June 25, 2025
We didn’t make it to Cannes Lions this year. No rosé by the marina. No sunburnt schmoozing. But that doesn’t mean we missed the plot.
Because beneath the yacht selfies and the sea of sequins, there were big signals. Clarity. And, dare I say it, a few quiet cries for help from the marketing world. Thankfully, Lindsey Slaby nailed the pulse in her “10 Things That Stood Out” post.
But now it’s time to go deeper, because when you filter the headlines through the lens of social, what you get is a masterclass in how brands should be rethinking their content, their agencies, and their future.
1. AI is the operating system now. Not a tool, not a trend.
Cannes was awash with AI panels, but behind the noise came something more sobering: the realisation that AI is no longer an add-on. It is the engine. And too many marketing teams still haven’t built their operations around that fact.
· 93% of marketers using AI say it improves content speed, and 90% say it drives faster decision-making (SurveyMonkey).
· Yet 75% of organisations have no formal AI education programme for their marketing teams (Marketing AI Institute).
AI is changing the way we work. It’s streamlining operations, speeding up content creation, and unlocking new ways to test and optimise at scale. Brands like Coca-Cola are already using AI-driven systems to produce dozens of content variants in hours. That kind of agility is fast becoming the norm.
But let’s not kid ourselves. When it comes to creative ideas, the spark, the nuance, the emotional hook, AI’s still learning. It can support, suggest, even surprise. But it can’t replace the craft. Not yet. That’s why the best teams are blending both: using AI to handle the heavy lifting, while keeping the thinking, storytelling and taste firmly in human hands.
So what are the forward-thinking marketers doing?
· They’re moving AI out of the experimental corner and embedding it into their content operations, where it can actually deliver value.
· They’re building flexible, repeatable workflows where AI supports every stage of production: from the first draft to version testing, localisation and iteration.
· And they’re investing in skills not because it’s trendy, but because prompt fluency and AI literacy are quickly becoming part of everyday marketing.
Cannes highlighted the shift from theory to action. Please pop Ai on your agenda!
2. Creators have become studios.
This was one of Cannes’ clearest signals: creators are now full-blown media companies. Not talent. Not influencers. Not accessories to a campaign. They’ve got strategy, commercial plans, and IP. And frankly? They’re better at building attention than most brands.
In fact we wrote about it in last week’s newsletter (heheh ahead of the curve). And in summary…
· The creator economy is set to hit $160.91 billion this year, growing at 28.6% annually (Podtail).
· UGC creators are up 93% year-over-year, now accounting for 15% of all influencer collaborations.
· TikTok and Instagram make up 83% of brand collaborations, and those creators want clear briefs, real trust, and a seat at the table.
Creators aren’t just part of your media plan. They are the plan. So you need to:
· Build proper creator partnerships. Contracts, co-created IP, long-term collaboration.
· Involve creators early, in the campaign planning, the product testing, the insight gathering.
· Pay them well. And pay for thinking, not just posting.
This is a strategic shift. Your creators could be the most valuable part of your marketing team.
3. Brand behaviour is the new brand asset.
Here’s the shift Cannes brought into focus: the best work doesn’t interrupt, it participates. Brands that behaved boldly, with humour or conviction, got the applause.
Not because they shouted loudest, but because they moved with purpose.
Think Burger King defending its taste claims in court. Or Wendy’s dragging broken ice cream machines. These aren’t one-off moments, they’re proof of brand personality, built through behaviour.
Social isn’t just your comms channel. It’s your stage. Your street-level presence. Your proof.
So let’s stop asking, “what are we saying?” and start asking, “what are we doing that’s worth talking about?”
Most social strategies still focus on content slots. But the brands winning attention are focusing on actions. Activations. Statements. Brave moves.
4. Discovery is evolving, and brands aren’t keeping up.
Here’s something that should terrify marketers clinging to the grid model: half of all audiences now discover content outside the traditional feed (LinkedIn).
That means chatbots, podcast recaps, friend group links, AI-curated summaries. The algorithm might be pushing posts but it’s also rewriting discovery entirely.
Platforms like YouTube are investing in visual-first, AI-assisted discovery. TikTok is shaping up to become the next-gen search engine. Meta is building AI into content surfacing layers, not just ads.
If you’re only publishing for your followers, you’re invisible to the next wave of discoverers.
· Optimise content for social search and AI discovery, not just the feed. Think conversational keywords, text structure, even metadata.
· Create assets designed to be discovered in fragments, chaptered videos, quote cards, long captions that summarise.
· Build for ambient attention. Don’t rely on the scroll. Get your content into conversations.
5. Agencies are under pressure and Cannes made that clear.
Let’s talk about the elephant on the beach: a lot of agencies are struggling to keep up. And CMOs are starting to notice.
At Cannes, the quiet conversations were about disappointment. Creative partners who couldn’t build for variant testing. Campaigns that ignored performance data. Teams that didn’t understand AI tools, or refused to work in realtime.
And it’s reflected in the stats:
· 67% of marketers say lack of AI education is the biggest barrier in their agency partners (Marketing AI Institute).
· Many creative shops still run on a two-month turnaround cycle. Meanwhile, TikTok’s best creators are turning around 15 videos a week, with results.
What we’re hearing more and more from CMOs is simple: they don’t just want bold ideas, they want partners who can move fast, adapt even faster, and back creative with data that actually means something.
If your agency struggles to test six hooks before launch, or explain why something performed (not just what the metrics were), it’s not about blame, it’s about fit.
Because the landscape has changed. The teams that are thriving right now are agile, AI-aware, and social-first. But more than that, they’re proactive. They’re in the room with insights before you’ve asked for them. They’re helping you see around corners.
6. One-off assets are out.
Content systems were the sleeper theme of Cannes. While everyone loves a shiny film entry, the real pros were talking about pipes.
The tools that matter now: Runway, Writer, Pencil – aren’t just clever tech. They’re signs that content is becoming operational
· 66% of content budgets now go to owned media and organic social (Merca20).
· Measurement investment is up 7% year on year.
· Social content is expected to be always-on, format-flexible, and performance-ready.
If you’re still briefing each campaign from scratch, you’re burning time and budget. You need a system that spits out content fast (hooks, formats, subtitles, variants) built to adapt in real time.
We’ve been saying this for two years – you need content engines.
7. Fandom isn’t a tactic. It’s a growth strategy.
Let’s call this what it is: community is your most undervalued growth asset.
Cannes gave space to brands building long-tail equity through identity and fandom. It wasn’t just entertainment, it was connection.
Think about it:
· The Stanley Tumbler isn’t a product. It’s a cultural signal.
· BookTok isn’t a campaign. It’s a movement.
· Niche content drives more conversion than broad-reach media. Oh and UGC now outperforms brand content by up to 85% (Podtail).
So what do we do with this?
· Stop thinking of community as an afterthought. It should shape content.
· Build fandom layers into your content strategy, whether that’s exclusive formats, behind-the-scenes, or membership tiers.
· Reward your “100 true fans.” Then watch how they build your brand for you.
8. The CMO role is cracking under pressure. And that’s not a bad thing.
Cannes surfaced a growing reality: the modern CMO job is too big for one person. Between AI, UX, brand, community, commerce, it’s too much. And many brands are now splitting the role into Chief Brand Officer and Chief Digital Officer, or hiring hybrid leads.
Social sits at the centre of this complexity.
When it’s under digital? It leans into performance. Under brand? Too slow. Under comms? Often tactical. That’s why we’re seeing the rise of new roles: Head of Social Ops, VP of Community, AI and Content Lead.
9. Taste still wins. And it always will.
Despite all the AI panels, Cannes still rewarded restraint, emotion, and storytelling. It reminded us: technology can scale your message, but only good judgment makes it worth scaling.
You can generate 100 versions. But if your story’s dull, your visuals are lazy, or your CTA is clunky, no one cares.
· 50% of content marketing budgets still go to creative production (Statista Content Marketing Compass 2025).
· And stories with clarity, emotion, and specificity consistently outperform volume-driven assets.
So, let’s protect the craft. AI helps. But human taste still rules.
This wasn’t a trend dump.
Cannes 2025 wasn’t business as usual. It was a crossroads. A quiet but very clear signal that marketing is evolving at pace, and that the winners are already building new systems, new teams, and new partnerships.
If you work in social, the message is even louder: you are no longer an add-on. You are the system that holds brand, content, culture, commerce, and community together.
And if you’re not already acting on that? Time to catch up.
Want to build a social system that matches where the world is going? We’ve helped brands do just that. Book a consultation, read the blog, or just drop me a message.