Come midsummer, and each year I, among the many advertising award hopefuls, watch the Cannes Lions unfold on our phone screens, living the thrill vicariously through Instagram stories that feel like a “Look Ma! I Made It!” slideshow.
The red carpet is pretty uneventful, not one windswept gown in sight, and yet, there's an undeniable pageantry. This is the world’s biggest pageant of ideas. Ideas with a beating heart, a sharp mind and strong limbs. They don’t just sit pretty; they roar, they pounce, and they land right where they need to—on the hearts of jurors, the minds of brands, and the conscience of culture. And then, if luck and timing are on their side, they return with metal between their teeth.
In 2025, agencies from 96 countries submitted 26,900 award entries. But only a few get to win the crown, to be christened as the new kings—and queens—of the advertising jungle. What makes a campaign worthy of a Cannes Lion win? There are no straight answers. But there are patterns. There are pawprints in the wild.
The Big Idea-Mining
If you’ve worked at an agency—any agency—it’s unlikely you haven’t had your boss glance at your deck and ask, wearing a smug, clueless smirk, “But what’s the big idea?” It lands like a dagger through your heart. You defend the craft, the thought, the insight, but if you want to be taken seriously in any awards conversation, you must consider the ‘bigness’ of the idea before the idea itself.
Done beautifully this year by FCB Chicago with their campaign 'Caption With Intention', in association with the Chicago Hearing Society and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They identified a loophole in the system—hearing-impaired people often lose track of subtitles because they all look the same. The solution? Colour-coded subtitles for individual characters. The result? Brand Experience and Activation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2025.
The Pride in Problem-Solving
You see the word 'pride' pop up everywhere during the Cannes Lions week. But beyond harmless puns and anxious awards pundits, the real pride lies in campaigns that solve actual problems—not just manufacture noise.
Last year, I talked to someone who had served as a jury member at Cannes Lions, and they told me that all of them could easily see through the cracks in every campaign. Some are peppered with a fake sense of urgency, some are trying to pinkwash or greenwash or rainbow-wash... well, you get the gist, and some are, what we call in the Indian advertising-scape, 'patli gully'.
One brand that mindfully attempts to solve a very real problem, year after year, is Dove. By now, they don't need to prove their loyalty to the idea of inner beauty—but more importantly, their preaching is reflected in their practice. I truly believe the brand cares about the women who have been made to stand at the altar of judgement by the very industry selling them a bar of soap.
Crafted by Ogilvy, UK, Dove's Self Esteem Project won the Creative Strategy Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2025. The real pride? Making someone feel worthy.
Hunger Creates Bangers
You could be a talented creative whipping up the most delicious ideas on your work desk, and you could be working in a small-ish agency that's ready to make a meal out of it, but if your client is only asking for a morsel of creativity, then what can you, an eager-to-win industry baby, do? Winning a Lion depends mostly on your client's appetite.
Hunger, across the board, is the secret to turning your agency into a growth machine. Currently on the ground at Cannes, Gaurav Kumar, Lead Creative Strategist from Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, is glad that indie agencies are on the rise. He shared his takeaways from a talk by Anselmo Ramos, Founder at GUT: "Find one brave client and then turn it around for them. That's how the brand grows and the agency grows with them."
Team Godrej Creative Lab |
In recent memory, Talented has given us a demo on 'how to do it!' Scoring a Bronze Lion in Media with 'Nature Shapes Britannia', Prashant Gopalakrishnan, Founding Partner, Talented, talks about the recurring theme he noticed across campaigns. He shares, "This year, the transformative power of design was celebrated for its ability to shape societal narratives beyond what meets the eye.”
Team Talented |
The Simplicity Wars
Every year, when I sit down to watch all the Cannes Lions-winning case study videos, I notice that the most impressive campaigns are not screaming at you to say "WOW!" An observation I share with Kumar. He added, "The simpler the idea, the faster it cuts through. And that is what wins in every category."
Case in point, Havas India's Gold-clinching campaign 'The Ink of Democracy' in association with The Times of India, that simply had a page printed in purple, highlighting the unused electoral ink that would go to waste if potential voters don't turn out in the 2024 Indian general election.
Peacocking for a Lion
Producing a good piece of work isn’t enough to reserve a seat at Cannes Lions. The PR leg of your campaign is when the actual competition begins, much before the Cannes Lions shortlists are announced. Any agency worth its salt would seed the articles where they’re supposed to be, make overseas connections and get the buzz to travel from continent to continent. But what truly connects every person, every voter, every jury member is... the investment of the heart.
This year, PR Grand Prix winner FCB India, Mumbai, did it with Lucky Yatra, which gamified train ticket purchase to encourage positive behaviour. A big win for India!
Talking of Indian representation, Gopalakrishnan adds, "I’d love to highlight some outstanding Indian work seen at Cannes Lions 2025 that exemplifies how creativity is driving societal, cultural, and technological change.” He mentioned Garuda Rakshak by Dentsu that used drones and tradition to reunite lost children at Kumbh Mela, and the technological innovation shone in Motorola’s Deep Connect, enabling miners to communicate safely using walkie-talkies.
The Lion Headcount
32 Lions. Hell yeah!
Sometimes, I feel we need to stop competing inter-agency and celebrate each other's achievements. Not everything is about winning pitches and awards; we need to see our people win after all. Seeing Indian creatives and talent getting recognised at such a celebrated global festival makes me smile like a fool. It leaves me with hope for a future, a time in which we are no longer the creative underdogs. We are Lions the world should be ready for.
(The author is an independent Creative Director. Having previously worked with Havas, The Glitch, and The Economic Times as a creative, he breaks down what makes an ad campaign worthy of winning at Cannes Lions.)
