Do award-winning ads drive sales for the world’s biggest companies? An analysis by Unilever of its recent haul of Cannes Lions winners (41 overall with Grand Prix for Dove and Vaseline) suggests they do.
Unilever’s organic sales growth accelerated to 3.8% last quarter, lifting growth to 3.4% for the first half of 2025, with North America sales growth, where Unilever’s Lions-winning campaigns were largely focused, up 5.4% in the first half. Dove, at Ogilvy, grew fastest, up 8% globally. Axe also returned to growth following a series of humour-led campaigns from LoLa MullenLowe.
Unilever personal care CMO Nuria Hernández Crespo told Ad Age the emphasis on creative ads “allows us to have the best agency partners, the best creative teams within those agencies, because these are brands they want to work for. There is a huge correlation with our business performance. These awards in many cases are not only valuing creativity, but also really performance.”
