Drop Formality to Build Relatable, High-Impact Creativity.
Informal, Humorous, and Scrappy Campaigns Outperform Polished Work, Driving Audience Participation and Growth.
The Age of Informality
The LIONS Creativity Report Series 2024: Insights and Trends unpacks strategic challenges, consumer behaviours, and creative thinking drawn from Cannes Lions Festival sessions and award-winning work. The key shift: formality is out, informality is in. Brands that adopt relatability, humour, imperfection, and participation are outperforming those that cling to polish and persuasion. Noel Bunting, CCO at Publicis London, summarized it well: “What better way to come across as authentic as a brand [than by] dropping your shoulders and having more fun?”
Steve Huffman, Reddit’s CEO, underlined the broader cultural expectation: “People want to be talked to like they’re people.” This emphasis on human tone, imperfection, and participation defines the winning work of 2024.
The report identifies three dominant creative trends: Harness Humour, Be Scrappy, and Open Invite. Each is reinforced by campaign outcomes proving that relatability and play convert directly into commercial gains.
Harness Humor: Absurdity Gets Results
In 2024, humour re-emerged as a global creative force. The new Use of Humor Lions category attracted 798 entries, with 3.6% winning awards, beating the global average win rate of 3.1%. This signals a renewed appetite for comic storytelling. Ziad Ahmed of United Talent Agency noted: “Most people, but especially Gen Z, are just trying to get through the day without crying. A lot of people look to content for joy and levity in a world that often feels heavy.”
Case evidence:
Pop-Tarts “First Edible Mascot” (Weber Shandwick, Chicago) embraced absurdity by letting a mascot be eaten post-game. The result: 4bn impressions, 21m extra Pop-Tarts sold in eight weeks, and a Grand Prix in Brand Experience & Activation
Dramamine’s “Last Barf Bag” (FCB Chicago) created a museum and campaign around the redundancy of sick bags, driving a 26% Amazon sales lift.
Thai campaigns delivered global resonance. Sabina’s “Braless” spot, using bizarre humour, exceeded video completion benchmarks by 220%, with international audiences requesting translations.
Sammakorn “Not Sanpakorn” turned bureaucratic confusion into comedy, generating 7.6m views, 4m engagements, and an 82.6% surge in search volume.
Delight’s “Not Very Sweet” film series grew new customers by 7.8% through self-deprecating storytelling.
Kenan Thompson, SNL comedian, underscored humour’s global versatility: “Humour cuts through all boundaries.”.. The consequence is measurable: humorous campaigns don’t just entertain; they boost sales, engagement, and cultural currency.
Be Scrappy: Imperfection Builds Participation
The report highlights a surge in scrappy creativity, campaigns that reject polish for authenticity. Audiences increasingly reward rawness and co-creation. Weber Shandwick’s Jeff Immel explained: “The language of the internet is less produced, less perfect, less commercial. To succeed, you’ve got to embrace that.”
Case evidence:
Pop-Tarts’ meme-ready edible mascot succeeded because of internet speculation, teasing fans six weeks ahead. It proved that imperfect, bizarre ideas can spark anticipation and co-creation, leading to tangible sales growth.
Sammakorn’s campaign succeeded by mocking itself, creating participation from audiences tired of corporate stiffness.
The lesson: scrappy ideas invite audiences in. Polished persuasion distances; imperfection attracts. The consequence is clear: brands that embrace imperfection gain participation, while those chasing perfection lose relevance.
Open Invite: Replace Persuasion With Participation
Persuasion fatigue is real. The report shows audiences resist hard-sell tactics, preferring campaigns that intrigue and invite. Instead of shouting messages, winning brands designed experiences that sparked curiosity and cultural conversation.
Case evidence:
CeraVe “Michael CeraVe” (Ogilvy PR, New York) leaned into a viral conspiracy that actor Michael Cera invented the skincare brand. Its Super Bowl reveal debunked the rumour, lifting sales by 25% in a single week.
Dunkin’ “America Runs on Dunkin’ [and Ben]” (Artists Equity, Los Angeles) tapped Ben Affleck’s authentic fandom and cultural memes, driving the brand’s highest-ever day of sales.
Celebrity talent was also reframed: no longer polished endorsements, but participatory stories rooted in humour. This marks a structural change in how brands use fame to generate cultural heat. As Noel Bunting, CCO at Publicis London, concluded: “Humour is back, humour is effective and humour is global.”
The consequence: campaigns built as invitations convert attention into action, while persuasion-led campaigns face rejection.
Recommendations: CEO-Level Imperatives
Institutionalise humour as a growth tool. Brands must stop treating levity as risk and start mandating it as strategy.
Reward imperfection. Shift creative reviews to prioritise ideas that drive participation, not polish.
Redefine success metrics. Adopt “heat metrics” (cultural traction, meme adoption, organic spread) alongside revenue outcomes.
Hold leadership accountable. CMOs must prove participation and sales growth directly linked to creative risk-taking.
Bottom Line: Informality Wins Markets T
he LIONS Creativity Report 2024 proves informality, humour, and imperfection are not creative flourishes,they are commercial imperatives.
Pop-Tarts, Dramamine, Sabina, Sammakorn, Delight, CeraVe, and Dunkin’ show that the brands who embrace absurdity and authenticity convert culture into growth. Those that cling to formality, polish, and persuasion will lose both attention and market share.
