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. At Cannes, there was a sense of the shifting sands. “The nature of the conference has changed and the people who have influence and power in the industry are changing,” said Joshua Lowcock, president of media at marketing firm Quad, which hung a banner in a suite across from the Palais. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs In fact, there quite literally was a changing-of-the-guard moment at Cannes as MediaLink, the tech and media consulting group, hosted its first Cannes after splitting with its founder Michael Kassan. Also, billionaire X owner Elon Musk hit the beach with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, as the two tried to re-ingratiate themselves with advertisers after Musk told them to “f—k” themselves last year. But most of the conversations centered around creators, AI, commerce, tech and digital. There also was talk of the major creative and media reviews, including the big one coming from Amazon soon, according to advertisers at Cannes, speaking on condition of anonymity. Amazon had a large activation at the port in Cannes, and it met with media holding company leaders still in the running for its ad dollars that it put up for grabs in a review last year. Creativity was of course also awarded, as the point of the festival is to honor “the work.” Buzzwords of “authenticity” and “transformation” were used widely. And there was a rare bout of rain for three days, with umbrellas in high demand. Here are the key takeaways from Cannes 2024. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns How creators showed up at Cannes This was the first year Cannes organizers developed a “Lions Creators” track at the conference, and the effort raised the profile of the TikTok, YouTube, Snap and Instagram stars who attended. It was the second year that creator agency Influential and Brand Innovators shared a spot on the beach, a place that used to belong to X (then Twitter) before Musk bought the company in 2022 and pulled out of Cannes last year. Influencer firm Whalar also was on the beach, and Viral Nation was in Cannes. Creators were visible at Cannes last year, but they were not the center of attention. This year, platforms and media companies were looking to craft more deals between creators and brands, as the stars become entertainment entities unto themselves. Tinx (aka Christina Najjar) sat on a panel with Ad Age on VaynerMedia’s yacht on Monday, discussing brand-creator deals and her aversion to AI. Amazon was talking with advertisers about its talent connections through Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and about its relationships with creators through its e-commerce store, according to marketing leaders. Creators were part of the main programming on the biggest stages at Cannes, said Ellie Bamford, VML’s chief strategy officer. “Social and entertainment platforms are formalizing the business model,” Bamford said, “where they can capitalize on these creators and how they bring them in as talent.” “It used to feel like a secondary tactic, now it’s first and foremost, and it’s just a real shift in the dynamic,” Bamford said. Read more: What influencers thought of Cannes High drama at Cannes MediaLink and iHeartMedia’s party, which featured a performance by Lenny Kravitz at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, turned into a Shakespearean drama, according to attendees. MediaLink is one of the biggest connectors at Cannes and recently parted ways with founder Kassan, who has since started a new competing firm called 3C Ventures. Kassan was unceremoniously dispatched from MediaLink, which was bought by UTA in 2021. Before Cannes, Kassan told Ad Age he would be at Hotel du Cap on the night of the exclusive MediaLink bash, and he was. MediaLink’s guests, some of the biggest players in Cannes, met with Kassan for a reception and dinner during Kravitz’s performance. The dinner overlooked the show, and Kassan could be seen hovering over the event, but his back was turned away from the show, one guest said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Kassan did not look at the MediaLink event once, according to multiple attendees. Kassan, when reached for comment, would not discuss his counterprogramming at Hotel du Cap. Kassan told Ad Age that the ad industry is in the middle of another paradigm shift, and that’s where his focus was during Cannes. “When I founded my former company [in 2003], my hunch was that the industry was at in inflection point,” Kassan said, and that is still the case, perhaps more so. The traditional entertainment companies and ad agency holding companies need to adapt, and that means more deals, mergers and acquisitions, Kassan said. “M&A will change the complexion of the field, right now,” Kassan said. “There will be a different configuration of ownership in this industry, and it’s happening right before our eyes.” MediaLink’s party had a roster of celebrities, sports stars and creators, as well as top advertising and media leaders. How Elon Musk descended on Cannes On Wednesday, Cannes turned into the Musk show as the billionaire spoke with WPP CEO Mark Read on the mainstage at the Palais. It was supposed to be a moment for Musk to make amends with advertisers after telling them last year to “f—k” themselves because they pulled money from X. Lines started forming more than two hours before the talk, as the Palais was flooded with Musk fans and people who were just curious to see him speak. Musk then went to Stagwell’s Sport Beach where he met with chief marketing officers of major brands, some of which still have a good relationship with X, including Target, NFL, American Eagle, L’Oreal and Diageo, Ad Age reported. Not everyone was happy to see Musk upend the Cannes festival, and many advertisers shunned his talk, according to multiple advertisers who were not interested in hearing from him and spoke on condition of anonymity. An ad exec who did attend said that Musk failed to repair the bridge to marketers. How ad tech transformed Cannes Much of the ad tech conversation covered now-familiar ground regarding data signal loss with cookie deprecation; the need for brands to collect first-party data; clean rooms; commerce and retail media; connected TV; and AI. Amazon and Google were talking with advertisers about the ways AI could help solve some of these industry challenges, especially as Google gets ready to deprecate cookies on Chrome next year. The cookie deprecation is another sign that the industry needs to move beyond traditional web trackers and adopt new methods of buying and measuring digital media. AT&T talked about the transformation and its partnership with Google at Omnicom’s Cove beach cabana this week. Amazon revealed how it thinks it solved the post-cookie challenge through cloud computing and clean room data collaborations among advertisers and publishers. Read more: How AI is reshaping ad tech How AI showed up at Cannes For the second year, AI was a major focus of the show and a part of the creativity. Media.Monks built a robotic homage to its owner Martin Sorrell, who runs S4 Capital. The animatronic bot was powered by AI and drew street portraits. On Wednesday, creative studio 1stAveMachine brought an AI movie camera to Ad Age’s cocktail party at the Mondrian hotel. The camera was more of a conceptual piece to show how AI could be applied to filmmaking. Meanwhile, Accenture Song’s David Droga spoke with OpenAI’s Murati on the mainstage at Cannes, and he showed off an AI-generated video. Also, Google hosted a handful of creative agencies that used its Gemini AI to generate ads for an experimental showcase of the technology and how it could be applied to creativity. Tombras created 6,000 ads using Gemini, Ad Age reported. Also read: 5 ways AI showed up at Cannes There were plenty of demos and meetings around AI products from holding companies, including Accenture Song, as well as Adobe, according to multiple executives. Lots of the conversation at Cannes was around quelling the fear people and brands may have around AI. There were also some key announcements, including Havas’ plans to invest over $400 million in AI over the next four years. TikTok melded creators and AI at Cannes by revealing digital avatars, which are virtual twins of stock actors, creators and mascots. The avatars give creators and brands the ability to churn out hundreds of different types of creative, quickly iterate and translate the videos with AI dubbing features. The avatars were part of a lively debate during the festival about AI coming for creators’ jobs, and everyone else’s. How AI went from a novelty to useful One sign that AI has moved to a new stage of the hype cycle is that more marketers are developing—and talking about—detailed strategies for using it across their organizations rather than setting up Cannes novelty demos. (That was a subject Google talked about at Omnicom Cove with AT&T, as well.) Reckitt’s information technology and digital team joined Boston Consulting Group in sharing results of some GenAI pilots at Cannes, which includes use in turning unstructured data into new product concepts. The company said using GenAI could reduce concept development time by 60% while improving idea quality compared to have people working through the same data without using it. Reckitt also reported GenAI could reduce time needed to adapt and localize ads by 30% and reduce time spent on post-campaign media analysis by up to 90%. “AI doesn’t replace jobs. AI automates tasks,” said Fabrice Beaulieu, chief marketing and sustainability officer for Reckitt. “The first thing we’ve done at Reckitt is to categorize all the tasks that 2,000 marketers collectively do. Roughly 300 tasks.” For about a third of those tasks, it makes sense to use GenAI, he said. And doing that frees marketers for more interesting and productive work. Top secret at Cannes: Netflix and Apple For the second year, Apple and Netflix were at Cannes, but mostly in private corners. Netflix had a brand presence, but kept its space on the JW Marriott rooftop and made no major announcements. Like Amazon, Netflix was showing off its top talent there, and it had activations based on its shows, such as serving Surfer Boy pizza, a fake brand from the show “Stranger Things.” Aside from the entertainment, though, advertisers said that Netflix is getting to work building its new ad tech ecosystem, which it announced during the upfronts, when media companies make their annual pitch to brands. Netflix launched its ad tier in 2022, but is behind rival Amazon on the ad tech front. In May, Netflix announced it would bring in ad supply from programmatic demand-side platforms, including Google’s Display and Video 360, The Trade Desk and Magnite. Meanwhile, Apple was at the Carlton again this year, where it remained secretive about its future ad plans. The iPhone maker has signaled it could develop a demand-side platform to serve its ecosystem, beyond just search ads in the app store. An ad tech exec, who works closely with Apple, said that the company mostly is still just talking about the search component of its ad platform. Broadly popular campaigns from big brands did well Often, the knock on the Cannes winners’ list is that there’s too much niche work being awarded—campaigns that are very creative but aren’t seen by many in the real world and may not drive business results. This year, several mass campaigns won top prizes, including two Super Bowl efforts: Ogilvy New York’s Michael Cera campaign for CeraVe and Wieden+Kennedy’s “DoorDash All the Ads,” which won the biggest prize of all—the Titanium Grand Prix. Also winning a Grand Prix (in Brand Experience & Activation) was the Pop-Tarts “Edible Mascot” stunt, the highlight of last winter’s college football bowl season. Also read: A running tally of all the U.S Cannes winners More purpose behind purpose work “We finally, hopefully, have gotten over being completely drunk on ‘purpose,’” Bamford said, referring to awarding advertisers with Lions simply for paying lip-service to causes and social well-being. “Now, it’s more about work being transformational,” Bamford said, “in that it’s actually doing something.” For instance, a B2B campaign from outdoor advertising company JCDecaux called “Meet Marina Prieto” won a Grand Prix. The campaign used out-of-home ads to show the power of outdoor advertising by making a 100-year-old grandma popular on Instagram. Preto, the grandma, surged to 10,000-plus followers. The campaign was a feel-good effort, but not forced, Bamford said, and it achieved the desired effect. Retail media’s presence grows, and so does scrutiny As retail media keeps getting bigger, so does its footprint at Cannes. Amazon had the biggest play, befitting its leading role in the space. Walmart Connect was there but on the downlow, with no billboards but occupying much of a floor plus the rooftop at the Majestic. The space was used for client meetings and well-attended events, including a panel discussion with U.S. Chief Marketing Officer William White and Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire, moderated by Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun. Kroger Precision Marketing was at Cannes for the first time; Alberton’s had a large building near the Palais; Target’s Roundel, Instacart and Criteo all had increased visibility compared to last year. That’s not to mention the spread of retail media, or close-in variants, beyond stores. United Airlines and Chase Media Solutions had cabanas near the Palais. Uber Eats had one of the buzziest activations, giving away free pizza at night outside the Gutter Bar. But with greater spending comes greater scrutiny. Some attendees questioned how much retail media is fully bought based on its own merit rather than from coercion to help guarantee shelf space or online visibility. Others privately noted that while retail data is great, ads using it still produce a lot more noticeable impact on retailer sites than when it’s applied to ads on the open web, social platforms or connected TV. Sustainable media has its Cannes moment Cannes is not the most congruous place to talk about sustainability. The carbon footprint of all those planes transporting much of the marketing industry to the south of France for a week is substantial. But sustainable media had its moment at Cannes, in part, unexpectedly, alongside retail media. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media and Ad Net Zero released the first part of their framework for measuring the carbon footprint of media, including digital, TV, print, audio, outdoor and cinema to coincide with Cannes. The framework lays the groundwork for how buyers can ask sellers for data to about greenhouse gas emissions linked to how ads are created, distributed and ultimately experienced by consumers. Kroger Precision Marketing, in its first Cannes appearance, made note of being the first retail media network to enlist Scope3, one of the leading measurement firms tracking the environmental impact of advertising, to monitor its carbon footprint. Greenhouse gas emissions for ads served by Kroger managed service initially averaged 17% lower than the Scope3 average. After using the data to get better, KPM’s emissions per impression were 37% better than average. KPM Senior VP Cara Pratt said the network is moving from just reporting traditional performance outcomes to adding in environmental outcomes. It comes down to targeting with first-party data delivering the same sales impact using 50% fewer impressions than traditional media buying practices, said Brian O’Kelly, CEO of Scope3. “A lot of companies are buzzing around sustainability at Cannes, emphasizing the urgency to move faster,” said Simon Sikorski, president, global operations of XR Extreme Reach, a creative technology marketing platform. “The discussion is that advertising has an amazing role to play in getting the message out and helping consumers make informed choices when opting for sustainable brands and practices. Sustainability is not just a passion but a business advantage.” Sexual assault awareness and sexist behavior During the festival, Cannes and TimeTo, an industry initiative addressing sexual harassment in advertising, partnered for a series of out-of-home ads from Lucky Generals that focused on educating attendees about sexual harassment at industry events. On the final day, Cindy Gallop, president of the Glass Lions jury, publicly criticized entrants for sexist behavior during their presentations. She cited examples such as “the man talking over the woman” and “using the woman as a prop.” Gallop mentioned that one juror, who was particularly disturbed by the behavior, volunteered to reach out to the entrants later and express the jury’s displeasure. “It indicated that all of the creative work that our industry does to drive gender equality is not being replicated in terms of the way this industry actually operates,” Gallop said. “And it made us question the process that had gone into and operated behind that work.” The Glass Lions was created in 2015 to honor advertising that advances gender equality. Yachts get scarce, and so do restaurant seats Cannes had fewer branded yachts this year, possibly thanks to construction in the harbor. It was also harder to get a table at a restaurant in town. Same reason. With yacht slips in short supply, more companies moved efforts inland this year, some of that involved renting out entire restaurants for the night. Restaurants were going for $500,000 a night, according to one ad tech executive. This also meant nearly non-stop congestion on the cobbled streets of the medieval Le Suquet district, either due to restaurant buyouts or overflow from restaurants bought out on the Croisette. Sports returns to Cannes Stagwell’s Sport Beach returned for the second year in a row and was much bigger, not only in size but in the attention it garnered. The beach was almost always packed throughout the week and often had a large line of people waiting to get in. FIFA also had a beachside activation with a soccer field. Axios and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment sponsored a Women’s Sports House and athletes were featured in panels across the festival. Kevin Durant and other celebrities were spotted at La Fama club on Monday. On Thursday, sportscasters Taylor Rooks and Joy Taylor hosted “The Afties,” an exclusive party that saw the appearance of many celebrities and athletes, including Carmelo Anthony, Maverick Carter, Shaboozey, Blake Griffin and Deandre Hopkins. The event was sponsored by several brands, including LG Nova, Fanatics, Sprite, The Players’ Tribune, Modern Black Girl, The Burke Sports Group, PTTOW!, Obsidian Works and Wave Entertainment. The Olympics also made an appearance with the running of the Olympic torch ceremony through Cannes. Actress Halle Berry and snowboarding legend Shaun White carried the torch at different points. Check out our Olympics marketing blog here

Cannes Lions 2024 takeaways and insights from ad executives

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