A Cannes reality check?

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Regional agencies returned from Cannes without a single Gold or Grand prix. Why? And what needs to change?

If you judged the region’s performance at Cannes by LinkedIn posts alone, you would be forgiven for thinking its agencies had dominated the festival, outclassed their international rivals, and set the benchmark for global creativity. 

Yet that celebratory narrative obscures a more uncomfortable reality. The region may have won 20 Lions, including six Silvers, but none was Gold. Nor did it win a Grand Prix. In other words, for the first time in more than a decade, the region left the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity without a single top-tier award. 

It’s an awkward, if not demoralising, reality for the region’s agencies to face. Collectively, they have spent the best part of 20 years building their creative reputation, transforming themselves from peripheral players into genuine global contenders. And yet, here we are, faced with an uncomfortable question: was this year’s Cannes simply an anomaly, or a sign that the region failed to break through when it mattered most?

“I’m not one to look for excuses, but I am a realist,” says Fizo Younis, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Groupe Middle East. “On paper, the result is disappointing. The region has consistently produced work capable of winning at the highest level, so leaving Cannes without a Gold or a Grand Prix isn’t something we should be comfortable with.”

Derek Green, Chief Creative Officer at TBWA\Raad, agrees. Although the region’s performance was respectable, it was not a strong enough one, he believes. “Having been inside the jury room, I saw firsthand how high the standard was. But six silvers, 14 Bronzes, and no Gold or Grand Prix shows that the region did not break through at the highest level.”

That said, context matters, says Younis. The region has spent the last year navigating the impact of war and the uncertainty that has accompanied it, beginning with the Twelve-Day War last June and culminating in the US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February of this year. Despite attempts at diplomacy, that war rumbles on, destroying lives, disrupting economies, dampening business confidence, and prompting brands to adopt a more cautious approach. 

Against this backdrop, entry numbers were down sharply across much of the region. This was most notable in Lebanon (just two entries compared with 32 last year), where considerable death and suffering have been inflicted on the country by Israeli aggression, and the UAE, where submissions fell from 795 in 2025 to 385 this year, representing a decline of 51.6 per cent. Kuwait submitted four entries, Qatar six (down from 10), and Jordan five (down from 18). Egypt remained largely unchanged, with 21 entries compared with 22 in 2025, while Saudi Arabia’s total fell by 36.2 per cent from 174 in 2025 to 111 this year.

The impact of conflict should not be downplayed, stresses Green, a judge on this year’s industry craft jury. Regional escalations arrived at a critical moment for many campaigns, just as they were launching and building momentum. As public attention understandably shifted to the conflict, activity was disrupted, and some campaigns lost valuable reach, engagement, and measurable impact. “That can matter when juries are assessing effectiveness,” he adds.

“As an organisation, we’re people-first, so our priority was protecting our talent, ensuring business continuity, and partnering closely with our clients as they navigated a very challenging period,” explains Younis. “I can’t speak for the rest of the industry, but within Publicis I’m genuinely proud of our performance. We were deliberate about the work we entered because we believed it deserved to be there, and our conversion rate from shortlist to Lions was very strong. To me, that says the quality of the work held up. So I don’t see this as evidence that the region suddenly became less creative. I see it as the outcome of an exceptionally difficult year, where many agencies quite rightly revisited their priorities.”

Both Younis and Green reject the idea that the region has a creativity problem. Green points to TBWA\Raad’s Yellow Pencil and Impact BBDO’s White Pencil at D&AD, both awarded for public-interest campaigns, as proof of the region’s talent and potential. Younis does not believe agencies fell short, nor is he convinced the poor showing at Cannes reflects a wider trend, cautioning against drawing broad conclusions from a single festival.

“I’m a glass half full person, so my instinct is gratitude first,” says Nayaab Rais, executive creative director at FP7 McCann, which was named MENA network of the year. “Alhamdulillah for every Lion. And because our inner critics are already working overtime, I’d treat the value of the metals as feedback, not failure. We shouldn’t ignore the context we’ve been creating in. Much of our region has been creating through war and uncertainty. So the fact that the region still produced work recognised internationally is something to be proud of.”

That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. Rais believes more needs to be invested in platforms, not just campaigns, and that agencies should focus on three priorities: building ideas over time rather than for award season; protecting maker time, “because the best ideas don’t arrive in meeting number 17 but in the time between”; and championing the region. 

“Rising tides really do lift all boats, even if we all still secretly want to beat each other next year and are grinning on the outside while quietly fuming inside,” she says. “That’s okay, because that’s healthy. That way, everyone gets their turn to win big, and we spend our energy pushing the standard forward together.”

For Younis, however, the bigger issue is intention. “If there’s one thing I’d like to see change over the next 12 months, it isn’t budgets, technology, or even process. It’s intention,” he says. “I had the privilege of judging at Cannes this year, and I came back with my fair share of healthy jealousy. Not because I believe the region lacks talent. Quite the opposite. I genuinely believe we have everything it takes to produce world-class creative work. What stayed with me most wasn’t just the quality of the winning ideas. It was the intention behind them. 

“Sometimes, and I want to stress sometimes, I think we start with the wrong objective. Awards matter. They should. They celebrate the very best of what our industry is capable of. But I believe they should be the outcome of great work, not the objective that drives it. The work that moved me most in the jury room wasn’t trying to impress other creatives. It was trying to solve a real problem, change behaviour, or make people feel something. That’s the intention I’d like us to get back to.”