This week at Cannes Lions, HAVAS Red is shaping the conversation about our industry’s future with a new global report on brand desire, a flagship HAVAS Café panel and a historic jury appointment.
On Tuesday morning at the HAVAS Café, Group Chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré unveiled “The Science of Desire,” a new global study on what drives brand preference, loyalty and growth in an AI-driven world.
Drawing on insights from 87,500+ respondents across 10 markets, the research found that brands building genuine desire deliver 2.4x more sustained growth and 87% more pricing power, through three interconnected forces: attraction, affinity and attachment. The effect holds even in AI environments, where desirable brands are up to 4x more likely to be cited by AI systems. Yet a “desire deficit” persists, with 84% of brands stuck in indifference.
“At HAVAS, we believe growth starts with what truly moves people,” said Bolloré. “The most successful brands will be those that combine technological power with deep human understanding and creativity, to build lasting connections.”
Bolloré also announced the next phase of HAVAS’ Converged.AI ecosystem, including increased investment in Vurvey Labs, pairing human insight with AI agents to move brands from raw data to sharper strategy and creative decisions — faster, without losing the judgment that makes brands worth choosing.
That same day, the HAVAS Café hosted “AI and Authenticity: Amplifying Creativity—and Desire—Without Losing Voice,” a roundtable co-presented by HAVAS Red and PRovoke Media. Moderated by PRovoke’s Editorial Director Maja Pawinska Sims, the discussion brought together James Wright, Global Chair of the HAVAS PR Network and Global CEO of HAVAS Red, and Dara Busch, CEO of HAVAS PR North America, with leaders from PayPal, Meltwater and the creator economy — picking up the thread Bolloré laid down hours earlier: As AI makes infinite content possible, brands that win will be chosen.
“The one part that we all need to remember is: We can be the master of our own universe in terms of how AI is used,” said Wright. “It shouldn’t just be happening to us. We can be helping shape it — how we want it to help power and develop our industry, how we want it to shape and develop our children as well, because right now, we’ve still got the power to be able to do that.”
“While we look at AI to be more efficient and work harder and empower our teams to be smarter, we’re also seeing that really good AI leads to a lot of great noise about a brand,” said Busch. Pointing to Nike’s AI campaign which simulated a tennis match between Serena Williams in 1999 — when she won her first Grand Slam — and Serena in 2017 at her peak, Busch said, “There’s a lot of really cool stuff you can do with AI that is very PR-able.”
See PRovoke’s full recap of the session here.
Dana Tahir, CEO of HAVAS Red Middle East and Egypt, marks the week’s third milestone so far: she’s serving as Jury President for PR Lions, the first Arab woman from MENA to hold a Cannes Lions Jury President role.
In an interview with Little Black Book, Dana described her instinct to find the cultural truth before the brand message. “The best ideas rarely begin with what a brand wants to say,” she explains. “They begin with understanding the conversations, shifts and behaviors shaping the world around us.”
Dana sees her appointment as a sign of how far the industry — and the region — have come. “What makes me most proud is what this moment says about the creative talent emerging from the Middle East,” she says. “I see this role as an opportunity to celebrate that progress, inspire the next generation, and prove that talent from our part of the world belongs at every level.”
Take the next step and reach out today.
