Ad to arc: What Cannes 2025 tells us about branded entertainment

Judging the Entertainment Lions at Cannes this year, one thing was clear: a seismic shift is not just underway, but here. Brands aren’t just advertising anymore—they are entertaining. And not in a superficial, polished way. They are entering culture through story, structure, rhythm, and relevance.

The Entertainment Lions—General, Gaming, Music, and Sport—reiterated that to win you must entertain audiences with unpredictable, culturally rooted storytelling. Brands are learning the platform’s language, instead of a scripted dialogue.

The General Entertainment Lions clearly celebrated branded content as a culture catalyst—content that transcends advertising and becomes cultural currency. Be it branded series, documentaries, fiction and non-fiction films.

These are productions designed to live in the entertainment ecosystem—TV, streaming platforms, social channels. Organically, these boxes got ticked:

• Narrative immersion: Stories with arcs, characters, and revisitability.

• Cultural bond: Rooted in place, purpose, or subculture.

• Authenticity: Genuine voice and nuance over polish or celebrity endorsements.

• Measurable outcomes: Metrics of business growth but with an X factor.

In short, brands are adopting long-form storytelling with measurable business intent and Cannes is rewarding it.

After all, it’s not ad channels but a cultural stage that blurs the lines between content spaces. Putting centre stage that the future of branded content is human stories within platform-native systems.

Entertainment Lions for Music and Sport are buzzing with brand-artist co-creation, sonic branding, and narrative music videos that feel like mainstream releases. Sports entries emphasise stories of resilience, equity, and community rather than just athlete shout-outs or product placement.

What ties these together is entertainment as an emotional ampersand—not just a backdrop, but a narrative partner.

Delving deeper into what could be understood from this category as brands and creative thinkers, here are some markers.

A. Format first, brand later

Work was format-native, not brand-led. Whether it was a 30-minute docuseries, an in-game activation, or a whole album—the medium shaped the message. It’s about mastering the media grammar. Platform grammar came before the brand tone.

B. Culture isn’t a context—it is the canvas

Cultural rituals weren’t just referenced, they were embedded. Brands that felt authentic didn’t adopt culture—they entered it with humility and participation.

C. Collaboration with creators, not just celebrities

The creative power today lies with filmmakers, gamers, poets, editors, and storytellers. Collaboration is survival. The best work this year came from hybrid teams comprising strategists, filmmakers, copywriters, and producers. It’s all about cross-team, cross-genre collaboration. Today’s creatives are hybrids—producer-directors, strategist-anthropologists, creator-editors.

D. Measure what matters, but don’t quantify soul

Campaign trackers are essential. Jurors needed to weigh in reach, ROI, and uplift. But let us not forget: the heart has its own metrics. A smile. A tear. Pause metrics matter, too, and let’s not underestimate the quiet responses after the screen goes blank. ROI Matters, but with Soul.

In essence, it is essential to recognise that Brands are no longer mere observers of entertainment culture—they are now active participants. This requires a shift from announcement to narrative, from presence to participation.

As creative leaders, our challenge is to build ecosystems of meaning. Campaigns that people choose to engage with. That becomes part of their lives. That feels less like marketing—and more like memory.

Our opportunity is to build compelling, culture-rich, measurable entertainment ecosystems. Audiences are demanding, and platforms are evolving. And Cannes Lions underscore—entertain or fade away.

There was a time when brands spoke directly to people. Loudly, repeatedly—from rooftops, screens, and radios. Today, if they wish to be heard, they must be invited—into our homes, our headphones, our games, our hearts.

We are storytellers in an age of distraction, in an age of hyper-stimulation. Attention isn’t granted, it is offered through cultural context and craftsmanship. When brand stories resonate with culture rather than at it, they become things people keep. That isn’t earned with budgets or noise, it is earned with nuance.

And that’s what the Entertainment Lions at Cannes 2025 showed us—stories don’t need to shout anymore. They need to sing, flow, and linger. They need to mean something. Because when we stop selling and start sharing, stories don’t end at Cannes or awards.

They begin there.

— Prasoon Joshi, CEO and CCO, McCann Worldgroup India. He was a juror for the Entertainment Lions category at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, 2025.