LIONS’s  report has  exposed  creative confidence declines, which it noted, has led to insight and  culture gaps in 2025. The released  annual State of Creativity 2025 report, revealed that global creative confidence continues to weaken as marketers and creatives fail to develop adequate insights and respond to culture effectively.

Meanwhile, the report, which surveyed over 1,000 marketers and creatives between November 2024 and January 2025, highlights that risk aversion pervades the industry and points to two major challenges hindering creativity: poor-quality insights and slow adaptation to cultural shifts.

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In other words, LIONS Advisory found that only 13 percent of respondents regard their companies as open to creative risk-taking, defined as producing bold, unconventional ideas that challenge norms while 29 percent of brands described themselves as highly risk-averse.

Furthermore, despite this reluctance, external research referenced in the report shows that risk-taking yields significant returns. WARC and Kantar report that brands embracing creative risks enjoy four times higher profit margins, and Deloitte notes that such brands are 33 percent more likely to achieve long-term revenue growth.

Moreover, Patrick Jeffrey, Vice President at LIONS Advisory, tied the decline in creative risk-taking to brands’ failure to generate meaningful insights and respond quickly to cultural movements.

He warned that unless brands address these foundational gaps, they will continue to miss opportunities to deliver creative work that drives growth.

The report shows that 51 percent of brands believe their insights remain too weak to support bold creativity, and only 13 percent rate their insight development capabilities as strong.

Respondents identified several reasons for this shortfall, including poor understanding of what constitutes a quality insight, insufficient priority given to insight work, and lack of time for deep research.

The study also reveals that brands with stronger agency partnerships and more diverse teams generate better insights. It highlighted the use of artificial intelligence and synthetic data as effective tools to improve efficiency and reduce bias in insight development.

LIONS also found that brands lack cultural agility. The report shows that 57 percent of brands struggle to respond swiftly to cultural events, and only 12 percent rate their responsiveness as excellent.

Brands cited lengthy internal processes, limited resources, and difficulty connecting brand insights to cultural trends as factors slowing them down. The report urges companies to build more flexible structures that enable rapid and strategic responses to cultural moments.

The report also notes a growing shift toward short-term marketing efforts. The number of brands focusing on short-term activities has increased from 53 percent in 2023 to 63 percent in 2025.

While these strategies may offer quick wins, the report emphasizes that long-term brand-building remains critical to developing the agility needed for spontaneous creative opportunities.

To restore creative confidence, Jeffrey recommended that companies invest in training to strengthen their teams’ capabilities. He stated that as skills improve, teams will build the confidence required to pursue more ambitious and effective creative strategies.

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