Diverse trends were bountiful but based on the common themes seen on social media, creators were having a moment, and their presence was keenly felt and seen at Cannes this year as they become true partners in the marketing and branding process. Balancing AI with human intelligence is a debate always worth having as well, in both the insights and creative marketing worlds. Below are some of the impactful comments about Cannes Lions 2026, mostly sifted through the lens of social media. Learn what participants experienced at this year’s festival.
Gauging the Cannes Experience
“Brands are making a significant bet on the physical world—experiences, communities, sports sponsorships, cultural moments you can participate in. It gets labeled nostalgia but it’s very clearly a strategic response to fragmented attention, scarcity of trust and the LLM mediation of brand. This context brings us back to something fundamental. The most durable brand impressions are the ones you feel rather than see.” —Caroline Mackenzie Kennedy, Chief Commercial Officer, Material
“Humanity was the word of the week. No technology can replace human curiosity, judgment, and understanding. Neurodivergent talent is shaping the creative industry now, and will continue in the future. Invest in them. Enable them to do their best work. Making real impact requires working with, through and alongside others.” —Nathan Friedman, Co-President and Chief Marketing Officer, Understood.org
“Yes, AI and digital are everywhere you look. But we’re also seeing so much of the complete opposite. So far this week, we’ve run into letter making stations, disposable cameras, and of course, the experience that is Cannes Lions aka THE immersive and in-person festival built to connect with one another. And it doesn’t just start or stop in Cannes either. It’s a trend we’ve been seeing for quite a bit now. People are unplugging, diving into analog hobbies and activities, collecting vintage items, and really embracing the IRL moments. So, now that we’re seeing the rise of analog and experiential, the next step is figuring out how it works with the digital side of things. At Vayner, it’s something we’ve coined as the Barbell strategy, and it essentially means that both extremes need to be prioritized.” —VaynerX
“Creativity is the catalyst for progress—a competitive advantage that drives business results. This recognition from Cannes reflects the excellence and effectiveness of our work. It is creatively ambitious, strategically grounded, connects with consumers, and is built to drive real impact.” —Diana Frost, Chief Growth Officer, Kraft Heinz
“The AI discussions were met in the same breath with creativity and human connection and that inspired me in a way that I haven’t experienced in quite some time. I’m so grateful for the experience and for the good, meaningful work that was done this week making real, joyful, albeit very sweaty human connections.” —Jenna Neumann, Director, Account Development – Media & Entertainment, Claritas
“The way consumers traditionally discovered brands was through word of mouth, research, and of course, marketing. They may have searched, compared, scoured reviews, and made an informed decision. Today, LLMs have made it more of an express lane. Consumers can now simply ask a question and receive an answer tailored to their needs—“word of bot,” as one panelist put it. Moloco CMO Paul D’Arcy notes: ‘Product research is being replaced with product shortlists generated by AI, with the shorter path to a product being the preferred path.’ So where does advertising fit in? This shift makes it even more critical for marketers to master the art of both brand and performance, to be a part of the conversation, and to meet their audiences where they are with relevant messages and products that resonate.” —Moloco
“We won Grand Prix for Media for our Uber Eats Build Your Own Super Bowl campaign and we can’t really believe it. This was undoubtedly the most ambitious project we have ever taken on. And there were many, many brilliant minds involved—along with many moments along the way where we genuinely weren’t sure we were going to make it. But it is a testament to everyone who touched it, their commitment, belief, craft, care and most of all collective team spirit—that we not only made it, but made it special.” —Kelsey Hodgkin, CEO, Special US
“From spotting cultural signals and shaping insight, to developing ideas, collaborating with creators, and measuring impact—where does AI genuinely add value? And where does it risk flattening originality? As AI becomes embedded into the marketing workflow, the real question isn’t whether to use it but how to protect the human edge that makes ideas resonate in culture.” —Brands&Culture
“I actually fundamentally believe this is such a great opportunity for journalism. Answer engines want recency, relevancy, and conversation. You don’t get that by searching the web. You get that by brands partnering with news organizations to get content out — supporting journalism in a different way. This is such a great opportunity for brands to go direct to publishers. That’ll bring money back into journalism, which will show up in the answer engines.” —Bob Lord, President, Horizon Media
“One of the standout themes is the evolving role of creators. They’re no longer the final slide in a campaign deck. They’re increasingly part of the strategic conversation from day one. Why? Because audiences can spot forced authenticity from a mile away. Trust has become the currency of modern marketing and the most successful brands understand they’re not buying an audience. They’re being invited into a community. There’s something refreshing about seeing the conversation shift away from channels and tactics and back towards people, culture, and connection.” —Human8
“Steven Bartlett said that in a world where a creator in Manhattan and a creator in Mumbai now have access to identical tools, the scarce resource is you. AI accelerates iteration. It helps with production, ideation, and editing. What it cannot do is replace authentic storytelling rooted in actual lived experience.” —Brett Dashevsky, Founder, Creator Economy NYC, Co-Founder, Siftsy
“Curiosity is a superpower. AI was a big topic again, but this year it felt more real, with people getting hands on, trying new things, and sharing a sense of optimism about what these new tools can unleash for our industry. It’s clear to me that the folks who are succeeding in this new world are the ones who are willing to learn and experiment, even when it feels uncomfortable. We all have to embrace the vulnerability that comes with learning to use these new tools, and fostering the right toolset, skillset, and mindset on our teams to give them permission to innovate.” —Lorraine Twohill, CMO, Google
“Creators are true strategic partners. The brands winning right now are co-building with creators, rather than simply plugging them into campaigns for reach. That shift is real, and it was visible across the Croisette this year. Retail media is no longer just a performance lever. In an increasingly fragmented media landscape where reaching consumers is harder than ever, retail media is uniquely positioned to drive discovery all the way through purchase. That’s a massive opportunity for brand builders.” —Jasmine Anderson Taylor, VP, Consumer Marketing, Instacart
“Discovery no longer happens in isolated moments but unfolds as a continuous state, impacting trust, visibility and identity across fragmented cultural systems. How can brands sustain relevance in this evolving landscape?” —The Future Laboratory
“Compared to the unabashed ebullience around AI at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity last year, 2026 brought something different: a more calibrated sobriety about both the wonders and the limits of AI in marketing. With another year of experimentation, ah-has, and uh-ohs under our belts, marketers from around the world seemed to arrive with clearer eyes — a sharper sense of the right use cases, and the areas where technology still falls short of what we’d call “great work.”… We as marketers have a tendency to overreact, overcorrect, and then recalibrate. We are very much in that process.” —Oscar Yuan, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer, Material
“Creators weren’t guests at the table this year. They were running it. Hosting panels. Leading conversations. Disrupting how media, entertainment, and tech think about influence, ownership, and value. The leverage shift is real. Creators are understanding what their platforms are worth. And the industry is finally catching up.” —Kameron Buckner, Founder, Social Docket
“As we come to the end of a great week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, there were two camps here on the Croisette—those who think that AI will create the greatest creative revolution in history and are super excited about having its amazing storytelling capabilities at their fingertips—and those who want to dismiss it as the worst thing to happen to creativity in the history of marketing! Yes, there is a lot of AI slop, yes, a lot of great execution with no idea (there is also a lot of very average human creativity) but there is also some amazing work—and it’s only going to get better and better!” —David Jones, Founder, The Brandtech Group
“The next generation of marketing won’t be measured by who publishes the most. It will be measured by who is easiest for AI to understand, verify, and recommend.” —Justin Inman, Founder and CEO, Emberos
“Sports is becoming one of the few things you can see and automatically trust. The scoreboard is public and the wins, losses, setbacks, and comebacks are all documented in real time. That’s what B2B marketers can learn from the industry and its athletes. Consistency creates connection. Connection creates belonging. Belonging creates belief. That’s what sports does. It isn’t built on highlights and accolades. It’s built on seasons and stories. Fans follow the journey over years, and that’s what builds reputation and trust.” —Spencer Keith Jones, Denver Nuggets, NBA
“#1 insights is NOT in an identity crisis, despite what AI pundits will tell you. It knows and has always known it is about rigorous, empathetic and useful inputs into business choices. But it is (and has always been, imho) in a branding crisis. #2 No, thank you, researchers do NOT want to be more like marketers. They want marketers to be more like researchers. #3 In fact they still think data and evidence should rule over gut and instinct. #4 But perhaps now they are weighing the latter a little more, as we enter the next era of insights: the paradox of efficiency versus depth. #5 That makes the job of hiring the next generation of talent particularly tricky. Especially if they ‘bypass’ entry level roles. The simple fact is that every business will have the same speed advantages when it comes to collecting and synthesizing data. What will stand great companies apart will not be the intel or a sophisticated internal intelligence engine, but the leadership decisions made through its interpretation. And the ability to show how those decisions are leading not just through a sales crisis today, but into growth territory in the future.” —Joanna Lepore, EVP, Global Strategy & Foresight, Dig Insights
“The biggest point that I hope people took away from our talk is that there has never been a better time to invest in organic social media. Yes, there was a lot of chatter about ad tech in Cannes…but it somehow made me even more bullish on organic. The algorithms essentially work like targeting right now—serving up content based on your interests. You can have 500 followers and get 1M views. When you fund brave creative ideas, make videos that people genuinely want to share, and break stodgy “best practices”—that is truly where the good stuff is.” —Rachel Karten, Author and Creator, Link in Bio
“Insights leaders highlighted quality human intelligence as the foundation for decision ecosystems that are democratized and proliferated by AI. The goal being quality human data in the hands of more leaders than ever before to make better, faster decisions. AI is the facilitator; the human is the decision maker.” —Tara Marotti, President & CEO, Burke Inc.
“Every global brand faces pressure toward consistency. We need as much alignment across markets as possible. It makes operational sense. But it can also make you less sensitive to places where the global model doesn’t quite fit and where local consumers enter the category differently, or where the drivers behind brand choice diverge from what works everywhere else. This is usually where the growth is if the brand can see it or where the brand is missing it.” —Alexander Shmelkov, Director Global Brand Tracking, IKEA
“AI is accelerating the shift of insights from a standalone function to something embedded across organizations. The future feels less about individual studies and more about connected learning systems that bring together research, trends, social, and cultural intelligence, business data, and institutional knowledge. Even the most established parts of our industry, including brand tracking and segmentation, are being reimagined. The focus is increasingly on speed, actionability, and business impact.” —Paul Gaudette, CEO & Co-Founder, Dig Insights
“The theme? Moving the industry away from instant gratification and efficiency, and instead (re)connecting brands with modern audiences. Understanding the behavioral mechanisms of connection and brand value by leaving the attention economy in 2025, and stepping into the relational economy. From attention spans to filtering spans. From urgency tactics, to respecting consumer pauses and cultivating them seamlessly.” —Lea Karam, Founder & CEO, Mindscope
“One thing is undeniably clear—the industry is having a human reality check. We are finally moving past tech panic and getting back to the person on the other side of the screen. Here is my quick-fire recap of the 5 themes that dominated every yacht, stage, and beach lounge I stepped onto:
AI through a human lens: The hype phase is over. The focus has shifted from what AI can do to how consumers actually use it for day-to-day utility without losing real human connection.
Conversational Commerce: Traditional desktop checkout funnels are breaking. Buying has officially migrated into the chat tab, and winning means building frictionless, high-trust commerce inside messaging threads.
The Future of Insights: Our roles have changed. We can no longer only execute research projects, we must be proactive storytellers with a definitive seat at the strategic table.
Decoding Gen Z: Monoliths are out, mindsets are in. From “Humor Zoomer Bingo” with Omnicom to our GWI Yacht panel, the data proves that targeting real-time passions and raw humor beats an age bracket every time.
Brand Building & Creativity: In a hyper-fragmented content landscape, long-term brand equity is critical. We must actively train people to prioritize true cognitive attention over short-term algorithmic hacks.” —Aarti Bhaskaran, Global Head of Research & Insights, Snap Inc.
“One of my favorite conversations at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Insights & Strategy Summit was a fireside chat with Lasse Telling, Chief Commercial Officer, GetWhy, on the future of consumer understanding. One idea has stayed with me. The next frontier isn’t speed. It’s Scaled Empathy. For years, organizations have had to choose between depth or scale, richness or speed. AI is beginning to change that. At Reckitt, we see AI-powered qualitative as a way to bring more consumer voices, context and lived experience into everyday decisions. Not to replace human judgment, but to elevate it. Because the real opportunity isn’t Artificial Intelligence. It’s Augmented Human Intelligence.” —Elaine Rodrigo, Chief Insights & Analytics Officer, Reckitt
“AI discussions moved from hype to implementation. Implementation in reshaping creativity, workflows, operating models, and leadership itself. Creator economy is now mainstream marketing. This had been building for years, but it’s now long-term creator partnerships, creator-led commerce and full-funnel measurement. Community is replacing audience. Consumers are no longer passive, they expect to participate, co-create, and shape brands.” —Doug Jensen, Head of Business Development, Ekimetrics
Editor’s Note: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2027 is scheduled to take place from June 21 to 25, 2027.
Video: “Nobody talks about this in the creator economy | Cannes Lions 2026,” courtesy of Microsoft.
