In this concluding session for Cannes Lions 2025, four jury presidents were given the stage to reflect on their personal journeys and share their thoughts on the future of advertising. They called for a continued high creative standard in a changing advertising industry.
The Power of Film
Kate Stanners opened by emphasizing the unstoppable power of film.
As the Global CCO of Saatchi & Saatchi and the Film Jury President at Cannes Lions, she shared how her journey in advertising was shaped by film. With breakout commercials strung throughout her career, Stanners had quickly learned the unstoppability of film: “It has an unreasonable power to make us do things.”
Kate Stanners, Chairwoman and Global Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
She also gave her opinion on the future of AI and creativity. She believes that as AI continues to democratize intellect, the only point of difference will be creativity. As AI’s efficiency gives advertisers more time and resources, they should use those resources to invest in great craft. And as AI continues to push the industry towards average, she challenged creatives with a quote from Jay Chiat: “What is good is not good enough.”
The Lion for Change
And with creativity, advertisers can solve real human design problems.
According to KR Liu – Global Head of Product Innovation at Google, and the Glass Lion Jury President – creative thinking combined with empathetic insights can create unstoppable social impact. Throughout her career, Liu faced continuous discrimination for her hearing disability. But she took her future into her own hands and began making human-centred solutions for real people. She then brought her story to Washington and helped pass the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2016.
KR Liu, Global Head of Product Innovation& Partnerships Marketing, Google
Her approach is centred around combining empathy with practical solutions; “It’s not just about perspective, it’s about practice.” She holds that “real innovation happens when deep empathy is present from the beginning.” Because lived insights create incredible product innovations – leading to authentic storytelling and bringing long-term impact.
Liu challenged her fellow creatives to think deeply about whether their ideas are really helping consumers: “If your work launched, did it really land?”
A Love of Advertising
Advertisers also need to cultivate a love for the work.
Josy Paul, CCO of BBDO India and Jury President of the Sustainable Development Goals category, confessed that he’s “crazily and madly” in love with advertising.
Josy Paul, Chairperson and Chief Creativity Officer, BBDO India
His passion for advertising is encapsulated in the story of his first client pitch. He was so passionate about his idea that when the client refused to buy it, he stood by the window and threatened to jump. Although it was only the first floor, the client was so moved that they bought the work.
This passion has led him to create powerful campaigns like ShareTheLoad. In this socially-conscious brand platform, Ariel, one of India’s leading detergent brands, challenged the unjust expectation that only women should do household tasks. After ten years, the campaign changed the population’s perspective – the number of men who believe that laundry is a woman’s job decreased from 79% to 25%.
The First Domino
To close both the session and the festival, Canadian Judy John – Chief Creative Officer at Edelman and one of seven Canadian leaders selected to prestigious Cannes juries, serving as the Titanium Jury President – issued a rallying call to advertisers: create the next big idea that changes the world.
Growing up in a Chinese immigrant family, John explained that she’s an underdog – she says she’s not smarter or better than any other creative, but she works much harder.
Judy John, Global Chief Creative Officer, Edelman
John challenged creatives to reflect on their purpose and ambition. Her purpose, “to unlock the potential of ideas and people,” and her ambition, “to change the world with creativity,” is the momentum that has led her to create Titanium Lions-winning work.
Her most recent Titanium-winning campaign launched an environmental movement in the shipping industry. Her team started with an extremely boring brief: “A B2B campaign to tell companies we are the biggest shippers in cold chain shipping.” But after digging into the brand, they created Move to -15, an eco-friendly initiative that called all shipping companies to decrease the standard storage temperature by 3 degrees – saving millions of tons of carbon every year.
John called all advertisers to be wildly ambitious and “to find the ideas that would be the first domino in a movement to create change in inspiring the industry.”
Key Takeaways:
- AI efficiency will give marketers the resources to make better creative work.
- Human insights are the drivers for practical, human-centred design.
- To find a breakout idea, creatives must dig deeper into their briefs.
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