Bold Ideas from Cannes Lions 2025: Joy as a Strategy

By Sonia Carreno, President, IAB Canada

Day three at Cannes was jammed with alternative thinking, exciting announcements and another load of insights to bring back to the industry. In today’s meditation, I homed in on a beautiful through line. “Joy” as a strategic play.

We’re exhausted. It’s been years of obsessing on optimization, pointing fingers at problems in the supply chain, a race to the bottom in cost with unrealistic expectations shredding margins across the eco-system. The oxygen is being sucked out of the room on the service-side as our sector has spiralled into the abyss of ROAS and the relentless pursuit of relevance. Let’s be honest, it’s felt like a prolonged existential crisis. IAB UK tapped into this insight early in 2023 launching a campaign directed at media planning communities aimed at bringing back an endangered resource “joy”. Based on today’s content – it may have been ahead of its time. Joy was not portrayed as a mood today – it was a powerful strategy that is meeting the moment and giving us all a bear hug.

With a world going sideways and against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, anxiety over geopolitical issues and job security – smart brands and content creators are doing the opposite of commiserating, they’re leading with messages of resilience and humour. They’re unleashing co-creation that feels a bit like a movement. This afternoon Reese Witherspoon quoted Amanda Wynn, the first Vietnamese woman in space, who said: “Joy is the most radical form of rebellion.” This sentiment rang true across the Palais today – and it was refreshing.

Joy isn’t silly. Joy is what allows us to move through difficulty. It makes serious situations more bearable. As YouTube celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year it’s easy to see that its platform is a great example of joy as infrastructure. Today Neil Mohan reported that there are over 1 billion daily hours of viewing on screens with the majority of it driven by wildly joyful and unscripted content.

Short video content was peppered into most discussions at Cannes this week as it has become the newest media darling. YouTube shorts alone are now averaging 200 billion daily views. LinkedIn’s new video shorts product is taking off to meet this trend and platforms like Instagram, Snap and TikTok have been all been spreading joy for years. All this movement is showing us that entertainment and levity is far more than a distraction – it’s engagement at scale.

Consider the evolution of one of the original channels of levity – late night. Jimmy Fallon announced his new reality show entitled “On Brand”. This show features creative talent competing to sell products in a way that invites audiences to laugh, co-create and apparently even conga-line into new brand experiences.

Fallon reminded us: “Let’s stop pretending people don’t know they’re being advertised to. Let’s make it worth their time.” Brands like Pillsbury, Sonic and Samsung are buying in with full-episodes in the works with On Brand that will allow audiences to enjoy creative ideation about their brands to be celebrated like entertainment as opposed to “inserted” as an obligation or a speed bump to accessing the “real entertainment”.

It was interesting to hear Adobe Chair and CEO, Shantanu Narayen discuss their big investment towards AI and specifically the Firefly tool. Designed not to replace the joy of creativity but rather to eliminate the friction point of the blank page.

Another great presentation featuring Unilever’s Esi Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer describing its SASSY framework (Science, Aesthetics, Sensorials, Shared, Young-spirited) was all about joy and its power to compel audiences not only through facts but through all the senses.

It’s clear that what it takes to meet the moment is to move beyond tools and products. It’s all about building out emotionally wired on ramps that are inviting participation and fun.

Vaseline’s “Wonder Jelly” campaign was presented as a great case study. By delving into user-generated hacks and “certifying” them with official brand endorsements, the 155-year-old product revitalized itself through joyful interactions. The strategy paid off – 63M-interaction return, 43% sales lift, and a Cannes Grand Prix win – and a lot of happiness. Another great example came from e.l.f. Beauty. After TikTok users were using emptied bottles of elf product to make giant DIY lip glosses, e.l.f. got in the game and started selling empty bottles to delighted fans – this was an agile and joy-driven corporate decision that delivered on creative commerce.

All this might come across as flakey. But there’s some science to ground this directive. Joy, novelty, and emotional memory are core drivers of attention and long-term brand affinity. Byron Sharp and cognitive researchers have long argued that it’s not just about differentiation that builds memory structures, it’s about distinctiveness. Delivering joy is a distinctive stand out in a sea of sameness – especially with the torrents of content about to be unleashed through AI.

Reese Witherspoon when she talked of Hello Sunshine’s project of reclaiming narrative space is about so much more than representation – it’s about a cultural bonding agent. It’s about creating a sense of belonging and that is a precursor to joy. Kory Marchisotto, Chief Marketing Officer at e.l.f. Beauty added, “It’s not our brand, it’s yours” – that’s shared authorship, agency, belonging and all the things we discussed yesterday about Maslow’s pyramid.

Even in the most rational of domains – the B2B sector, Dr. Marcus Collins delivered an exceptional talk on how emotion wins. In fact, emotional and social considerations account for two-thirds of B2B purchase motivations. Confidence and social opinion played a larger role in decision-making than price points or features. Identifying with other like-minded businesses and connecting rationale in that way emerged as a critical factor. All this points to confidence and joy as conversion levers – not just nice-to-haves.

As we jump headfirst into a world increasingly shaped by AI and algorithms amidst a backdrop of economic uncertainty and general insecurity, joy is having a serious moment. It’s not just a vibe – it’s about reading the room, offering some agency and adventure. Platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Roblox and TikTok are delivering infrastructure for self-expression. Adobe’s investment in AI ideation is providing emotional support for creativity – the infrastructure.

So, today’s reflection (Marie Kondo would love this) is simple, and it is powerful. Sparking joy as a strategy. Be distinctive without having to throw the AI-generated creative kitchen sink at people. It’s the new blueprint for resonance and resilience in a world that desperately needs it.

In the coming year, as brands develop their data sets, what they will really need to understand is how to make you laugh, cry and feel something real.