Only three in 10 multinational marketing teams consistently deliver creative excellence, according to a WFA and LIONS study of 160 senior marketers overseeing $141 billion in annual ad spend. The findings land as AI is set to dominate conversations at Cannes Lions, raising the risk that deeper organizational problems get sidelined by a rush toward efficiency tools.
The creativity gap in numbers
Fifty-three percent of respondents said they value creative excellence, but prioritization remains inconsistent across teams. Just 44% have successfully embedded a belief in creative excellence throughout their global marketing organizations. The report, Clients and Creativity 2026, draws on quantitative data and CMO interviews across 86 brand owners and 26 sectors.
Many CMOs have yet to make creative excellence a top-three priority, and some brands are still defining what the term even means. While 63% are building new processes-templates, earlier agency involvement, systematisation-to improve output, only 48% have woven creative excellence into their global marketing capabilities programmes.
Barriers: short-termism and risk aversion
The study identified three main obstacles: short-termism (68%), risk aversion (45%), and insufficient investment for creative development (37%). These pressures pull teams away from the sustained effort needed to produce consistently strong work.
"There is much talk that AI can drive improved creativity, a proven ingredient for marketing effectiveness. But we need to look at our processes holistically before seeing how AI can fit in," said WFA CEO Stephan Loerke. He urged CMOs to focus on building a culture of creative effectiveness rather than evaluating AI through disconnected initiatives.
The AI paradox: efficiency vs. effectiveness
Only 35% of marketers are using AI to drive better creative results beyond efficiency gains. Thirteen percent disagreed with the statement that their AI use is "more focused on efficiencies over effectiveness." The largest share (39%) is still working on a common vision for AI in creative excellence; just 11% have one.
AI is finding practical roles in concept testing (55%), ideation (52%), and consumer intelligence analysis (47%). But 58% worry about creative homogeneity-a "sea of creative sameness." Seventy-four percent feel hopeful that AI will help measure the business impact of creativity, and 38% already use it for that purpose. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said up-skilling AI capabilities is key to future creative excellence, a need addressed by resources like AI for Creatives Courses.
Sixty-four percent said the C-suite pushes for overly optimistic efficiency savings from AI, and 61% said this shifts focus away from marketing effectiveness. Fifty-seven percent are looking to external agencies to figure out and prove AI's value.
Why this matters for creatives
When creative excellence isn't a consistent organizational priority, the work creatives produce gets undercut by short deadlines, thin budgets, and fragmented feedback loops. The report points to AB InBev-named Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year for the third time-as a counterexample: the company invested in systems, measurement, and talent to embed creativity as a core business driver.
"Brands need to develop systems to codify and scale creativity, use measurement to link it to growth, invest in talent and skills, as well as identify a supporting role for AI that amplifies the work," said LIONS chief content officer Paul Kemp-Robertson. For creatives inside large marketing organizations, that means pushing for earlier agency involvement, clearer definitions of excellence, and AI tools that serve the idea rather than just trimming costs.
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