Creativity at Cannes Lions 2024

Across almost every sector, brands are multiplying their investment in creativity

By Claire Gillis

When Elon Musk told advertisers to go forth and multiply in November 2023, he probably didn’t expect the ad sector to take him at his word. Yet seven months later, as the mercurial billionaire surprisingly took the stage at Cannes Lions 2024, he found an audience oozing with creative confidence – with brand submissions for Cannes up 6% on 2023, and media owner submissions growing by almost a third (31%).

Across almost every sector, brands are multiplying their investment in creativity. The results, showcased at festivals like Cannes, show the investment is paying off – solving business problems, and establishing creativity as a genuine growth driver.

So where does health feature in the conversation? In terms of awards submissions – hardly the best measure of creative prowess – it could be argued that progress has slowed. After a few years of post-pandemic boom, the number of submissions in health-related categories at Cannes has stalled. This year, Health & Wellness totalled 1,252 entries, a narrow fall from 2023, but the pharma category was much more subdued – its 224 entries a considerable drop from 354 last year. The decline is reflected in a disappointing set of results for the category. Despite this, there was much to admire in health at Cannes and much that the sector can learn from the experience.

The pharma category was quieter than normal, yielding just seven winners. Of the 13 pharma companies shortlisted, only two won prizes (Biogen and Organon), with medtech firms once again dominating. The Pharma Grand Prix (and also Gold) was awarded to Siemens’ ‘Magnetic Stories’, children’s audiobooks that weaved the frightening sounds of medical equipment into fun stories so that kids might be less scared when undergoing an MRI.

The audiobooks, crafted by renowned authors and sound engineers, carefully synchronised the sound of each scan with exciting plot moments, turning a potentially traumatising experience into an engaging and immersive one. It’s a great example of how brands can go beyond their own functionality to improve patients’ experiences.

‘Brands are increasingly embracing humour to make them more engaging and relatable, with playful, light-hearted content starting to make its way in this space’

Gold also went to KVI Brave Fund’s ‘Voice 2 Diabetes’ for its app that detects type 2 diabetes via voice recordings. ‘Airquity’ (for Earswitch) won silver for a biometric sensor that addresses racial inequities found in traditional oximeters by using the ear canal to take accurate oxygen saturation readings across all skin types. Biogen’s ‘Not a Lonely Journey’, a practical guidebook for disabled travellers (created by our VML Health teams), and Organon’s Mis(s)diagnosed – multimedia kits that raise awareness of the symptoms of female heart attacks – were pharma’s sole success stories, each picking up bronze.

Despite the disappointing return overall, judges found plenty of creative inspiration in pharma’s submitted work, noting encouraging trends like the increased use of humour, innovative use of tech and a deeper focus on equity, inclusion and customer experience.

These trends were also reflected in the Health & Wellness category, where five golds, 14 silvers and 18 bronzes were awarded, as well as a Grand Prix.

The latter went to ‘The Last Barf Bag’ for Dramamine, a nausea medication that’s put paid to the traditional sick bag. This integrated campaign included a 13-minute documentary on the history of the barf bag, cleverly using humour and innovation to cut through a crowded market.

Other notable wins that reflected the trends found in pharma included:

• ‘Michael CeraVe’ (Gold for CeraVe), where comic actor Michael Cera carried out a three-week prank pretending to be the brand’s founder, in the process highlighting the value of social influencers
• ‘Impulse’ (Silver for Samsung), an app that helps people with speech disorders by giving them a haptic speech coach they can wear on their wrists. Powered by AI using an NLP algorithm, Impulse takes speech treatment out of the treatment room – a brilliant example of tech transforming experience
• ‘Child Wedding Cards’ (Gold for UN Women), a campaign to protect children from child marriage, where members of the National Assembly of Pakistan were sent invitations to a fictional child’s wedding. The invitation cards, which sought to persuade lawmakers to change the law, were designed by children. The campaign also won the Lions Health Grand Prix for Good.

Away from the podium, discussion of the trends that are shaping advertising in general provided invaluable learnings. These conversations are arguably more important than the awards themselves, indicating the direction of travel for marketing and what we need to do if we’re to cement creativity’s reputation as a key driver of growth. The four take-homes below should resonate loudly in pharma.

1. Social matters
Social media influencers were everywhere at Cannes. From John Legend and Chrissie Teigan to Gen Z superstars like Marianna Hewitt and Alix Earle, the power of online influencers was one of the festival’s biggest eye-openers. The majority, of course, weren’t pharma-focused, but we ignore the value of social influencers in health at our peril. The same applies to social channels. A talk on culture by TikTok’s head of business marketing, Sofia Hernandez, revealed that 79% of TikTok viewers want to see brands on the platform.  And when brands show up like content creators – authentically, as if they are part of the community – they’re eagerly accepted. According to Hernandez, the most successful brands on TikTok are ‘always experimenting’ and ‘creatively brave’. That’s food for thought for pharma.

2. Get blending trending
Pharma featured prominently on the Palais stage (in fact, pharma attendance throughout the week was bigger than ever). One of the most engaging sessions was led by Genentech CMO Erica Taylor, who described how the biotech giant is “doing pharma differently”. A key aspect of this is the notion of ‘blending’ creative and scientific teams in ways that break the mould, including inviting regulatory people – like lawyers – into the creative process.

Erica said Genentech had found that when regulatory teams are involved early in the process – and asked for their opinions – they become more invested in the work and more determined to help get regulatory approval rather than just saying no. It’s a fascinating concept and one that’s clearly working for Genentech.

‘The most talked-about topic was once again AI – but the emphasis this time was on keeping it real, underlining the importance of human involvement’

3. Make ‘em laugh
When Health & Wellness judges were asked how the best campaigns cut through the noise of over 1,200 entries, humour topped the list. ‘The Last Barf Bag’ and ‘Michael CeraVe’ prove the point, but the trend towards humour transcended all categories (Cannes even introduced a new category for it). Brands are increasingly embracing humour to make them more engaging and relatable. Historically underused in pharma campaigns – health is serious, right? – playful, light-hearted content is starting to make its way in this space. And why not: laughter, as they say, is the best medicine.

4. Maximise AI – but keep it real
The most talked-about topic was once again AI. But the emphasis this time was on keeping it real. Google Ads said no matter how much AI improves, it’s not a marketer and it doesn’t have ingenuity. Unilever underlined the importance of human involvement in AI, particularly in translating the understanding of people we get via deep insights. And even Elon Musk – previously as outspoken in his views on AI as he was of advertisers in 2023 – was cautiously optimistic about tech evolution, predicting “AI will amplify creativity” if we keep a human hand on the wheel. The takeaway? AI plus great data and top creative talent can stimulate best-in-class next-generation marketing.

Cannes Lions showed us that the tools to transform pharma creativity are there for the taking. So, in the butchered words of Elon Musk, let’s go forth and multiply our investment in craft… and pitch up for Cannes in 2025 with innovations that show how creativity can change lives.

Claire Gillis is CEO at VML Health