Cannes Lions 2024 takeaways and insights from ad executives

This year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brought plenty of rain and rained plenty of drama on an ad industry in transition. The traditional agencies and holding companies had a more subdued presence at the event, while the new creator class had the red carpet rolled out for them. Meanwhile, tech giants such as Amazon and Netflix loomed large, representing multiple facets of the new digital media and ad tech paradigm. Google, Meta, TikTok and others talked about AI, and Mira Murati, OpenAI’s chief technology officer, spoke on the mainstage at the Palais.