Every year a small squad from MullenLowe Singapore swaps our sunny coast for another when we take on Cannes Lion in the south of France. The celebration of the world’s most creative advertising campaigns saw us witnessing the best and brightest minds the industry has to offer.

This year, Asia Pacific came in strong, winning 114 Lions, up from the 104 won in 2022. We were proud to be representing Singapore as a hub of creativity and talent in the region.

Suffice to say, it was not all guzzling rosé and getting a healthy tan. Discourse spanned the gamut from the unprecedented change heralded by AI to the difference between effectiveness and efficiency. Here are our takeaways on trends shaping the future of advertising.

AI was the buzzword at this year’s Cannes as the industry sought to understand how AI can be used to unlock new possibilities for innovation, efficiency and personalized experiences.

The sense of optimism made it clear that industry leaders see AI as a transformative tool that, instead of replacing human ingenuity, can complement it. After all, AI continues to have limitations in generating elements such as typography and brand logos; human oversight still plays a crucial role in directing AI, maintaining standards, and navigating potential copyright infringement risks.

On display during the festival were innovative projects that saw purposeful use of the technology. For example, “The Artois Probability” for Stella Artois used AI to analyze famous artworks that show people drinking to determine the probability that the beer featured is by Stella Artois. This clever use of AI demonstrates the brand’s rich history, which dates back to 1366, and creates conversation by combining old masterpieces with new technology.

Another project, the “Inflation Cookbook”, used AI to help people source for affordable and nutritious food. Using real-time price data to generate cost-effective recipes and visualizing them through Midjourney, this initiative empowered individuals to optimize their grocery budgets without compromising on healthy choices.

These examples showcase how thoughtful applications of AI can lead to new perspectives, push boundaries of what is achievable, and improve people’s lives in tangible ways. The rise of AI has not only influenced creative output, but has also created new job opportunities as new roles such as storyboard generator or prompt engineer emerge.

With all the hype about generative AI, it’s easy to forget that just a short while ago everyone was talking about Web3 and the Metaverse. Virtual reality products and experiences have not taken off as first anticipated, while the value of cryptocurrency has diminished. Despite the craze passing, the ideas behind these products remain valuable today.

We saw several campaigns making an impact by using the Metaverse as a tool. The South Pacific nation Tuvalu became “The First Digital Nation”, claiming its radical act of recreating itself digitally aims to save the nation, its heritage and assets from rising sea levels which will swallow the archipelago before the close of the century. The use of the Metaverse in this case proves a powerful point about the devastating effects of climate change and continued inaction by policymakers.

Whether it’s AI or Web3 — our industry’s embrace of technology is not about the next shiny thing in the creative toolbox, but creating new ways to illuminate different perspectives and provoke the audience into interrogating their own assumptions and prejudices. As the Metaverse continues to mature and evolve, we believe its beauty will lie in its power to mobilize — and ultimately hand over control — to communities.

Advertising has often been dismissed and seen as a purely commercial tool to drive revenue. However, every year at Cannes we see work that pushes the envelope, challenges norms and changes the world for the better.

For example, “How Much Press Are You Worth” drives home an ugly truth: that when media reports on missing people, young, white women are covered more extensively than people of color. The Columbia Journalism Review launched a platform where users can see how “pressworthy” they are, where an algorithm cross references a user’s personal information with the National Missing Persons database to calculate how much press attention one would get should they go missing. This campaign cleverly uses data in an eye-opening way that eventually led to concrete changes in reporting practices.

Our time at Cannes Lions this year is a timely reminder to never accept the status quo, and that advertising has the power to push boundaries, demand more and give voice to the voiceless. Over the years, the digital revolution held great promise — from the potential of direct attribution and figures, to generating images in a few seconds, and yet we know now that technology can only bring us as far as we take it. More care needs to be paid to the fundamentals: building purpose for brands and understanding how we can create change for people.