Written by Nicole Webb

One of the biggest lessons from Cannes Lions wasn’t around AI. It was about knowing when to slow down, embrace imperfection and create experiences people actually remember.  

Here are some more highlights from my five days on the ground…. 

Friction maxxing 

Brands have become too obsessed with removing friction, speeding things up and producing more content. But some of the most memorable work at Cannes did the opposite. It deliberately added effort, imperfection, surprise or participation. 

Polaroid was used as the clearest example. Its product is inefficient compared with a smartphone, but that inefficiency is its strength. The wait, uncertainty and imperfection create emotional value. The point was not to reject technology, but to recognise that analogue experiences can protect attention, creativity and critical thinking. 

Heineken, winner of Creative Brand of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (winner of 31 Lions!) made people send a voice note before receiving a free beer with its ‘Could have Been a Heineken’ campaign. That extra step made the interaction more meaningful. 

Efficiency Trap 

Marketers are being asked to do more with less: more content, more channels, more data, fewer resources. AI intensifies this by creating the illusion that brands can scale endlessly. But be warned – this often leads to short-term, small-budget, fragmented work that does not build brands. 

The answer – coherence over constant novelty. Brands need fewer, stronger ideas that are invested in over time. This matters not only for human memory, but also for AI visibility, because models reward consistent patterns. 

Top Cannes Lions themes for marketers 

1. Friction can be a creative advantage

Not every brand experience should be seamless. Sometimes making people pause, wait, touch, think or participate creates stronger memory and emotional value.

2. Coherence beats novelty

Brands need a clear idea that can stretch across platforms and formats. The goal is not doing the same thing everywhere, but ensuring everything ladders up to the same brand meaning.

3. Surprise is becoming a strategic tool

Surprise is not just a creative execution. Used well, it can make a brand more memorable, distinctive and shareable.

4. Invest in fewer, stronger ideas

Short, fragmented campaigns are not building long-term brand value. Marketers need to resist the gravitational pull toward small, cheap and disposable content. 

Top Cannes Lions themes for PR and strategic communicators 

1. Human-led experiences are becoming reputation assets

Analogue, imperfect and human moments can create trust and memorability in a digital-saturated world. PR should not only amplify campaigns; it should help design experiences worth talking about. 

2. Values create friction – and that is not always bad

Patagonia is a brand willing to offend some people in order to stand for something. Strategic communicators need to help organisations understand that clear values may reduce universal appeal but increase credibility. 

3. Consistency now matters for both people and machines

Reputation is built through repeated signals over time. For PR, this means consistent executive messaging, earned media, owned content, proof points and third-party validation that AI systems can recognise. 

4. Conflict can improve creative and strategic work

Healthy internal tension can lead to better decisions. PR teams should not avoid disagreement; they should structure it productively around risk, reputation, audience and evidence. 

5. Creativity must be linked to commercial value

Strategic communicators need to get better at explaining how creativity builds memory, trust, media efficiency, reputation and long-term commercial outcomes.