In short: Cannes Lions rewards creativity; the Effie Awards reward commercial effectiveness. The two often overlap — but not always. Among the Cannes winners that flopped: Pepsi with Kendall Jenner (2017) and Volkswagen "Pink Moon" (2008). On the other side, campaigns that paired awards with ROI: KFC "FCK Apology", Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like", Apple "Get a Mac". The IPA Effectiveness Code (Field/Binet, 2019) shows that highly creative campaigns deliver up to 12x the ROI of poorly creative ones. For an SMB the lesson is simple: chasing awards is the wrong lever; chasing effectiveness — which brings the awards along with it — is the right one.
What Cannes Lions rewards: creativity, not always ROI
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity honours the world's most creative advertising campaigns every year. There are more than twenty categories — Film, Print, Outdoor, Cyber, Direct, Innovation and many others — and the jury is made up of creative directors, art directors, senior copywriters and agency executives.
The judging criteria are unambiguous about creativity: a distinctive idea, flawless execution, an original concept, cultural impact. In many categories commercial ROI is only a secondary criterion; the exception is the Creative Effectiveness Lions, which are dedicated to effectiveness.
The upshot is that some Cannes winners produced poor, sometimes even counterproductive, ROI. These are a minority of cases, but well-known ones. The general rule holds: Cannes rewards remarkable campaigns, which often — but not always — translate into business results.
Effie Awards vs Cannes: two philosophies
The Effie Awards (American Marketing Association, founded in 1968) are dedicated to campaigns with verified commercial effectiveness. To enter, brands have to bring hard data: sales lift, market share, marketing ROI.
The difference with Cannes lies in the yardstick. Effie juries also include CMOs, marketing executives and agencies, but they assess case studies against measurable metrics. As a result, some Effie winners aren't especially "creative" in the Cannes sense — they're simply effective.
The ideal, of course, is a campaign that wins on both fronts. Apple "Get a Mac", KFC "FCK Apology" and Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" are examples of that double win.
Cannes winners that failed: the Pepsi Kendall Jenner case
Pepsi "Live for Now" with Kendall Jenner (2017). A two-and-a-half-minute ad in which model Kendall Jenner hands a Pepsi to a police officer in the middle of a protest, "defusing" the tension. The intended message was one of "unity in divisive times". Instead it triggered an immediate wave of criticism: the ad was accused of trivialising movements like Black Lives Matter, and Pepsi pulled it after just 24 hours (as reported by Adweek).
On the Cannes front: the ad was made by Pepsi's in-house creative team and conceived partly with awards in mind. After the storm, though, neither Pepsi nor the team ever submitted it officially. A textbook case of a creative attempt that ignores cultural sensitivity.
Volkswagen "Pink Moon" (USA, 2008). It won a Cannes Lion but moved brand perception not one inch, with KPIs below expectations. A lesser-known case, but one analysed in the IPA case studies.
Skittles "Touch the Rainbow" (series, various years). Some episodes won at Cannes but delivered low recall and weak brand attribution (Fluency Rating <50%).
Winners that worked: KFC, Old Spice, Apple
KFC "FCK Apology" (UK, 2018). In 2018 KFC UK had to temporarily close a number of restaurants because of a logistics failure: it had run out of chicken. The chain responded with a full-page ad in Metro UK and The Sun in which its logo was rearranged into "FCK" as an apology. The result: multiple Cannes Lions and Effie Awards, a documented +20% in positive sentiment, and a faster-than-expected sales recovery (a case covered by Marketing Week).
Old Spice "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" (2010). The iconic spot with Isaiah Mustafa revived a brand seen as "for old men", turning it into an aspirational lifestyle reference. Sales rose +107% in the first year (a figure verified by Procter & Gamble), alongside a Cannes Grand Prix and an Effie Gold.
Apple "Get a Mac" (2006-2009). The series with Justin Long and John Hodgman: a multi-year campaign with a System1 Star Rating between 4.5 and 5.5. Apple's brand lift over the campaign years is extensively documented, as are its many wins at Cannes and the Effies.
Aldi "Kevin the Carrot" (UK, from 2016). The recurring Christmas campaign and its iconic character collected awards at both Cannes and the IPA Effectiveness Awards. Over the same period Aldi UK's market share climbed from 5% to more than 9% (a case verified by the IPA).
Creativity and effectiveness: what the IPA numbers say
The IPA Effectiveness Code (Peter Field, 2019) is the most rigorous publication on the subject. It compares more than 400 case studies from the IPA Databank, cross-referencing creative ratings (assigned by a jury of peers) with verified business results.
The key figure: campaigns in the most creative quartile (the top 25%) generate on average 12 times the ROI of those in the least creative quartile. An enormous gap.
There's more: the most creative campaigns have longer-lasting effects (three to five years after air) and a stronger multiplier across channels. Investing in creative quality isn't a nice-to-have — it's one of the main levers of ROI.
One caveat: the cause and effect runs both ways. Brands that invest more in marketing tend to attract better agencies and put bigger creative budgets on the table, which in turn produces stronger creative. So the "ROI of creativity" is also the "ROI of serious brand investment" — the two don't separate cleanly.
SMB mistakes: chasing awards vs chasing results
The typical pattern goes like this: an SMB's marketing lead sees an award-winning Cannes case and wants to copy its "look" without the strategic rigour behind it. The result is pretentious campaigns that don't speak to the intended audience, come across as agency showpieces, and barely move sales.
The most common mistakes:
- Putting 70% of the budget into production and only 30% into media, when the optimal split is closer to 40-60.
- Optimising for the tropes Cannes loves (long-form storytelling, social causes, elaborate art direction) while losing sight of the real consumer.
- Skipping quantitative pretesting (System1, data-backed focus groups).
- Choosing an agency for its Cannes trophy cabinet rather than its effectiveness track record.
The right approach is the opposite: define the business objective first (sales lift, share gain, brand health), then choose creative and media accordingly. The award, if anything, follows on its own.
When an award really helps
(1) PR and earned media. An award triggers press coverage, social mentions and B2B word of mouth. In practice, it extends the life of the campaign.
(2) Attracting talent. An agency full of awards draws the best creatives. For agencies, in fact, chasing awards makes perfect sense — it's how their ecosystem works.
(3) The agency-client relationship. For the brand, an award is "external validation" of its marketing spend. It helps defend the budget and make the case in the boardroom.
(4) Cultural impact. An award amplifies the brand's message far beyond its core audience. Patagonia's "Don't Buy This Jacket" is a case in point: it generated a media wave well beyond its direct customer base.
(5) A self-fulfilling prophecy. A brand that wins awards is seen as "innovative", and that brings partnerships, preferential treatment from distributors, and a better ability to retain talent.
Decision table: brand strategy vs award strategy
FAQ
Is Cannes Lions "broken" as an institution?
No, it isn't "broken" — but it isn't the only yardstick for judging a campaign either. It's an award for creativity, not for commercial ROI, so using it as your sole reference will lead you astray. Pair it with Effie, IPA Effectiveness and System1 and you get the full picture.
Should an SMB ever enter Cannes Lions?
Entry costs €1,500-3,000 and up per category. If the campaign is genuinely distinctive, entering can be a sensible investment for an SMB — a win pays for itself in PR. If the campaign is average, the return is low and that budget is better spent on media that delivers results.
Are the Effie Awards better than Cannes for evaluating a campaign?
For business results, yes — they're more predictive. For creativity, Cannes remains the absolute benchmark. The rule of thumb: aim for the Effies as a strategic goal and let Cannes follow, if the creative quality earns it.
How can you tell whether a campaign will work from the awards it has won?
The awards most tied to commercial success are the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions and the Effie Golds. Cannes Film, Print and Cyber reward creative quality above all — a more volatile indicator of business results. The advice: don't stop at the trophies, ask for case studies with verified KPIs (sales lift in %, share gain in points, uplift in brand metrics).
What should you tell a client who says "I want a Cannes campaign"?
Turn the question around: "what's the business objective?". If it's growing sales, distribution or market share, the reference point is an Effie-style approach. If it's cultural impact and PR visibility, then a Cannes-style approach makes sense. Most of the time the goal is commercial — and the creative should be sized to match.
Any Italian cases of award + ROI campaigns?
Publicly, there are few. Among the better known: "Mi piace Esselunga" (multi-year, with verified brand health), some classic Barilla spots and a few Galbusera cases. In Italy the literature on advertising effectiveness is thinner than in the UK: Effie Italy cases exist, but they're documented in a less structured way than the IPA's.
Sources and references
- Field, P. — "The Crisis in Creative Effectiveness" (IPA, 2019)
- Binet, L. & Field, P. — "The Long and the Short of It" (IPA, 2013)
- Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — annual reports and case archive
- Effie Awards — case study database
- IPA Effectiveness Awards Databank — 1500+ case studies since 1980
- Wood, O. — "Lemon" (2019) and "Look Out" (2021), System1
- Pepsi Kendall Jenner case — Adweek and Campaign US coverage, 2017
- KFC "FCK" case — Fast Company and Marketing Week, 2018
- WARC Effectiveness — case studies repository
