WARC outlines themes behind Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions 2025 winners

New Delhi: WARC has released its latest analysis, Creative Effectiveness Lions 2025, Insights from the winners, examining the strategies and characteristics that defined this year’s award-winning work at the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions. The awards recognise creativity that delivers measurable business results and sustainable impact over time.

Outlining from jury discussions and entry reviews, the report identifies three recurring themes: maintaining consistent creative platforms, using humour effectively, and disrupting market norms.

The analysis found that brands retaining long-term creative platforms or themes benefit from stronger recognition, loyalty and commercial returns. Research presented by System1 at this year’s Cannes Lions suggested that the most consistent brands achieved 27% more very large brand effects and 28% more very large business effects.

Apple’s Shot on iPhone, awarded the Grand Prix, has run for a decade, generating 14 billion views and contributing to a five-percentage-point increase in market share since 2015. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign, launched in 2004, was also cited as an example of sustained creative effectiveness.

Humorous campaigns were noted for their ability to enhance memorability and distinctiveness. The Martin Agency’s research indicated that 72% of consumers would prefer a brand that uses humour, while 91% favour brands they find funny.

The jury awarded recognition to campaigns such as The Misheard Version for Specsavers, CeraVe’s Michael CeraVe, and Sheba’s The Gravy Race, all of which used humour to connect with audiences.

John Bizzell, Awards Lead at WARC, said, “Marketers will learn a lot from this year’s crop of winners. These campaigns are using the power of creativity to solve real business and societal challenges whilst driving growth.”

Jury president Andrea Diquez, Global CEO at GUT, reflected on the judging process, “Everything this jury saw had won or been shortlisted for creativity in a previous year, so the body of work is always very impressive. When evaluating the entries this year, it was critical for us to assess the boldness of the ideas together with the significance of the impact. We were looking for work that was courageous and authentic.”

Challenging established category conventions was another common factor among winners. Vaseline’s Transition Body Lotion, which addressed the needs of an underserved community, was highlighted as a culturally relevant innovation. Magnum’s Find Your Summer encouraged ice cream consumption during winter to counter seasonal sales dips, while McDonald’s No Smiles redefined workplace culture to appeal to younger employees.

Bizzell concluded, “Prioritising consistent, long-term, emotionally resonant creative that challenge category conventions while remaining culturally relevant and authentic, is the key to Creative Effectiveness.”

He added, “Having spent two long days in the jury room, I learnt exactly what you need to do (and not do) to come out on top in this category. Focus your energy on telling the jury the story of the campaign’s impact. It breaks down to three simple things: connect your results to your objectives, keep it simple, make it interesting.”