Investing in Creativity: A Necessity for Business Transformation

Susie Walker is the Head of Awards at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Here, she shares how creative transformation is necessary for business growth and resilience in a world faced with continued digital disruption and the ongoing effects of COVID-19.

When we think of business transformation today, we might not immediately associate it with creativity. While the marketing and advertising world has shifted toward adopting marketing tech and ad tech to gain new ground, we increasingly see more evidence of the intrinsic link between creativity and business success.

In a Forrester study that examined the return on investment (ROI) of creativity compared to the adoption of marketing tech and ad tech, they found a shift of $19 billion from technology into creativity over six years would provide an increase in ROI as high as 18% — a potential return of $66 billion.¹ Although the study was conducted in the U.S., we expect to see similar results elsewhere in the world.