Why PR and Marketing Leaders Should Be at Cannes Lions, Not Watching From Afar

Most marketers will experience Cannes Lions this year through a screen: the recaps, the winner lists, the posts written from a desk. That is fine as far as it goes, but it misses the point. The value of Cannes was never the trophies. It is the conversation, the relationships and the chance to see in person what the biggest brands and agencies are actually betting on next. Being in the room changes what you learn, and this year the room has changed.

Why presence beats the recap

A recap tells you what won. The room tells you why, and what is coming. Sit through a session and you learn which arguments land with a senior audience, which questions get asked, and which brands are quietly everywhere. That is a kind of cultural intelligence no summary captures. You also notice the gap between what brands say on stage and what they are really doing, which is often the most useful read of all for a communications strategist advising a founder on where to place their own bets.

Recaps tell you what won. The room tells you what is coming.

Cannes is now a culture gathering, not an advertising conference

The clearest shift this year is that the festival is no longer driven by legacy media and traditional advertising. It is being shaped by creators, athletes and the agencies smart enough to sit at the intersection of all three. United Talent Agency's UTA Beach alone hosts more than 120 talent and brand clients on the Croisette, with a first-ever Creator Lounge built for creators to work and do deals. As UTA's Ali Berman put it, Cannes "has evolved from a marketing conference into one of the most important gatherings in culture". For a PR professional, that is not a side note. It is the whole point, because earned attention now flows through culture, not just the press.

The creator economy has moved from sideshow to main stage

For several years the creator economy has been reshaping Cannes from the edges. In 2026 it has arrived at the centre. The same agencies bringing brand clients are bringing dozens of creators across sport, food, fashion and news, from Mel Robbins to Keith Lee, with invitation-only creator dinners that are now among the most contested rooms of the week. For founders and marketers the implication is simple. The people who can put your story in front of a real, engaged audience are no longer only journalists. They are creators with trust and reach, and learning how that ecosystem actually works is now part of the job. You cannot advise on it credibly from a livestream.

Sport and culture are colliding

The other charged theme is sport. With the FIFA World Cup creating a rare global gathering point for brands and audiences in 2026, the overlap of sport, culture and marketing has rarely felt more alive. As KLUTCH Sports and UTA's Fara Leff observed, sport is one of the few places where fragmented audiences still gather in real time, and it resonates wherever it meets culture and storytelling. For brands without a sponsorship budget, that is a prompt rather than a barrier. The opportunity is to earn relevance around the moment through a genuine angle and a human story, which is exactly the discipline we apply to clients around Wimbledon and Roland-Garros.

What I am watching, and why it is useful

My own schedule this year leans deliberately toward where attention is actually being earned. Sessions with Ashley Graham on building brands people believe in, Hearst House on media, influence and engagement, Steven Bartlett on the overlap of business and wellness, and Mel Robbins on turning ideas into movements are not there for celebrity. They are live case studies in how trust and audience are built right now, often outside the traditional press. The platform activations matter too, from Adobe, LinkedIn and Meta to Canva, Pinterest, Amazon and Microsoft, alongside a Brands and Culture day with Ancestry and Sephora. Watching how an Oprah or a Mel Robbins holds a room is a masterclass in narrative, and it translates directly into how we shape a founder's story for the media.

Networking is the real return

The honest truth is that the most valuable part of Cannes is rarely on a stage. It is the introductions, the corridor conversations and the relationships that turn into work, coverage and collaboration months later. PR runs on relationships, and there is no faster way to build a year's worth of them than a week where the people who shape global media, brand and creator decisions are all in one place. If you go, go with intent: choose the few sessions that map to your clients' real questions, leave room to actually talk to people, and follow up within the week while it is warm. If you are not there this year, follow it like a professional rather than a spectator. Track which brands invested in presence, notice the themes that recur, and ask what that tells you about where your own audience's attention is moving.

Being part of the discussion is not vanity. It is how you stay credible when you advise founders and brands on where attention is going next, and it is a perspective we bring back into every brief. If you want a communications partner who is in the conversation, not just reading the recap, speak to Fireflies Management.