By Tyler Turnbull, Global CEO, FCB

As we head to Cannes Lions 2025, we’re not just celebrating creativity — we're confronting a crisis of effectiveness.

The ad industry is producing more content than ever, with global ad spend projected to hit $1.16 trillion this year. That number should be a symbol of potential. Instead, much of it disappears into the void and is skipped, scrolled past, or simply forgotten. It’s a staggering waste of marketing dollars, and it’s happening on all sides: brands, platforms, agencies.

This is the cost of treating creativity like a luxury instead of as an engine of business growth. Somewhere along the way, our industry started mistaking quantity for impact, presence for performance. That mindset needs to change. Now.

Creativity isn’t just a differentiator. It’s an economic force multiplier. It’s the most powerful lever we have to drive growth in a time when everything else, from budgets to attention spans, is under pressure. And we have the proof. When creativity is bold, brave, and built to connect, it works. It sells. It builds. It lasts.

At FCB, we’ve seen this firsthand. Whether it’s a campaign that delivered a 3:1 ROI or work that rewrote the rules of an entire category, the through-line is clear: great creative drives business results. Period.

But breakthrough ideas don’t appear by magic. They come from a culture that prioritizes them. That gives creatives room to think and teams permission to take smart risks. That values depth over volume, and purpose over noise.

It’s time to shift the model from spreading ourselves thin, to doubling down on the ideas that actually move people. The ones that earn attention, fuel action, and deliver long-term brand value. Creativity that travels across platforms, moments, and mindsets, creating more value with every impression.

And in a world where consumers are more fractured, fatigued, and distracted than ever, the stakes have never been higher. Our recently published Citizen Consumer Project revealed just how overwhelmed people feel by polarization, by technology, by life. In that sense, creativity becomes much more than just a business tool; it becomes another way to make people feel something again. We can’t lose sight of that.

Cannes is a celebration. It’s where the best work from around the world rises to the top. But it’s also a mirror showing us where we stand, and how far we still have to go. If we want to build a future where creativity truly delivers for business and for culture, we have to start treating it with the urgency, investment, and respect it deserves.

So, this Cannes season, let’s raise a glass to work that inspires us and commit to creating more of it. The kind of work that doesn’t just win awards. It wins hearts. And bottom lines.