With the 2026 edition of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity now behind us, New Digital Age asked a variety of industry figures for their summary of this year’s event…
Dean Nagib, UK country manager, Azerion
“Cannes remains one of the few places where senior decision-makers, strategists, planners, media owners, creators and technology partners are all in the same environment. That creates opportunities for more open, cross-discipline conversations that are harder to have in day-to-day meetings.
“There was a clear sense that brands, agencies, platforms and publishers are still looking for better ways to connect creativity, media and measurable business outcomes. The best conversations transcended trends and got into practical questions around proving that something works, making media more effective, building stronger partnerships and keeping creativity at the heart of growth. Informal conversations are also hugely valuable; Cannes lets people step outside immediate campaign delivery and think more strategically about the future.
“No surprises that AI was everywhere, but the more interesting discussions were about using it in practice. The strongest use cases focused on faster content production, creating different versions of creatives, audience insight, campaign optimisation, workflow efficiency, personalisation at scale, and measurement and modelling.
“Cannes is also a useful temperature check. You can see what everyone is talking about, what is being overhyped, what clients are worried about, and where the real opportunities might be. A key takeaway is that creative and media need to be brought closer together; media environments, formats, data and creative messaging should all ladder back to the same strategic idea.”
Paul Dahill, Managing Director EMEA Sales, Koddi
“Two themes caught my attention, the first was that trust becomes even more valuable in an AI-driven world, and the second was the need for commerce media to be easy to buy.
“AI is incredibly good at discovery and recommendations, but when people are making purchase decisions, they still want authenticity and real human perspectives. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent and lower quality, trusted communities, reviews and first-hand experiences become even more valuable. For retailers and commerce media platforms, AI shouldn’t replace the human voice.
“The industry has made huge progress building retail media capabilities. The focus is now shifting towards making that inventory easier for advertisers to discover, activate and measure using the tools they already work in. Advertisers want commerce media to become part of the same planning, buying and reporting workflows as the rest of their media investment. It feels like we’re approaching the point where commerce media simply becomes media.”
Jenny Stanley, Managing Director, Appetite Creative
“The obvious story was AI, everywhere, and a lot of it simply bolted on for the sake of it. The smarter shift was that the conversation finally matured, from ‘what do we do with AI?’ to ‘where’s the ROI, and what can it not replace?’ The answer was loud and clear: experience. In a week drowning in automation, the real energy was around physical, human moments.
“AI should earn its place by making experiences better. AB InBev was named Creative Marketer of the Year for treating creativity as a business system, not a one-off, and that’s the discipline brands need. The next step is to start designing experiences, including on packaging, where the technology adds tangible value to the human beings using it.”
Tim Mitchell, CEO, CreatorOS
“What struck me most at Cannes this year was the energy. People are genuinely here to connect and do business, far more than we see back in London. Tech platforms now dominate La Croisette. A few years ago, it was the media holding companies. That shift alone tells you everything about where this industry is heading.
“There’s a real shift happening as people adopt AI tools to search, which makes social video even more critical for discoverability. TikTok has doubled down on TikTok Shop, Meta has gone big into hardware with its glasses, Amazon is pushing agentic solutions for small businesses through AWS, and Reddit is leaning into being the people-powered network feeding LLMs their knowledge.
“Some agencies brought creators along this year, and it’s been brilliant hearing their perspective on the advertising industry. Too few creators truly understand how to attract and work with brands, yet they hold the knowledge brands need.”
Becky Owen, CMO, Billion Dollar Boy
“For decades, entertainment followed a predictable, risk-averse script. Content was developed behind closed doors, polished in writers’ rooms, and broadcasted to passive audiences. Today, that model is dead. Entertainment now moves at internet speed, built in public feeds with real-time audience participation.
“Look at TikTok’s partnership with Sundance or their landmark work with Issa Rae – these aren’t fleeting trends; they are the foundation of a brand-new entertainment ecosystem. The creator economy has matured into a sophisticated media solution capable of building genuine cultural IP. Low-budget, creator-led projects like Obsession and Backrooms are proof, outperforming massive legacy studio productions globally on a fraction of the budget
“As platforms reward longer watch times and serialized storytelling, short-form series have effectively become the new pilot episode. Instead of spending millions developing ideas in isolation, creators are testing concepts in public, scaling franchise-ready universes alongside their communities. They are no longer just gathering followers; they are building recurring characters and expansive worlds that traditional studios are actively buying into.
“Brands need to be brave and start co-creating rich, episodic worlds that people actively choose to step into. Look at Argos who leaned into creator culture and built Arghaus, an award winning mockumentary series. Trust creators to generate emotional resonance. They manage the live feedback loop every day and they know how to hold attention because they know how to earn it.”
