongside major brands at the Palais conference center.
In his session, YouTube's Neal Mohan called creators “the epicenter of culture” and the “new startups of Hollywood.” Mohan said creators wield the power to “build communities” and “spawn a new creative class,” even reshape industries. Top talent now commands vast fandoms that go way beyond digital, he added, citing the example of the British creator collective The Sidemen, who sold out the 90,000-seater Wembley Stadium in three hours in March with their charity soccer match.
What 20 Years of YouTube Reveals About Creativity’s Future session with Neal Mohan, CEO YouTube. Images courtesy of YouTube
Mohan ceded the limelight to creator talent too, inviting big hitters Amelia Dimoldenberg of the web series Chicken Shop Date and Call Her Daddy podcast host and creator Alex Cooper on stage to talk through their respective paths to success. Later, content creator Brandon Baum came on stage to showcase YouTube’s Veo3 generative video tool, noting that “tools that empower creators change who gets to tell stories.”
TikTok influencers Keith Lee and Logan Moffitt
Creator content is crucial “in a world where half of people are saying they don’t like ads,” said Sofia Hernandez, Global Head of Business Marketing and Commercial Partnerships at TikTok. She validated this with data points showing that half of people say ads are boring and a fourth are trying to shut ads off regularly. “We have to do better… let’s let creativity lead,” she said, pointing to content creators Keith Lee and Logan Moffitt.
In a world where half of people are saying they don’t like ads... We have to do better… Let’s let creativity lead.
Sofia Hernandez
Global Head of Business Marketing and Commercial Partnerships, TikTok
Chef Amaury Guichon
As creators go from strength to strength, the challenge for brands lies in finding the right partner. Meta exec Nicola Mendelsohn flagged the company’s Creator Marketplace as one tool for brands that is leading to spikes in clickthrough rates of more than 50% in some cases. She was in conversation with food creator and chef Amaury Guichon, who goes by the handle The Chocolate Guy (@amauryguichon). Las Vegas-based Guichon creates spectacular trompe l’oeil
and sculptures in chocolate, earning him 17 million followers on Instagram. Guichon spoke for many creators at Cannes when he shared his advice for brands that want to work with creators: “Give them a little bit of freedom, because they know best how to connect with their own audience.”
Food creator Keith Lee, who famously inspired a menu hack named in his honor at Chipotle, was in full agreement. Lee, who humbly sums up his niche as “eating food,” said that it is counterproductive for brands to keep too tight a grip on creators. “Let that person be that person. Brands often want to mould them, but people can sniff it out immediately.”
Can brands tap into the creator magic themselves? Those who want to emulate them should channel creators’ authentic voice said Dimoldenberg. “We’re allergic to being generic,” she explained, in a second appearance, this time for BBC Studios. “The reason creators are successful is that they’re creating things that are deeply personal to them and based on their own interests… I just want to make something that my sister will find funny.” (Back to contents)
4. Fandoms shape culture
Mark Read in conversation with Shonda Rhimes
The growing might of creators is also bolstering the relevance of fandoms for brands as YouTube’s Neal Mohan explained. “Fandom is no longer just about consumption. It’s a powerful force steering culture,” he said. Twenty years of YouTube has taught the company that creators on the platform have “huge cultural power backed by the relationships they’ve built with their communities of fans.” Mohan forecasts that the next 20 years will see communities continuing to “surprise us with the power of their fandom” and encourage creators to “flip formats, blend genres and push deeper into the mainstream.”
Before creators, content has long been a wellspring for fandoms. In the discussion between Mark Read, CEO of WPP and Shonda Rhimes, CEO of Shondaland, Rhimes likened her television shows to brands, and fans of the shows, she calls them “communities.” Rhimes shared how fans want to deeply connect with Shondaland shows, “those communities are hungry for anything that we are putting out there and giving them. For me it’s stories, but they also want to live inside those stories.”
Fandom is no longer just about consumption. It’s a powerful force steering culture.
Neal Mohan
CEO, YouTube
As VML Intelligence reported in The Future 100: 2025(#31, Brand fandoms), brands are now waking up to the potential of fandoms. Wendy's for many years has adopted a tone of voice that resonates with their fans. An example of that is the "Wendy's enters the chat" campaign which won three bronze lions last year, and again, this year with Wendy's Frosty Fix, winning a silver lion with a jovial approach to promoting Wendy's Frosty ice cream.
Meanwhile, at the Rotonde stage, Jennifer Healan, VP, US Marketing, Brand, Content and Culture at McDonald’s, shared, “At McDonald’s, everything starts with our fans.” It has even influenced their communication: “We have stopped speaking like a corporation and we actually talk like our fans. Fan to fan. Superfan to superfan.”
McDonald’s Minecraft movie Happy Meal and WcDonald's. Images courtesy of McDonald's
Having identified their voice on social media five years ago, this has been instrumental in shaping their brand voice and connection with their community. By focusing on fans and what they love in culture, McDonald’s “best ideas” were born. Examples included the WcDonald’s experience, an immersive anime-inspired restaurant complete with themed menu, and a recent Minecraft movie partnership.
Echoing discussions at SXSW London this year, more brands are finding ways to connect with culture in this way to boost engagement. Fandoms are a positive way for brands to connect with audiences around “passion points that people love,” said Marcel Marcondes, Global Chief Marketing Officer at AB InBev. The world’s largest brewer is committed to connecting people this way to “deliver impactful and meaningful experiences to consumers.” (Back to contents)
5. Female frontiers
Change maker talk track with Serena Williams
As women's rights face unprecedented rollbacks globally, Cannes Lions 2025 brought female empowerment back to center stage—showcasing the voices, investments, and creative forces determined to reclaim lost ground and break new frontiers for women and girls.
The G.O.A.T. of the tennis world, Serena Williams, is turning her attention to investing post-retirement, as founder of Serena Ventures. She was in Cannes to announce Reckitt Catalyst, a partnership with Reckitt that aims to support 200 entrepreneurs by 2030, investing $12 million to improve global health and hygiene. Co-panelist Catherine Casey Nanda of investment house Acumen America, which is partnering on the project, shared that just 2% of VC investment globally is allocated to women, yet data proves that female-led businesses outperform, delivering 35% more returns and 6x provision in jobs.
One business looking to level the playing field for women is beauty disruptor E.l.f. The company, which is the only one in the United States that can boast a 78% female, 44% diverse ratio for its board, is calling attention to the executive gender gap with its “More Dicks in the Boardroom” campaign, based on the insight that there are more men named Richard, Rich or Dick on boards in the US than there are women. The E.l.f. acronym can stand for many ideas, said CMO Kory Marchisotto, but her favorite is “empowering legendary females.”
More Dicks in the Boardroom campaign by E.l.f. and Joy Rebellion session with Reese Witherspoon and Kory Marchisotto
E.l.f. is furthering its commitments to women by partnering with Reese Witherspoon’s Sunnie platform for Gen Z girls. The initiative is an offshoot of Hello Sunshine, Witherspoon’s TV company that shines a light on women’s stories. “When women are not part of the creation, the stories do not serve them or their realities,” she said. The goal of Sunnie is to better serve younger generations, and in a fireside chat with Marchisotto, Witherspoon said that the new brand is served by an advisory board of teenage girls who “don’t want us to tell them what they think. They know what they think.”
An enthusiastic crowd joined a session that charted the cheeky revitalization of the Axe/Lynx deodorant campaign which sees the Unilever brand shed blokey humor in favor of a more evolved perspective. Rather than showing women as passive objects, executions like The Robbery - a Bonnie and Clyde–style mini drama - feature “strong female characters that are in charge of the narrative,” said ECD Tomás Ostiglia.
SAWA session
The power of storytelling to empower and drive change was a central theme of the conversation between Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham, and Kathryn Jacob of the cinema advertisers’ association SAWA. Following the release of the movie, which tells the story of two women who set their hearts on playing soccer, registrations of female players with the English Football Association rose from 50,000 in 2002 to more than 800,000 in 2025. Chadha said, as a storyteller, “my job is to reach out to your heart, to help you feel heard, feel alive and make you rethink what is around you.” (Back to contents)
6. Creative inclusion
The conversation around inclusion moved from accessibility and provision to one which celebrated the unique and powerful benefits of elevating diverse creators. Neurodivergence, far from a hurdle, is now being reframed as a creative advantage.
On Neurodiversity Pride Day, Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré shared data from internal research that finds over 50% of Generation Z identify as neurodiverse. No longer niche, this is “a business-critical imperative right now,” he said. But in a world where “originality is the most valuable brand asset,” there is value in tapping different ways of thinking.
On the same panel, singer Lola Young revealed that she leans into her ADHD to enhance her creative process, despite the struggles she experienced growing up and continues to face every day. She shared, “I run a business. I run a crowd. And therefore I have managed to get through, but there are people out there who cannot cut through because they are just not being listened to.” She has become a role model, vocal about her neurodivergent mind, but has been able to elevate a unique type of creativity as a result.
Creativity is a clinical case of obsessive, voluntary avoidance of thinking straight.
Andrey Tyukavkin
ECD, LePub
That was also the theme of a lively session from LePub ECD Andrey Tyukavkin, which made the case that neurodivergent thinking is closely aligned with creativity, and that it can leads to more innovative ideas. “Creativity is a clinical case of obsessive, voluntary avoidance of thinking straight. Training your brain to not come to the first conclusion. We all know it, but imagine how much easier it is for people who don’t think straight at all.”
Heralbony
Meanwhile, Japanese brand Heralbony took to the stage to showcase the unique creativity of those with disabilities. Takaya Matsuda, CEO of Heralbony, said, “My mission is creating a world where people with disabilities are truly respected.” To demonstrate this, they invited artist Satoru Kobayashi to the stage to create artwork for the audience in real time. (Back to contents)
The 72nd Cannes Lions Festival wraps with creativity at its beating heart and humans as the driver. But as movie director Jon Chu said, a human trait is essential, “creativity only happens when you have the courage to get it out.”
Don’t miss out on our additional Cannes Lions 2025 trends:
