As marketers and creatives flock to the Croisette for this year’s Cannes Lions festival, they’ll notice new players primed to drive billions of investment dollars into the advertising industry.
Creators, for one, will have their own dedicated fringe festival. Retail media will be the talk of happy hours as advertisers turn to retailer data amid looming cookie deprecation, sources predict. And with the explosion of women’s sports audiences in recent years, marketers will be eager to hit the new Women’s Sports House for business opportunities.
ADWEEK spoke to a handful of experts about these three sectors set to make a significant impression at this year’s event.
Creator coronation
While a handful of content makers wandered the Croisette in 2023 with their mics and tripods, this year Cannes Lions is giving them their own spotlight in the form of a dedicated festival called Lions Creators.
“The consumer journey has been forever changed by social media, and creators are a significant part of this evolution,” said Joe Gagliese, co-founder and co-CEO of social marketing agency Viral Nation, which is sponsoring the inaugural event. “Having their voices and perspectives heard and celebrated at the tentpole advertising event of the year is a milestone moment for the creator economy and the larger marketing industry.”
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Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook said Lions organizers noticed creators didn’t have a space to meet up and address business challenges in past years, so his team stepped in, with programming that will bring creators, brands, platforms and agencies together for learning and networking opportunities.
It makes sense the ad industry is trying to help juice the creator economy, which Goldman Sachs estimates will be a $480 billion industry by 2027. But there’s a lot of work to be done to hit that benchmark.
“We uncovered a lack of understanding when it comes to the creator economy—agencies face challenges dealing with brands who don’t ‘get’ the creator world, while content creators feel that brands do not fully understand the extent of what they do and how powerful it can be for them,” Cook said.
Nonetheless, creators have become a crucial part of marketing strategy, said Gaëtan du Peloux, co-chief executive and chief creative officer at Paris-based creative agency Marcel.