5 Takeaways from Cannes Lions 2025

5 key takeaways from the Scooperz strategy team

Cannes Lions isn’t just a stage, it’s a mirror to where the industry is headed. This year, our strategy team left buzzing with clarity and a shared sense that the old playbook is done. The next era of marketing is less about messages, and more about systems. Here are the 5 biggest insights that stuck with us.

1. We’re moving beyond one-to-many campaigns

The age of silos is over. No more one-size-fits-all messaging, no more pushing a single campaign out to the masses and hoping it sticks. Today, it’s about building many-to-many ecosystems – systems that support multiple creators, multiple platforms, and multiple community touchpoints, all at once.

This shift means your brand needs the structure and vision to scale across voices, not just channels. It’s not about reach, it’s about relevance, over and over again. At Scooperz, we help brands do just that with scalable, always-on influencer ecosystems.

Explore our influencer marketing approach →

2. Creators aren’t a tactic. They are the idea.

One of the most resonant examples came from Desperados. Their campaigns made it clear: relying on a handful of big creators is no longer enough. Instead, find the essence of your brand’s tone and let a diverse mix of creators bring it to life in their own language.

This is where creator-led strategy becomes essential. The creator is no longer a media outlet; they’re the co-architect of your narrative. Want to build a future-proof brand? Make creators part of your core.

Read how we’re championing this future at cannes lions →

3. Delivered ≠ received

Kraft Heinz shared a powerful reminder: just because you post it, doesn’t mean it lands. True attention lives at the intersection of:

• what your brand actually stands for,
• what your audience is feeling right now, and
• what culture is already talking about.

If your campaign isn’t speaking to that overlap, you’re just adding noise. Brands that want to stand out must earn their moment not by being louder, but by being sharper.

4. Community is not an audience. It’s a partner.

Mattel’s reimagining of Mega Construx into Brickshop showed what happens when you co-create with your community. Their Barbie campaign is a masterclass: not just activating fans, but positioning Barbie as a creator herself, one who engages with her audience, surfs cultural trends, and builds brand love in real time.

It’s a shift from seeing your followers as spectators to treating them as collaborators. At Scooperz, we’ve seen the power of this firsthand through creator-driven brand trips, content series, and community-first storytelling.

See how we built community love with air up® →

5. Marketing isn’t a message. it’s a system.

The most future-ready brands aren’t thinking in campaign bursts. They’re thinking in creative infrastructure.

That means:

• Flexible budgets for spontaneous content moments
• Systems to support always-on creator relationships
• Toolkits and training to empower internal teams
• And platforms that make iteration easy, not exhausting

Less “what are we launching next month?” and more “how does every piece of content ladder up to the brand we’re building?”

Final thought

Cannes 2025 made one thing crystal clear: brands that win tomorrow are building differently today. Not just with big ideas, but with the systems and creators who can bring them to life – again and again.

Curious how we help brands build those systems?
Let’s talk →