The biggest winners at last week’s Cannes Lions were undoubtedly the ice cream vendors.
During a scorching week in the south of France, an estimated 13,000 or more Cannes Lions attendees crisscrossed Cannes’ Croisette for meetings, panel discussions and pitches. Glacier carts and kiosks serving ice cream, soft serve and sorbet were busy all week. At a time when nearly every business sector is undergoing massive transformation, this sweet treat has perhaps added to the general sense of optimism and excitement among marketing, advertising, data, and technology leaders.
The breadth of Cannes Lions is an eye-opener for media and entertainment professionals looking to see and hear how technology and digital disruption are changing other industries. And at the same time, the business of persuasion is more intertwined with the media than ever before. This is due in no small part to the enormous influence of its creators. It’s no longer just about having a slogan or a catchy commercial jingle. To stay relevant in a world overflowing with social media, big brands with big consumer profiles need to tell ongoing stories that stay on social feeds, and that’s where creators come in handy.
With the onslaught of AI, the growth of the attention economy, and its impact on television ratings, Cannes Lions has become a forum for important topics in recent years. In the 12 months since Festival 2025, there has been a clear shift in attitudes and approaches to tackling disruption. CMOs joined the show to provide detailed examples of how AI, social media, creators, silos, and more have helped them grow and transform. In marketing terms, the tagline for Cannes Lions 2026 will be: “The AI revolution is here and it’s time to defeat fear.”
Gabriel Wesley, chief marketing officer for Mars Wrigley North America, expressed that spirit during a conversation at Variety In the C-Suite in the Canva Creative Cabana space on the beach.
“100 years ago, there was only radio. Radio was the attention grabber, and then the visuals of television came along. Now there are many ways to connect with consumers. Consumers are more knowledgeable and more demanding about what they want. They don’t want to be talked to,” Wesley said. “They want to be involved. And they want to be involved, so it’s like any other relationship. You have to keep the conversation going, you have to keep taking them out on dates, you have to keep showing them new things, you have to keep showing them different parts of themselves. So I take very seriously engaging with consumers in a two-way relationship, not just giving them a message.”
Here are a few more takeaways after being at Cannes Lions 24/7.
Major media courts court creators with content and distribution contracts
This trend has never been more evident than in recent months, and it was especially evident at Cannes Lions.
The biggest media outlets, from Amazon to Fox and Tubi to Netflix, are aggressively offering deals to creators as marketers scramble to capitalize on the enthusiasm of talent plying their trades on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and more.
The new problem is that the big platforms want to lay out what it takes for top creators to succeed in the digital native realm. In other words, Amazon and Fox aren’t trying to turn creators into TV stars with new shows exclusive to their platforms. Instead, we want to provide support services to help creators make more money in their existing areas, such as branded live events like YouTube, endorsements, and consumer product launches.
Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade was inspired to launch Fox Creator Studios this year after seeing how much commerce Gordon Ramsay was able to generate through his powerful social media influence. Like Fox, Amazon also saw potential here and launched its Amazon Creator Services division last year.
“We found a way to leverage content to promote and grow that business, and all of a sudden all these pieces came together. It was the content, but there was a business around that content, and it felt like there was still a huge chasm to bridge between the two worlds, but for me it felt like the right time,” Wade told Variety.
Fox’s Tubi announced a deal with Amazon’s Fire TV during the festival. This makes Tubi’s curated creator content easily accessible and searchable on the platform.
“It’s basically about giving customers the content they want and helping creators get another facet of getting their content in front of customers,” said Charlotte Maynes, Amazon’s vice president of device content and advertising.
Tubi, Fox’s ad-supported streaming platform, reaches more than 100 million users and has become a monetization haven for creators. This works because Tubi doesn’t claim exclusivity, quite the opposite.
“If you look at the way distribution has grown with the advent of the internet… it’s really about access, no gating, no paywalls, putting the user first,” said Rachel Burke, senior vice president of platform partnerships at Tubi and Fox. “I fully expect things to become more creative, both on the trading side, the platform side, the creator and maker side, but I also expect them to become more sophisticated and even more accessible. If we can actually implement what you’re pointing out about search and discovery, we’ll be able to highlight and platform different kinds of voices and serve the needs of a very diverse set of users.”
What is Barbie doing at Coachella?
Mattel activated the 67-year-old toy icon Barbie at this year’s Coachella music festival in Indio, California. Roberto Stanich, Mattel’s chief global brand officer, said Barbie was the most talked-about brand at the music festival, according to data compiled by Mattel. “You’d say, ‘What is Barbie doing at Coachella?'” he told Variety on Executive in collaboration with the Canva Beachfront Speaker Series. At Coachella, “the Gen Z audience was incredibly influenced by the fact that you were like a Barbie doll,” Stanich said.
At one point, the line to activate Barbie dolls at the festival lasted three and a half hours. “So let’s think about why this resonates with the audience and why it’s surprising,” Stanich said. It was Greta Gerwig’s 2023 Barbie blockbuster that arguably thrust Barbie into the Gen Z zeitgeist, grossing $1.45 billion worldwide. (He had no updates on plans for a sequel.)
The Coachella experience was just the latest reinvention for Barbie (and there will certainly be more to come). Stanich pointed out that the doll’s face actually changes approximately every 10 years. Managing such a famous property is a balancing act between “staying true to the authenticity” of Barbie doll and understanding that “sometimes there’s a line you don’t want to cross, but to drive true innovation you have to bend it a little.”
(Personal Care) Make your brand part of your (Netflix) world
Consumer goods giant Unilever recently partnered with Netflix’s Bridgerton to launch a limited edition Dove product set related to the show. Amy Reinhardt, head of advertising at Netflix, spoke on a Variety executive panel in collaboration with Canva and said the partnership has increased Dove’s new purchasers by nearly 60%. Leandro Barreto, Unilever’s chief marketing officer, said this particular initiative has brought much greater benefits to the Dove brand than, say, product placement on TV shows. “When you think about culture, it’s very hard not to think about Netflix because it’s really the epicenter of culture. Netflix isn’t just creating content, it’s creating the world, right?” he said. “And it becomes almost inevitable that you will participate in that cultural movement.”
A tennis racket is not a tennis player
There is a theory that generative AI is a soul-sucking, job-stealing machine. But Ruba Borno of Amazon Web Services (AWS) offered a different way of thinking about this technology. Speaking on a special Cannes Lions edition of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast, presented by AWS and Deloitte, she pointed to advances in sports technology over the years, noting that when tennis players started using titanium racquets instead of wooden racquets, performance levels skyrocketed. “I’m not going to sit there and say my tennis racket turned me into a tennis player,” she said. “It’s not replacing humans; it’s superpowering the humans who were using it so they can compete. And what’s interesting is that if you’re not using these new tools, you can’t actually compete anymore. This sets a new standard.”
The smartest stars arrive at Cannes Lions
The creator economy boom has allowed the celebrities with the most fan connections to build huge brands (on behalf of themselves and others), businesses, and fanbases that feed all of their businesses. And it’s all built on the foundation of their fame. Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Paris Hilton, Shaquille O’Neal, Mel Robbins, Ludacris, NBA stars Kevin Durant and Draymond Green, designers Stella McCartney and Rachel Zoe were in attendance, and the event held talks with some of the world’s most influential marketing, advertising and media executives. In other words, fish where the fish are.
“What a great time to be an entertainer, to be in the entertainment business, because ideas are currency,” Chopra Jonas told the Cannes Lions crowd at the Palais des Festivals on June 24.
A fun party delight or two
A busy week of pitching, listening and awareness came to a joyful end on Thursday night with a Pride celebration party held at Canva Creative Cabana on the beach. Top Parisian DJ Dorion packed the dance floor with an eclectic mix of hip-shaking favorites from across the generations. And then came the Teletubbies. It was a rainbow sight that warmed the sweaty and exhausted Cannes Lions crowd, thanks to the cooling effect of extremely powerful misting fans.
On Wednesday night, NBCUniversal hosted a late-night bash to celebrate the late-night series, with Alan Cumming at the helm as DJ. Cumming performed a series of popular danceable songs, and then NBC doubled down on the charm by bringing in Seth Meyers and Colin Jost for a quick chat with Wave.
“We’re going to be the hosts of Bravo’s ‘Winter House,'” Meyers joked, a nod to the topic of the latest season of Bravo’s “Summer House.” The party crowd buzzed around one of the show’s key figures, Lindsay Hubbard, who was in attendance.
On Tuesday, Ludacris was a guest star at UTA and DoorDash Ad’s Executive Soirée Bash with his hands raised on the beautiful outdoor deck of the Hotel du Cap, just down the road from Cannes in Antibes. Amazon Ads promoted British indie pop stars The XX in the spacious Amazon Port facility. And as always, the Spotify Beach installation was packed with celebrity appearances over two nights, including Raye and Mumford & Sons.
(Elsa Keslassy contributed to this report.)
