Fabrice Rousseau, Director of Creative Experiences, Creative X, Amazon Ads with Brij Pahwa on the sidelines of Cannes Lions 2026
Creative experiences have become a major differentiator for brands. What separates a truly memorable brand experience from one that is merely attention-grabbing?
The difference is whether the experience invites participation or simply demands attention. Interactive formats transform advertising from passive viewing into active engagement, giving consumers simple ways to explore, learn more, and take action without leaving the content they're enjoying. For brands, that creates a much stronger connection between awareness, engagement, and performance.
Customers who introduce interactivity to their ads generate six times higher brand search, four times more detail page views, four times more add-to-cart actions, and five times higher purchase rates. And according to our research with Publicis, more than three in four viewers say interactive ads are more engaging and attention-grabbing than standard video ads - 79% find them more engaging, 78% say they're more attention-grabbing, and 72% say they feel more relevant.
Ultimately, effective advertising combines compelling storytelling with relevance and measurable outcomes. Consumers expect ads to feel useful and personalized, not one-size-fits-all. The best experiences connect brand storytelling with signals that help drive action.
As audiences become harder to engage, how are brands rethinking experiential marketing to create deeper emotional connections rather than short-term engagement spikes?
The shift we're seeing is from reach alone to meaningful downstream impact. Interactive advertising helps brands build on awareness goals by generating experiences that drive real engagement, not just impressions.
At Amazon Ads, we use all the information provided by the advertiser - product detail pages, brand assets—combined with our own shopping signals to generate and optimize creative. This ensures the right creative reaches the right audience at the right time. Advertisers can pair premium content experiences with interactive formats designed to encourage both engagement and action.
What makes this sustainable rather than short-term is the combination of human intelligence and artificial intelligence. AI handles operational complexity - customization, optimization, scaling - so brands can refocus on what truly creates long-term value: branding, differentiation, and building preference.
AI is transforming every aspect of marketing. How do you see AI influencing the future of creative and immersive brand experiences without diminishing human creativity?
AI is breaking down barriers and allowing advertisers to do more. Creative has traditionally been one of the biggest bottlenecks - it can cost significant budget, weeks of time, and specialist expertise to produce and then scale. AI simplifies that by automating customization and optimization, allowing advertisers to do more with their existing resources.
But I want to be clear: AI does not replace brand strategy or creative expertise it liberates them. Brands will always need creativity, intuition, and human understanding. What changes is that AI allows teams to spend less time on operational tasks and more time on strategy and ideas.
We think of AI as a toolbox. Advertisers should select the right tool based on the need and use case. We offer AI creative tools at different levels of control - from one-click automation to collaborative partners and advertisers decide which tool to reach for based on the desired outcome.
We've also recently launched Creative Agent in India - an agentic AI-powered creative partner that accompanies advertisers through the full creative process, from ideation to final delivery, giving them total control at every stage.
Many marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. How should brands measure the success of experiential campaigns beyond traditional metrics such as footfall and impressions?
The opportunity is to connect creative impact directly to business outcomes—not just awareness metrics. Interactive formats make this possible because they generate measurable actions throughout the funnel. Customers who introduce interactivity see six times higher brand search, four times more detail page views, four times more add-to-cart actions, and five times higher purchase rates.
More broadly, advertisers who use our AI creative tools have seen on average 10% higher return on advertising investment on Sponsored Brands campaigns, with the ability to promote five times more products and use two times more images per product.
Amazon provides full insight into campaign effectiveness with granular creative-level performance data broken down by individual ad sizes, enabling precise optimization. The measurement is built into the system - not bolted on after the fact.
To give a concrete example: BTR Media, working with Bird Buddy, used Creative Agent to produce a campaign that achieved a click-through rate three times higher than their other active campaigns, 89% new customers for the brand, and a return on advertising investment of 121%. Similarly, Traditional Medicinals used Creative Agent for a campaign that hit a 99% video completion rate and a 40% purchase rate - matching benchmarks from non-AI production.
What are some of the most innovative consumer experiences you've seen recently that signal where the industry is headed over the next few years?
In the United States, we just announced updates to our Responsive eCommerce Creative, or REC. This takes a Sponsored Products ad, optimizes it using AI, and scales it across thousands of websites on the open internet.
A year ago, these ads looked like a product listing - white background, product image, generic call to action. Now, they look like full-bleed color ads with motion and rich media layouts. With almost no effort from an advertiser, they can have professional, designer-grade ads reaching customers across the internet.
In India, we've recently introduced Creative Agent - a conversational AI tool that guides advertisers through the full creative process, from concept to finished streaming video and audio ads. It removes the traditional barriers of cost, time, and specialist skills, making professional-quality advertising accessible to brands of all sizes.
More broadly, we're seeing the convergence of generative AI, real-time optimization, and conversational ad experiences—transforming display ads from passive impressions into active, intelligent touchpoints that guide shoppers through the purchase journey. That convergence is where the industry is headed.
Younger audiences increasingly expect participation rather than passive consumption. How is this changing the way creative experiences are designed?
The shift is fundamental. Advertising is moving from broadcast to dialogue, and the brands that embrace participation will build stronger, more lasting connections.
We already offer an entire suite of conversational, agentic ad types that help customers find and explore new products conversationally within agentic shopping experiences. And we're continuing to evolve REC to deliver richer, more engaging experiences beyond Amazon - combining generative AI with real-time optimization to make display ads more interactive and relevant to where the shopper is in their decision journey.
The goal is to create a seamless journey from content browsing to product discovery to purchase. When you remove friction from that path - and give consumers the option to participate rather than simply watch - engagement becomes deeper and more meaningful.
We're seeing physical, digital, and virtual worlds converge. How do you envision the next generation of brand experiences evolving across these environments?
We're extending interactive video capabilities across additional streaming environments and devices, helping brands reach consumers where they're already spending time. Advertisers can pair premium content with interactive formats designed to encourage engagement and action - regardless of the screen or context.
Our AI toolbox of creative solutions, such as Video Generator, removes the barrier to creating great product ads by helping advertisers transform existing videos into professional-quality content. Our vision is to scale these experiences to approach TV-quality creative in the near to medium term, enabling more brands to use streaming TV-style content in their campaigns.
These videos can be distributed on Prime Video, Twitch, Fire TV, and thousands of premium publishers accessible via our network. REC scales ads across Amazon's own properties and the open internet bringing together premium streaming reach, interactive experiences, and intelligent signals to deliver more relevant and measurable advertising wherever consumers are.
For marketers operating in fast-growing markets like India, what opportunities do you see to leapfrog traditional approaches and create world-class consumer experiences?
Our conviction is that AI must simplify the advertising experience - and above all, make possible what was previously out of reach. Creative is one of the biggest barriers to developing compelling ads, largely because of the time, cost, and skills required to produce and maintain creative assets.
With generative AI, we've removed that barrier. We've developed free, self-service tools that enable brands to use more advertising solutions, drive strong outcomes, and reach audiences well beyond the Amazon store. These tools are entirely free, self-service, and accessible to all advertisers, regardless of size.
Our vision is to continue removing the barriers of cost, time, and skills that still prevent too many brands from accessing quality advertising. Creativity should not be a privilege reserved for companies that can afford an agency or a production studio. Countries like India, where mobile-first audiences are growing rapidly and digital adoption is accelerating- are exactly where these tools can have the most transformative impact.
Looking ahead to 2030, what do you think will be the biggest shift in how brands engage consumers through creative experiences, and what should marketers start preparing for today?
AI technology is evolving at an incredible pace, and the quality of generated content is continuously improving. This means more brands will be able to produce rich, engaging advertising formats - including video - that would have been out of reach just months ago.
We’re designing and building continuous creative workflows, where AI simplifies the process - ideation, images, video, audio - into a single, integrated experience. The goal is to allow teams to spend less time on operational execution and more on strategy, differentiation, and ideas.
Agentic AI represents a fundamental shift. Instead of simply responding to isolated commands, an AI agent can plan, execute, and coordinate a complex process end to end, while collaborating with humans. Our approach remains iterative and centered on advertiser needs - we test, we learn, we adjust. What doesn't change is our philosophy - transparent, collaborative AI that augments human capabilities rather than replacing them.
The future of advertising belongs to those who can combine great storytelling with engaging formats and measurable results.
At Cannes Lions this year, what emerging trend or conversation excites you the most, and why do you believe it will have a lasting impact on the industry?
Agentic AI. It represents a fundamental shift in how AI assists advertisers and their agencies. Instead of responding to isolated commands, an AI agent can plan, execute, and coordinate an entire creative process end to end - product research, creative design, scriptwriting, image generation, animation, voice-over, music, and final delivery - while collaborating with humans throughout.
But the essential point is that the agent never acts alone. It's designed to be conversational and collaborative, showing its reasoning and asking for feedback at every stage. The advertiser retains total control.
What we've learned building these tools is that the harder design problem isn't making AI generate creative- it's making the human decision points visible and controllable so brands always know where they're in the driver's seat. The brands winning with AI aren't using it for everything. They're the ones who've been deliberate about where human judgment is non-negotiable and where AI genuinely earns its place.
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