Just three in 10 multinational marketers say their teams works to deliver creative excellence consistently, according to new research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and LIONS. Most (53%) say they value creative excellence, but prioritisation is still inconsistent across teams.
Clients and Creativity 2026 reveals the scale of the creativity gap, while WFA surveys consistently indicate that creative excellence isn’t a top three priority for many CMOs while some brands say they are still developing a definition for creative excellence.
The report identifies a series of barriers for greater progress in this area, including short-termism (68%), risk aversion (45%) and securing sufficient investment for creative development (37%).
New Digital Age spoke with Rob Dreblow, Global Head of Marketing Services, and Will Gilroy, Director of Communications and Strategy at WFA, to find out more…
What prompted the new research?
Rob Dreblow: There’s obviously a lot of work being done around creativity more broadly, and a lot of our members are involved in Cannes Lions and similar events. This research was really exploratory. We worked with the Contagious Lions group to discover where some of the blockers are for clients when it comes to creativity.
It’s fairly well documented that creative effectiveness is in decline, and most of our members would probably agree with that. So it was really about identifying where those gaps are and, in many cases, what can be done to address them. Ultimately, it’s about helping members benchmark their own approach and hopefully improve it.
Will Gilroy: AI was also an important part of the picture. There’s a lot of nervousness and uncertainty within the industry about AI nicking people’s jobs. At WFA we’re great believers in creativity and we’re great believers in technology being in service of people, rather than the other way around.
We wanted to inject a note of client realism into the debate. What are clients actually saying? Where do they think creativity is going to come from in the future? Do they really think AI is going to drive creative excellence?
People are the lifeblood of this industry, so we also wanted to inject a modicum of optimism. I’m not sure the results inject enormous optimism, but they do inject a lot of realism into a debate that’s much needed. We can get carried away with hype and hyperbole, particularly when it comes to AI, so a client-centric view based on solid empirical data is needed now more than ever.
What stood out as the headline findings?
RD: If you read the trade press, you could easily imagine that creative excellence is the primary goal of every marketer. AI has brought brand fundamentals back into the conversation, but creativity is probably not as top of mind for many brand owners as people imagine.
That can be problematic, especially with AI coming into the process. It may help, but it could also accelerate the drift towards declining creative effectiveness.
There are plenty of companies investing heavily in creativity, but there’s also an opportunity for more organisations to invest in creative excellence through capability programmes and internal upskilling. Creativity may not be quite as high on the agenda as many people assume.
WG: It’s a reality check. Only three in ten respondents said they’re consistently delivering creative excellence. We weren’t massively surprised because these are large global organisations. Most brands would probably say they get it right sometimes, but not consistently across every market.
Nothing is going to replace the hard work of developing and nurturing a creative culture within an organisation. AI aside, consistently delivering great creative still comes down to putting in the investment and doing the hard yards.
Did any of the findings surprise you?
RD: Not hugely. Our audience was multinational brands, not SMEs or local marketers, and although there’s a perception that everyone’s fully embracing AI, most organisations still don’t have a clear vision of exactly what they want it to achieve. We speak to our members regularly, so that wasn’t especially surprising to us, although it may surprise others.
WG: Two things stood out for me. Around 63% said they have a game plan for improving creative excellence. I found myself wondering why that wasn’t higher.
The other surprise was that fewer than half said driving creative excellence forms part of their marketing capability programmes. Given how well understood creative excellence is as a driver of incremental growth, I expected that figure to be considerably higher.
What support are WFA members looking for right now?
RD: WFA is primarily a peer-to-peer organisation, and a lot of the conversation is around how new technologies can help drive creative effectiveness and, ultimately, growth.
What’s interesting is that members aren’t necessarily asking about the latest flashy AI tool. They’re asking about governance. How should they be using AI? What guardrails should be in place? How are their agency partners using AI on their behalf?
Large multinational companies are naturally quite risk averse. That can be one of the challenges when you’re talking about creativity, but when it comes to AI they’re looking for practical advice about understanding the risks and responding appropriately.
WG: One of the strengths of WFA is that it’s a closed-door, peer-to-peer network made up only of brands. There are no agencies or platforms in the room, so members can have honest conversations.
We try to showcase organisations making genuine progress. AB InBev is a good example. They’ve shared their approach at several of our events around the world. The idea isn’t simply to celebrate success but to inspire others by showing the processes behind it.
RD: It’s equally valuable to hear where people got things wrong. Learning from others’ mistakes means members can avoid making the same mistakes themselves. Those conversations are often the most useful because people recognise the challenges immediately.
Beyond AI, what trends should marketers be keeping an eye on over the next year?
RD: Measuring the impact of marketing isn’t a new topic but the ways organisations are measuring it are evolving.
Businesses are under pressure, so accountability will only become more important. What’s exciting is how organisations are using new technology to better understand whether they’re delivering genuinely effective creativity and what impact that creativity is having.
WG: One finding that stood out was the optimism around AI improving measurement. More than 70% believed AI will help them better measure the business impact of creativity.
The other area worth watching is expectations at C-suite level. There seems to be a degree of optimism that AI will deliver major efficiencies. At the same time, the industry is dealing with uncertainty, concerns about jobs and attracting the best talent.
One of the reasons we carried out this research was to understand whether marketing still feels like a good place to build a career. Not all of the findings were positive. It’s important that we find the right balance between human creativity and machine capability. As with many things, the industry sometimes swings between extremes, and perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing back.
