Cannes Lions 2025: Day 3 Highlights

Day 3 at Cannes Lions was a call for a return to curiosity, courage, and craft. The sessions pivoted from theoretical frameworks to a more visceral message: the future belongs to those who are willing to embrace risk, push creative boundaries, and use technology to augment—not replace—human ingenuity.

The day kicked off with a compelling panel featuring Lord of the Rings director – Peter Jackson, Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm, and DDB’s Chaka Sobhani. The discussion centered on the power of curiosity to drive true innovation. Lamm argued that real breakthroughs only happen when you think in terms of centuries, free from the constraints of fear, ignoring what's possible and thinking more of what hasn't been done yet, what would be a courageous subject to explore. "A risk-averse attitude didn’t put people on the moon," he noted. On the topic of AI, he was pragmatic, stating, "Deepfakes aren’t evil, there are just bad applications." The key is not to fear technology, but to educate the public and experiment with its potential. This is a very different view to Schulman's apocalyptic views yesterday, and it's a good thing.

Peter Jackson, a master of using technology to realize fantastical dreams, admitted to only knowing how to use email. His point was that you don’t need to be a tech expert to leverage its power; you just need to understand its principles. Technology can bring your dreams to life, he suggested – a testament to his entire career. Besides that, the contrast between the director and his work was striking: he appeared to have no interest in being interesting.

In a session with juror Jessica Walsh, the theme of human-centric creativity continued. She revealed the jury’s thinking process, emphasizing that they look for potential and the beginning of a powerful design system, even if the execution isn't flawless. For the jurors, AI should remain a tool, not a solution – it’s only valuable when it pushes the boundaries of human creativity to create something previously unimaginable. Using it merely to replace what humans can already do is not impressive. The Lions are awarded for human ingenuity and a unique point of view.
Another point from Walsh’s: "You shouldn’t be looking at trends, because trends are what people already do." Yes, we know it may seem obvious, but it's something that really needs to be emphasised as often as possible, given the amount of misinformation out there about what trends really are.

WARC’s session provided the strategic backbone for the day's creative discussions, focusing on risk. The key insight was that not using creativity is the biggest risk of all, leading to a loss of relevance and market performance. Brands that effectively take and actively manage brand risks have a higher chance of growth. We're talking about two kinds of brand risk here:

• Protective: safeguarding the reputation against unexpected negative events.
• Proactive: preventing long-term value decline (which would essentially mean growth, as brands cannot maintain inertia for too long).

The session framed brand and creativity experiments as being more like biology than chemistry—complex, adaptive systems rather than simple input-output formulas.

Drawing from their research, they pointed out that for the world's most creative companies, the financial upside is clear, showing improvements in both EBIT of +2.7% and in market cap of +4.7% above the exchange-traded average. This is rooted in the value of brand as a critical intangible asset, which can constitute 30% or more of a company’s total value. Withdrawing from creativity in the face of perceived risk creates a vicious cycle: the brand's value diminishes, making it more vulnerable to incidents. The Nike case study was a potent example: a shift away from brand building towards performance tactics led to a loss in market cap. The message was clear: creativity drives business, and as proven by Cannes winners, it can deliver significant growth.

The day's themes all came together on the Rotonde stage with the Grand Prix-winning campaign for Hyundai’s "Night Fishing." The client's brief was the ultimate creative constraint: never mention the brand, and never mention the product. The agency’s solution was to shoot a beautiful, thrilling 13-minute film shot entirely on the car’s built-in cameras.

This "snack movie" was not a free piece of content on YouTube; it was a ticketed event in cinemas – the agency's point with this was that free kills – if you don't pay for it, it's worth nothing for you. People paid to engage with what the brand made, proving that when you create genuine entertainment, nobody cares if it's advertising anything at all. It was a perfect demonstration of the mantra "Cut the ad. Roll the show," and a powerful case for how limits can spark immense inspiration.

A session dedicated to LVMH offered a grounding look at how strategy is brought to life. Mathilde Delhoume explained how the group makes its "Savoir Faire Rêver" tagline a reality through their 4Cs: Craft, Customer, Culture, and Creativity. While the session didn't offer groundbreaking new insights for marketers, its value was in what it demonstrated: a relentless and masterful consistency in execution. It was a showcase of how every single ad, partnership, and activation uses brand assets with a sophisticated blend of consistency and subtlety. This meticulous approach ensures that each piece of communication reinforces the brands' distinct positioning while carefully cultivating their individual values and culture.

That concludes our debrief for this session.
Explore our complete coverage from the Croisette. You can read the full debrief and our key takeaways from each day of the Cannes Lions 2025 festival below:

• Day 1 Debrief
• Day 2 Debrief
• Day 3 Debrief
• Day 4 Debrief
• Day 5 Debrief – soon