Social media remains the most used channel overall, but compared with previous years, it is used far less frequently as a lead channel. This is according to WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, which released the results of its analysis of 122 campaigns entered for the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions this year, in order to establish key trends of effective advertising with powerful creative.

Campaign budgets, media mix, campaign duration, creative approaches, metrics and regional variation are some of the factors taken into account by WARC for the insights report of the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions, which celebrate the measurable impact of creativity.

Major trends

Other major trends highlighted in this year’s report are:

– Online video is now a key channel for creative effectiveness and is typically used alongside social media, PR and TV. TV and online video were the most used ‘lead’ media among the shortlisted entries;

– Purpose-led advertising was a major feature among the shortlisted entries, allowing several lower-budget campaigns to create global awareness and societal change;

– Emotion remains central to best-practice campaigns and its use as a creative strategy increased compared to 2016.