A small step for Cannes, not a giant leap for Asian creative influence

At this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Asia's presence was a few decibels louder, a notch prouder, and it surely edged into a clearer view. With over 90 Asian jurors, several Asian speakers, high single-digit Asia-focused or Asia-represented Main Stage sessions, including Warc's seminal Asia Effectiveness Project, the continent evidenced its slowly growing footprint in the global creative discourse. Work from Asian agencies clinched Grand Prix across India, Singapore, China and South Korea. Mongolia made a remarkable debut at the Country Pavilion, announcing its creative ambitions with a unique blend of heritage and hope—a statement that Asia's cultural voices are varied, vital, and ready to be heard.

However, despite these milestones, this seemed like a modest movement, not the seismic shift that Cannes Lions and the world could have witnessed.

At the global preview of McCann Worldgroup's 'The Truth about Ascending Asia' at Cannes Lions 2024, Asia's deep and rising cultural affluence was positioned as a wellspring for global creativity. In the Cannes Lions 2025 official programming, however, only few of the usual Asian suspects were spotlighted -Japan's food finesse, Korea's K-pop juggernaut, China's branding boom and now the salient 'Xiaohongshu' - it overlooked the real revolution: the cultural creativity exploding from the wider Asian region and the so-called "underdog" nations. Asia is not a monolith, and its magnetic creative effervescence is bubbling from the fringes to global social feeds, from Hanoi's very Instagrammable Train Street to the YouTube dance covers from Manila and the food stalls of Bangkok.

Southeast Asia's artistic soul: Music, cinema and fashion boom

Let's begin with music creativity. T-Pop stars 4EVE and Jeff Satur are reshaping musical stardom with slick soundscapes and sartorial storytelling, now recognised through performances at LA's Head in the Clouds Festival and fashion partnerships with brands like Valentino. Meanwhile, groups like SB19 and BINI are blazing a P-Pop trail, blending local authenticity and global ambition. In Indonesia, sounds by artists like NIKI and Ghea Indrawari are amplified by TikTok, reaching international charts, and the country is a "trigger market" for Spotify—a bellwether for global music tastes. Dangdut, Indonesia's most infectious genre, is undergoing a remix renaissance, evolving into the increasingly popular emerging genre of "hip-dut," which fuses traditional rhythm with hip hop and electronica.

In film and drama, Southeast Asia is rephrasing stories with intimacy and emotional stakes at the core. Thailand's How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies became the nation's highest-grossing global hit - not with bombast, but with quiet, visceral depth. Indonesia's Cigarette Girl and Thailand's Hunger validate the international resonance of raw, rooted storytelling among audiences who are hungry for heart over hype.

Fashion's creative frontlines are shifting east

India's Sabyasachi redefined global luxury with Estée Lauder's 'Calcutta Red' and H&M's first-ever sari. Korea's Gentle Monster collaboration with Maison Margiela creatively blended signature with the experimental, while Loewe's tribute to Chinese ceramics turned Ming dynasty design into modern monochrome must-haves. On Asian streets, creativity is just as clear as couture. Bangkok's flea markets, Chengdu's Hanfu walks, and Harajuku's neon narratives are the real trend factories, curated by brave individuals with creative expressions. But on the Cannes Lions runway, collaborative creativity in fashion was left off the rack.

Creative commerce

And then there's the region's vibrant creator economy and creative social commerce - arguably its most potent, yet least acknowledged contemporary model of creativity. With over 7,600 Southeast Asian YouTubers surpassing the 1 million subscriber mark, many outpacing their European counterparts, the region's approach to social commerce is being reimagined as cultural commerce - remaking the marketplace with creative flair, immersive, editorial, and emotionally resonant storytelling that blurs the lines between art, content, fandoms, and commerce.

So why, amidst all this creative dynamism, was Cannes Lions still fixated only on the greatest hits? The fact that these hits were finally played should not be the consolation.

K-pop is resounding, but not the only sound. Japanese food is flavourful, but not the only flavour. Chinese branding is dominant, but not the only dominant story.

The International Festival of Creativity must also seek out the underexposed, champion emerging trends, and illuminate budding creative movements from across the spectrum. Because creativity is about the new, the novel and the next.

But this isn't the Festival's burden and responsibility alone.

It's time for Asia to ascend by acting—not in silos, but in solidarity.

Imagine a unified movement where the Philippines' creator economy, Indonesia's music movements, India's innovation labs, and Thailand's cinematic gems converge to showcase their talents. Agencies must advocate, brands must bankroll, governments must goad, and creators must collaborate in the cause of creativity being a core business driver. Asia doesn't need to wait for an invitation. It needs to build its own creative coalition.

Because the future of creativity isn't just coming from Cannes—it's also coming from Asia.

And it's time the world took note of it.

Shilpa Sinha is the APAC chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup.