What makes out-of-home campaigns Cannes Lions-worthy? Jon Evans presents the System1 favorites for 2025 – and shows why simplicity, brand codes and emotion make the difference.
The Outdoor category at Cannes Lions has seen a remarkable shift towards simplicity, playfulness, and instant impact. Brands are leaning into bold, distinctive assets and minimalistic design to capture attention in seconds, and the results speak for themselves.
System1’s research with JC Decaux UK, titled “How to Create the Perfect Poster”, revealed that outdoor ads typically receive just two seconds of attention. Yet, many fail to make an impression, with only 45 percent of consumers correctly recalling the brand in that critical window, leaving 55 percent with an incorrect guess.
The ads that do succeed in driving strong brand recognition share common traits: simplicity, boldness, and a sharp focus on brand assets. Vibrant colours, iconic brand characters, a maximum of three key elements on screen, and large logos placed at the top of the poster all contribute to success. Surprisingly, leaning into brand codes is still rare in outdoor advertising, but our research shows that doing so can deliver significant results. For example, placing a logo at the top of a poster increased brand recall by 17 percent on average.
Best practices from last year
The 2024 Cannes Lions nominees reflected this growing trend toward brand-centric, minimalist, and playful outdoor creativity. Campaigns like Coca-Cola and Ogilvy’s “Pressed,” Magnum and Lola Mullenlowe’s “Find Your Summer,” and British Airways and Uncommon’s “Windows” embraced this approach, proving that simplicity can be incredibly powerful.
And the momentum has only grown. Tesco and BBH’s “Icons” flooded our screens, alongside Cadbury and VCCP’s “Made to Share” and Coors Light’s playful typo in “The Case of the Mondays.” As brands continue to master the art of instant recognition and emotional appeal, the future of outdoor advertising looks brighter than ever.
Ikea does it again
Last year, Ikea Germany’s ‘Guilty Pets’ earned a Bronze Lion in the Outdoor category for a cleverly humorous campaign that highlighted the small mishaps caused by beloved pets.
Known for its mastery of simplicity, storytelling, and brand consistency, Ikea has returned with a new campaign, this time focusing on another source of everyday household chaos: children.
Like the best emotionally resonant outdoor work, the ad uses minimal copy and avoids overt product messaging. Instead, it demonstrates practically how families interact with Ikea’s affordable furniture. The branding is unmistakable, guiding viewers intuitively toward purchase.
While visually consistent with the pet campaign, this new work tells a distinct story aimed at a different audience. The result is strong emotional impact and standout branding, with both campaigns outperforming outdoor norms in Star Rating (a measure of long-term brand impact) and fluency (brand recall).
Campaigns rated high
Star rating predicts long-term brand growth based on an ad’s creative quality. System1 calculates star rating by measuring emotional response to each ad, with ads scoring between 1.0 and 5.9.
High-scoring, minimalist campaigns from System1’s database that could have a chance to win a Cannes Lion or to make it on the shortlist:
- Jaffa Cakes “We’re a Cake You Biscuit” (5-Stars) – UK
- WWF “Prescription for Nature” (5-Stars) – UK
- Frey “Chocolat ohne Trallala” DOOH (5.4 Stars) – Switzerland
- Pringles and Nintendo “Let’s-a-go” (4.2 Stars) – UK
- Cadbury “Made to Share” (4-Stars) – UK
- Heinz “It Has to be Toast” (3.6 Stars) – UK
- Kellogg’s “The OG” (3.9 Stars) – UK
- Ralph Lauren “Pink Pony” (3.2 Stars) – US
About the author
Jon Evans is CMO at System1, a company that helps brands around the world to improve their advertising. The focus is on ad evaluation according to scientific criteria. System1 also offers consulting and market research.
