WARC says that with some of the world's leading marketers, researchers and effectiveness experts taking to the stage to share their latest thinking, this year's Creative Impact track explored how the very best brands balance consistency with agility amid a fragmented media world.

David Tiltman, Chief Content Officer at WARC and SVP Content for LIONS Intelligence, says, "If there was one word that brought together the Creative Impact programme at Cannes Lions this year, it would be 'Consistency'. The ongoing power of a creative idea repeated and refreshed over time. And the multiplier effect of brand and performance techniques working together."

"But in 2025, in a fragmented media landscape, in siloed organisations and at a time when creators offer alternatives to traditional communications channels, consistency and integration are hard. The good news is that it can be done — and with this report we share some of the ways to do it," adds Tiltman.  

According to WARC, key trends and themes outlined in Creative Impact Unpacked are: 

Closing the C-Suite Gap

New evidence equips marketers to champion creative brand-building to the C-suite.

Brand as a Risk Mitigator

Marketers are reframing creative investment decisions to gain C-suite support. Karen Crum, Partner, Strategy and Transactions at EY Parthenon, suggests positioning brand strength as a risk mitigator, highlighting how strong brands recover faster from a crisis or how underinvesting in brand can risk commercial performance.

The Cost of Dull Versus Creative Upside

New research from Amplified Intelligence's Dr. Karen Nelson-Field and eatbigfish's Adam Morgan put the cost of weak creative in low-quality media environments at an average of 43 cents on every dollar — or USD$198-billion industry-wide. A study of the most awarded companies at Cannes Lions by Interbrand found they overperformed the average EBIT performance by 2.7% a year and market capitalisation by 4.7%.

Use "Portfolios" to Beat the ROAS Trap

Laura Jones, CMO of US grocery delivery firm Instacart, explains how shifting the board from an obsession with channel-level returns on ad spend to portfolio ROAS helps move up the purchase funnel.

Consistency Versus "Lots of Little"

Media fragmentation challenges brand consistency in today's "lots of little" landscape. 

The Consistency Challenge

Dr Grace Kite of Analytic Partners and Tom Roach of Jellyfish show how a fracturing media market and the algorithmic models of the big tech platforms are creating a consistency challenge. Citing research from DAIVID, Roach says running work with different types of emotional impact in different channels can reduce impact. Kite argues that having messages in multiple media can drive synergy effects and that multiple short exposures can still drive brand effects.

Beyond Matching Luggage 

To balance consistency with creative flexibility, JJ Healan of McDonald's and Natasha Maharaj of Desperados reveal their shift from rigid "matching luggage" marketing to flexible "brand universes" that maintain core distinctive codes while allowing contextual adaptation — with Desperados specifically empowering content creators with "freedom within a framework" to enhance cultural relevance.

Progress > Process

The need to reconfigure processes to allow experimentation is a common theme. Emmanuel Orssaud, CMO of Duolingo, credits the brand's success to allocating 30% of the budget on experiments and 70% on what it knows works, while maintaining brand consistency through its owl mascot. Strategy experts Paula Bloodworth and Rob Campbell contrast the process-driven approach of many marketing teams with working with artists like Idris Elba and Metallica, who work quickly based on a defined point of view.

Unshittification

Marketers must combat "enshittification" — the deterioration of a service or product due to erosion in the quality of service — by aligning marketing promises with customer experience. The goal here can be thought of as "unshittification".

Unshittification Means Ditching Siloes

Gap CEO Richard Dickson transforms the retailer's "cluttered" experience by merging siloed teams into a unified services group, ensuring brand consistency across all touchpoints — from digital notifications to in-store environments. "Retail is detail," Dickson notes, ensuring brand storytelling is everywhere.

Design for Emotion, Not Just Efficiency

Advocating for memorable brand experiences, R/GA's Yael Cesarkis and Sephora's VP of Marketing Brent Mitchell champion prioritising emotional resonance over mere efficiency in customer experiences, with Mitchell highlighting how Sephora's product sampling creates a memorable touchpoint.

Logistics Are a Brand Equity Builder

Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, working with GUT, identifies delivery uncertainty as a critical trust barrier and transformed this insight into opportunity by elevating the emotional significance of package arrival — resulting in their new tagline "Lo mejor está llegando" ("The best is coming"), according to CMO Sean Summers.

WARC says other themes outlined in the report are: 

  • The Case for Consistency
  • The Creator Takeover
  • Multiplier Effect in Action
  • Same Same but Different
  • Reframing Brand as Buyability in B2B
  • The Race to the Full Funnel
  • Brand Building for Startups, and
  • Lessons From Creative Effectiveness Lions.

WARC concludes that a Cannes Lions Recap event, which includes unpacking Creative Impact, will take place in London on Wednesday, 23 July and in New York on Tuesday, 29 July or catch up on Creative Impact on the WARC Podcast. 

A complimentary copy of the Creative Impact Unpacked report is available here. 

For more information, visit www.warc.com. You can also follow WARC on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or on Instagram. 

*Image courtesy of contributor