At Cannes Lions 2025, Flourish hosted a recorded panel conversation with senior leaders about the future of sustainability, creativity and brand marketing.
Maddy Cooper, CEO of Flourish, was joined by Preeti Srivastav, Group Head of Sustainability at Asahi Group Holdings, Deb Caldow, Guinness Category Marketing Director at Diageo, and Lisa Merrick-Lawless, Co-founder of Purpose Disruptors. The conversation was chaired by Thomas Kolster, on behalf of Cannes Lions ACT Responsible.
The discussion was energising and straight-talking, with one thing being totally clear: the future of creative marketing is transparent, cross-functional, and rooted in verified sustainability data.
In this article, we dive into the core insights every future-thinking marketer needs to know.
Scroll down to watch the full panel.
The future of marketing
Cannes celebrates cultural relevance and creative excellence, but as audiences shift and scrutiny rises creative leaders are being called to do more than simply be creative.
Today’s audiences care about the future. The future of the planet, of society, and of their own role in shaping it. That’s especially true for younger generations, where purchasing decisions are increasingly aligned with their values. And the brands that understand this are not simply talking about sustainability; they’re building it into their creative platforms, product strategies, and business models.
Sustainability can no longer be treated as a side-story or end-of-year report. Marketers who ignore sustainability risk being ignored and becoming culturally irrelevant.
So let’s explore how future-fit marketers will approach this challenge.
Value chains as a creative frontier
As sustainability regulations increase globally, there is a misconception that compliance stifles creativity. But does it?
The value chain holds the raw data for original and resilient ideas. From sourcing and production to logistics and repair, verified sustainability data provides a credible foundation for storytelling. And when that data is activated well, it gives marketing teams something rare and valuable: truth worth sharing.
As marketers, we know emotive storytelling is vital to a successful campaign, but often we forget where to look for those sparks of inspiration. Preeti reminds us that, “sustainability is bringing the science and the credibility and the data, and then marketing is bringing the beautiful storytelling around it.”
Smart marketers understand that verified data from the value chain is emerging as marketing’s greatest untapped asset. Maddy calls these the seeds for a campaign that become the creative unlock. When done right, it fuels ideas.
“It might seem like the least sexy topic, but actually, value chain data is the the sexiest career defining gold that all marketers are sitting on.
When it's the genuine impact of sustainability transformation, it's incredible brand value, and you've already spent the money. It's sitting on the balance sheet. Alchemize that into world leading, brilliant marketing creative that can really change audience behaviour [and] drive growth” — Maddy Cooper, Flourish
In a world rightly cautious about greenwashing and greenhushing, starting with truth is safer and smarter. It unlocks creative potential and legal confidence in the same stroke.
But, to get there, we must overcome the challenges and fears we have about greenwashing.
Silence is no longer safety
Greenwashing has, rightly so, been seen as a major risk in talking about sustainability.
This sustainability is not about perfection.
It’s about specificity, clarity, and forward motion. Traceability reports and lifecycle data are no longer back-office documents. They are the creative brief. Audiences are not looking for the perfect brand, they’re looking for trustworthy ones.
As Preeti says, “The damage control is much worse than a successful campaign.” But in response to fears of audience or regulatory backlash, many brands have fallen into greenhushing - saying nothing about sustainability. But this is silently becoming one of the most damaging behaviours in modern marketing.
While staying silent feels safe, it has two major costs.
First, the cost of relevance, trust, and market opportunity. And second, the opportunity to positively impact the planet, people, and profit.
“If you have good intent and you want to give your brand a halo with sustainability… once you get the tools, the processes, the governance, the style, in time it will be smooth sailing.” — Preeti Srivastav, Asahi
Marketing’s role is expanding
Deb Caldow reminds the panel that, “as marketeers, we say that we're here to influence consumers”, but that we’ve historically shied away from climate change as it’s been perceived as too difficult. But sustainability is a systemic challenge and so for marketing to influence change, it can’t stay downstream. Marketers must move upstream, into supply chains and product innovation.
“It’s not just about creating the posters or the comms campaign… It’s fundamentally looking at how you create and move your product, and thinking about disruptive business models… the marketing function [has the power] to give consumers better products that happen to be better for them, better for the planet, and better for profit.” — Deb Caldow
Marketing is a unique and transformational function within a business.
It influences behavioural and attitudinal change. And so Deb encourages us each to reflect on, “how to create a growth trajectory for the brand, and in doing so, create a better legacy on planet and people?”
In truth, this is an opportunity for marketing teams to reconnect with their original purpose: to create, communicate and deliver services and products that meet human and social needs profitably.
Which is unexpectedly similar to the UN’s definition of sustainability as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
But how do marketers move from ‘colouring in’ to ‘creating value’?
The answer lies in collaboration.
Collaboration is a competitive advantage
Most organisations still operate in silos. Marketing teams are briefed late. Legal steps in at the eleventh hour. Sustainability teams hold data that never makes it to campaign strategy.
This fragmented model is not fit for purpose with the changing regulation, rising expectations and cost of getting it wrong.
“I come from the world of sustainability… We know that the sustainability language and the world of sustainability data can be heavy… But we also know that we bring that piece of credibility… that you can fly with.” — Preeti Srivastav
To Preeti’s point, marketing, sustainability and legal must all come together and work much more collaboratively. Aligning at the beginning of campaign development ensures the brief is right.
But it goes beyond just collaboration.
Maddy adds that we need to be intentional with how we create the right conditions to deliver compliant campaigns:
“Sustainability, marketing, legal, compliance are fundamentally different humans. They will process information in different ways, and have very different targets… So we’ve got to bring everyone together with a common goal … and give people the tools to be able to collaborate really effectively.”
This is about better process. Better process in order to unlock faster, effective, and compliant campaigns.
And Lisa expands that it’s not only collaboration within teams and organisations, but also across the sector. As an example she talks about Purpose Disruptor’s pop-up agency called, Agency for Nature, that “brings together people from different advertising agencies, where the client is nature and the brief is to put nature into youth culture.” These experimental offshoots are vital to innovate and change the narrative on what value marketing can bring to broader society.
Youth culture has long been a driver of change, which is where we’ll turn next.
Gen Z demands better
Gen Z is not a passive audience. They are informed, values-led, and deeply attuned to authenticity. They don’t want vague brand promises or empty gestures. They want evidence and they expect action.
This generation grew up with climate breakdown, social inequality, and institutional mistrust as daily realities. Their expectations of brands are shaped by that context. They aren’t looking for perfection—they are looking for integrity. For brands, that means taking responsibility, showing progress, and bringing their values to life in visible, meaningful ways.
“What most people really need to be able to do is attract Gen Z and younger audiences… And the future of our planet and society is what those audiences really, really care about.” — Maddy Cooper
What this means for marketers is clear: surface-level sustainability claims and generic messaging doesn’t work.
To earn Gen Z’s attention and trust, brands must show the receipts through verified impact and clear accountability.
That requires the courage to say: “Here’s what we’ve done, here’s what we’re doing next, and here’s what we’re still working on.”
Today’s audiences are discerning and won’t be swayed by vague claims. But they will reward the brands that show up with proof.
And brands like Diageo are taking their first steps. Deb explains, “We have taken actions for our brands [but we] haven't talked about them yet… The next level for us is—when we talk about it creatively as well as compliantly—what that can unlock appeal to more consumers?”
Like the generations before them, from the Civil Rights Movement to Hip Hop Culture, and from the Mods and Rockers to Fridays for Future, our youth demand better.
This is a leadership opportunity
As with all changes in society, the stories we tell define the moment. Beyond the stories we use to sell, we’re at a point where the story we tell about our roles as marketers is changing. We’re being asked to step up and take action. To recognise the climate emergency we face, to innovate and collaborate like never before, so that we can limit harm and rejuvenate our planet.
This panel wasn’t just a discussion.
It was a call to action.
“Come on” Preeti urges marketers, “you've done better on bigger challenges in this world than just climate change. And I think it's time for the creative storytellers to take this on as a creative spirit and say that we can actually crack this with all the boundaries that we've been given.”
Which Deb echoes, “for all the marketers out there that are currently hoping that somebody else is taking care of this thing. No one's coming to save you.” She highlights something that we at Flourish believe too, that working on this problem can give you a “new lease of life” in your career. Because, every morning you get to ask yourself the same question Deb asks, “how do I create a growth trajectory for the brand I work on, and in doing so, create a better legacy on planet and people?”
As regulations tighten and expectations rise, the brands that win will be the ones that act with clarity, creativity, and confidence.
Lisa reminds us that “constraints are where the best creativity is”, and as marketers we know this. That means embracing compliance as a creative unlock. It means embedding verified sustainability data into the marketing workflow. And it means recognising that bold ideas and credible claims are not opposites. They are allies.
Marketing is changing.
Responsibility is changing.
And the most courageous brands are already showing what’s possible.
Are you ready for the Truth Marketing era?
Find out how Flourish can help you lead with truth.
Watch the full panel
