The slew of social content surrounding this year’s festival could drive an even larger number of creators to want to attend Cannes next June, Waller said. But those creators should avoid rushing in blindly and instead develop a strategy for navigating the festival in a way that aligns with their goals, whether it’s networking with potential brand partners or positioning themselves as thought leaders by appearing on panels, Kerrigan said.
“Print out your schedule ahead of time, make dinner reservations and don’t worry too much about befriending other creators,” she said. “You’re there to get to know the people who are paying you. You need to take full advantage of Cannes, and that really comes down to you building your own schedule and figuring out what you want. You should really come with a purpose.”
Though creators can go the traditional route and simply purchase a creator pass to attend next year’s festival, they can also directly ask brands, agencies or social platforms to include them in their programming at next year’s festival instead, said Shaina Zafar, an executive at UTA Next Gen.
“You can think of yourself almost as a brand ambassador, in the sense that you can be the person to host a dinner event, as a creator,” she said. “You can be the person to actually give tips and tricks on social media or talk about audience insights or case studies of what’s worked really well for you on a panel. There's a lot of amazing insight that these creators can bring for brands, and I think framing yourself as a thought leader and not just a content creator is the way to think about Cannes and your place there.”
Collaborating with a brand, agency or social platform is “the best thing” that creators hoping to attend Cannes next year can do, said Jamie Ray, co-founder of influencer marketing agency Buttermilk. For creators going to Cannes for the first time without a partner to guide them, “it’s very easy for the festival to swallow you up, and I think you could spend five days there and ultimately achieve nothing if you’re not aware of what’s going on around you.”
Both Ray and Waller also recommend creators who do purchase a creator pass and plan to participate in the Lions Creators program also venture beyond the Palais and see how creators are showing up beyond the creator economy track. Creators that limit themselves to the Palais could miss out on opportunities to connect with brands or agencies not involved in the Lions Creators program or learn about elements of the broader ad industry, they said. Titus, for example, saw several creators in the audience of a panel centered around CMOs rather than creators, he said.
Creators “build [their careers] through networking—through the people you meet and the inspiration that comes with it,” Waller said. “And Cannes is an incredible meeting spot in the industry. So, my advice to creators would simply be, ‘Don’t overthink it. Just go.’ It is an expensive event, and it’s a difficult event to navigate, but I think I have yet to have a creator tell me, ‘Oh, I didn’t enjoy Cannes. I didn’t find it interesting, and it wasn’t helpful.’”