The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is known for its topical breadth – and the smart pharma marketers who attended spent plenty of time listening to speakers who had absolutely nothing to do with their line of work.
But this is good news. The attention they paid to speakers from technology, entertainment and mass media means that lessons learned at Cannes won’t be consigned to the tactical dustbin. Indeed, Cannes 2025 gave pharma a blueprint for widening its lens. It reinforced what the forward-minded industry leaders have been saying for years: creativity that moves people to make better health decisions doesn’t always have to come with a regulatory label.
Here are three takeaways from the festival’s top non-health-related panels and the lessons that pharma can learn from them.
Creator culture is here to stay
Chef Amaury Guichon, better known by his digital nom de plume The Chocolate Guy, advised companies that want to work with creators to “give them a little bit of freedom, because they know best how to connect with their own audience”. Food creator Keith Lee agreed, but added that corporate/creator relationships operate under a different set of rules and assumptions from traditional celebrity endorsements. Companies must “let that person be that person. Brands often want to mould them, but people can sniff it out immediately”.
The lesson for pharma
Brands hoping to ally themselves with well-known creators, whether Instagram stars boasting seven-figure follower counts or influential leaders of online health communities, will need to stomach more risk than they’re used to. Pharma won’t benefit from the authenticity these creators have established in the minds of their fans if it attempts to control them. Lectures about MLR review are likely to be lost on creators used to doing things their own way.
Should pharma establish a level of comfort with creators in their marketing mix, however, the upside could be enormous. TikTok global head of business marketing and commercial partnerships Sofia Hernandez emphasised the value of creator content, especially “in a world where half of people are saying they don’t like ads”. Hernandez added: “Let’s let creativity lead.”
It’s time for pharma to take creators up on that offer, but only with expert guidance so they don’t fall foul of those regulations.
Read the article in full here.