When Inclusion Meets Ambition: Lessons from Cannes Lions

Ambition in marketing isn't just about thinking bigger. It's about having the courage to challenge established thinking, create meaningful change and build brands that make a lasting impact.

As part of our Changemakers: Ambition series, we're exploring what happens when marketers turn bold thinking into action.

In this piece, Ali Hanan, CEO and Founder of Creative Equals, looks at the award-winning work from Cannes Lions 2026 and makes a compelling case for inclusion as a driver of innovation, effectiveness and long-term brand growth.

From reimagining products and services to challenging the way we measure success, Ali explores why some of the most ambitious marketing starts with understanding the people and opportunities others have overlooked.

Why inclusion wins at Cannes Lions, hands down

Want to win a Cannes Lion? Look at what consistently wins.

Year after year, Creative Equals’ analysis finds inclusion and sustainability at the heart of award-winning work. In 2026, 11 of the 33 Cannes Lions Grands Prix put a social cause at the centre of the idea. The bigger story is long-term brand-building. What we see at Cannes Lions, and through our work with Effie UK, is that inclusive marketing builds relevance, creates innovation and grows future demand.

Here are five things marketing leaders need to know

1. The best work creates systemic change

This year’s strongest work changed products, services and experiences.

AXA changed its home-insurance proposition to provide emergency relocation and support for people experiencing domestic violence. Adidas created the ‘Supernova Rise 3 Adaptive’ with disabled athletes. Idomed’s ‘Nigrum Corpus’ addressed racial bias in medical education. Kenya’s ‘Paid Sick Leave for Cows’ protected dairy farmers’ livelihoods. Novartis’ ‘Relax Your Tight End’ helped normalise prostate-cancer screening.

And more: the ‘600k Network’ created real-time electoral transparency in Venezuela. Caritas’ ‘Vehicle of Hope’ supported aid access for children in Gaza. Hyundai’s ‘Coquí Alarmed’ connected conservation with Puerto Rican identity and biodiversity. The Ordinary’s ‘The Periodic Fable’ challenged beauty-industry pseudoscience aimed at women.

The common thread is clear: creativity is being used to change the product, the service, the experience and the system around it.

2. Brand-building creates value beyond immediate revenue

Marketing has become extraordinarily good at measuring transactions and considerably worse at valuing everything that happens before them. Strong brands build trust, salience, cultural relevance, reputation, loyalty and advocacy. They earn a place in people’s lives. Those assets lay the foundations of trust over time and ultimately influence commercial performance. A narrow focus on immediate conversion risks undervaluing the things that make brands valuable over decades.

Suncorp’s Titanium Grand Prix-winning ‘Haven’ reframed insurance around helping communities prepare for extreme weather. Cannes described it as a long-term public-service initiative. That is brand-building in its fullest sense.

3. Inclusion is an innovation strategy

Some of the strongest innovation at Cannes came from understanding people who have historically been overlooked.

Idomed rewrote medical training so Black bodies are represented in how doctors learn to diagnose. Adidas worked with Down's Syndrome athletes to redesign a running shoe around their needs. That shift opens up a much bigger opportunity.

Disabled people make up a significant proportion of the global population (15%), yet remain dramatically underrepresented in advertising (4%). The growth opportunity lies in understanding those consumers deeply enough to create better products, better experiences and more relevant brands.

4. Purpose only works when it is relevant

Mark Ritson has long challenged brands that attach a social cause to advertising without a meaningful connection to the business. The winning work at Cannes demonstrates what happens when relevance runs deeper. The most powerful brands are asking: who are we failing to understand, design for or serve today? Answer that question well and inclusion becomes a source of consumer insight, product innovation, cultural relevance and, most importantly, growth.

5. Marketing needs a bigger definition of effectiveness

Creative Equals’ work with Effie UK has repeatedly found a relationship between inclusion and effectiveness. Marketing creates economic value. It also shapes culture, changes norms, opens participation, builds trust and helps organisations solve problems their customers genuinely care about. Those outcomes matter because they shape the long-term strength of a brand.

In an industry increasingly obsessed with volume, Unilever CMO Leandro Barreto offered perhaps the best challenge at Cannes: ‘Are you building something worth passing on?’ It is a powerful question for any marketer thinking beyond the next quarter.