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Cannes Lions 2025

Bold beats Bureaucratic in an Era of Change

Jovan Buac, Managing Partner

Each June, the creative industry descends on La Croisette for its annual sun-drenched summit. And while Cannes Lions still delivers the familiar fanfare - celebrity cameos, mega-budget activations and more than a few big-name panels - something deeper stirred this year. Change was in the air. And not the performative kind. Real, structural, mindset-shifting change. Even regulars were saying it: Cannes feels different. And it’s going to be different next year, and the year after…

YouTube's Google space at Cannes Lions

That question came in a post-panel Q&A session too, where an audience member put it simply: Why are we still banging on about TV ads? Brands today live in formats that didn’t exist five minutes ago, let alone five years ago. The brand world is plural, dynamic, and increasingly platform-native. Some of the best talks I heard were from the likes of Tik Tok and the CMO of Snap, Grace Kao.

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But amid all this disruption, one voice cut through with rare clarity…

Whose Festival Is It Anyway?

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There’s no denying the big tech players dominated the beaches; Meta, TikTok, Microsoft, Google, Adobe - all setting out their stalls, not just showcasing what they do today, but teasing who they believe will help own creativity in the future. And that future, it seems, is no longer purely in the hands of agencies. How agencies, brands and tech collaborate is now more important than ever. Will Cannes still be about ad agencies in five years’ time? Or will it become a content creator’s festival - where content, community and cultural relevance matter more than media spend? That was the view of a fair few people I spoke to.

Grace Kao, Chief Marketing Officer

That question came in a post-panel Q&A session too, where an audience member put it simply: Why are we still banging on about TV ads? Brands today live in formats that didn’t exist five minutes ago, let alone five years ago. The brand world is plural, dynamic, and increasingly platform-native. Some of the best talks I heard were from the likes of Tik Tok and the CMO of Snap, Grace Kao.

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But amid all this disruption, one voice cut through with rare clarity…

Grace Kao, Chief Marketing Officer

Top: 20 minutes. 10 ideas for the type of creative company the world might actually want to exist right now. Precipice: Nils Leonard.
Above: A sneak peak at this year’s entrants.

Lewis Moberly speaking at Cannes Lions: "Creativity can scale, but only if you define how your company thinks."

Bold Beats Bureaucratic

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Sir John Hegarty delivered the kind of insight that reminds you why you got into this industry in the first place. He tackled a hot client and agency topic; big versus small. His message was elegant, sharp and urgent:

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“Why giants can't dance.
It's not the big that beat the small.
Or the small that beat the big.
It's the bold that beat the bureaucratic.”

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It’s hard to argue. In an age of AI, automation and hyper-efficiency, it’s not size or process that wins; it’s culture. Bravery. Belief. Hegarty had the ability to really make us stop and think. Companies don’t fail because they’re small. Or because they’re too big. They fail because they stop moving.

They replace bravery with bureaucracy. Vision with process. Creativity with compliance. And yes, by nature, it’s often the bigger networks that fall victim to this. Because, he said, at the moment; the giants can't dance.

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Creativity is not a luxury. It’s the only competitive advantage that scales, if you let it. I’ve always believed this. And as agencies, this is where leadership comes in. It’s not about managing output. It’s about rediscovering your founding philosophy. Building a culture that rewards originality. Making space for messiness, experimentation, risk. Because today, creativity is no longer just part of the game. In the world of AI, it is the game.

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This was backed up by the likes of Mark Ritson, who put it simply. Emotion wins. Dull is dreary. And he’s got the numbers to prove it!

Storytelling - The Work That Won

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That theme, of creativity with genuine consequence, ran through many of this year’s Grand Prix winners. These weren’t just ads. They were acts. Ideas that changed policy, shifted systems or created new forms of cultural expression.

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Dove’s “Real Beauty Redefined for the AI Era” challenged algorithmic aesthetics with a personalised Pinterest experience, tackling the next battleground in body image.

Dove campaign: Two women, "What kind of beauty do we want AI to learn?"

FCB Chicago’s “Caption with Intention” reinvented closed captioning, turning functional subtitles into emotional, design-driven storytelling. This wasn’t just craft, it was system change.

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AXA’s “Three Words” simply added “and domestic violence” to its insurance policies, radically improving safety and support for victims. Quiet, bold and brilliant.

 

Vaseline’s “Vaseline Verified” showed how a century-old brand could take back narrative control in the age of TikTok by applying science to social media myths.

And the LVMH campaign, “The Partnership That Changed Everything”, redefined luxury sponsorship at the Paris 2024 Olympics, not as logo placement, but as co-creation. Dior dressed performers in haute couture. Berluti tailored athletes’ suits. Chaumet designed medals with Eiffel Tower fragments. Louis Vuitton delivered them in a signature trunk. It was French artistry, used not just to brand the Games, but to elevate them. 

 

The work was smart. Brave. Systemic. Purposeful. It didn’t shout; it resonated. And it made one thing clear: Creativity at its best doesn’t just tell a story. It rewrites the rules.

Smiling woman applying lipstick

My Cannes Client Crush

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At these events, you always meet a client or a brand who stands out. At Cannes, my client crush was CMO of e.l.f. Beauty, Kory Marchisotto.

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Not only do I love the brand and everything they’ve been up to, I love Kory’s personal ethos and leadership style. I was lucky enough to see Kory live on the Uncensored CMO panel last week. She leads with bold vision, empathy and a deep commitment to community. Under her leadership, the brand has become a digital-first powerhouse, engaging directly with consumers and consistently going viral online.

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Kory believes in listening closely to customer signals, investing heavily in brand storytelling and moving fast to stay ahead. And from a $200million to a $1billion brand. Not too shabby!

So, Where Do We Go From Here?

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One thing Cannes made obvious this year: the size of your agency doesn’t matter. The scale of your budget doesn’t matter. What matters is what you believe in.

 

Clients today aren’t looking for hierarchy. They’re looking for ideas. They want partners who think boldly, move quickly and act with creative conviction.

At Lewis Moberly, that’s what we’ve always believed in. Small teams. Big energy. Work that doesn't just look good, but does something meaningful. Our ethos is a simple one. Collaborate closely. Think bravely. Make work that shifts the dial. Sometimes it’s quiet. Sometimes it’s loud. But as Cannes taught us, we don’t just need more ideas – we need ideas that move brands forward. And Bold beats Bureaucratic every single time.

Clockwise from the top:  Google Beach, Cannes 2025, Snap CMO Grace Kao. Image from Snapchat for Business Youtube Channel, Sir John Hegarty at Cannes 2025. Image from Sir John Hegarty LinkedIn, Dove Real Beauty AI Campaign. Image courtesy of Unilever, e.l.f. Beauty CMO Kory Marchisotto. Image courtesy e.l.f. Beauty.

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