How do brands who win at Cannes perform?

Award winning as an indicator

By Ignasi Vargas · FALCA, creative studio · Barcelona

I work in advertising, so like anyone with some criteria, I am constantly wondering.

Is it useful? Does it work?

I have a dear friend with a strong conscience who doubts his profession.

He feels this industry provides little good.

It promotes consumerism, warms the planet, etc. Lots of valid reasons.

When we discuss, I like to focus on the positive. Employment. Taxes. Money running. Low impact. Good salaries.

Taxes again.

Plus, if advertising works, it is better for companies that, at the same time, contribute to all the above and general human development.

Human development as Hans Rosling understands it. https://youtu.be/BPt8ElTQMIg?si=VH_03vMS6ElDPvfM

The business of making business has become my particular Roman history obsession in my middle-aged era. And a reason to confront people I find too negative, or, to me, unaware of the true conditions in other areas of the world, or, most importantly, other times.

I love seeing legal business thrive because I find that making them (business) is so hard. And feeble. And fragile. And demanding.

So when companies (and the brands they are associated with) do good, I am genuinely happy.

Last week, Cannes happened. And lots of think pieces too. About the future of advertising. Will we have jobs in five years?

There have been two reasons to be optimistic:

People and potential clients seem to hate hard all 100% generated AI slop. Not just sommeliers, creativity purists and hipsters. We are talking about the so-called “masses”. They don’t seem to be engaged with this AI generated content.

Also it seems that advertising, and good advertising especially, favors businesses.

While I am far from financially savvy, I love the truth and accessibility of the regulated market: stocks. The fact that, by law, companies need to disclose their business, and you as a citizen can check them, is wild. And that, in the most direct way, democracy: the market “judges” the structure and future of a company by the price it gives its stock. It’s incredible. And we can read all that for free.

So I checked last year’s Cannes winners across different categories and saw how they did. Obviously, I didn’t do it alone.

Some observations:

1- There is a correlation between winning trophies in Cannes and growing next year in business and sales. Most brands had good years in business growth after winning some metal at Cannes.

2- Where advertising actually shows up: pricing power. The real financial fingerprint is price-led growth — Heineken sold 2% fewer beers but charged 3.8% more per liter; luxury runs on it (Moncler 78% margin). As a famous creative said, marketing allows brands to raise their prices and clients to be happy to pay for them.

3- Stock was not especially positive for the winning brands. 2025-2026 was especially big for semiconductors and other technologies that may use advertising a bit less (NVIDIA, TSMC, etc.).

If sales and margin increase and the advertising (or the key pieces presented) is winning/appreciated, this may mean that the brand is doing ok.

Here are ten of them, one year on:

Stock = the 12 months after the win (≈ Jun 2025 – Jun 2026); sales = FY2025 vs FY2024. Both year-over-year. S&P 500 over the same window: +19.9%.

So now you know brands: Open the coffers. Spend in creativity, and your business will grow.

I doubt I will convince my friend that Cannes is more than roses, beaches and superficiality. Still, rather a meaningful event where some people show pride in the work they have made during the year and where brands are cherished and business-making is celebrated.

Some Cannes panels are focused on things like so-called culture or green impact, when the best outcomes they generate are employment, salaries, taxes paid — basically any other sort of growth index.

We don’t love ourselves enough.

Data: FALCA Backrooms report. Also on Ignasi's Substack: Las Métricas (lasmetricas.substack.com).