We Went to Cannes Lions: Where the Industry Is Trending
Every year that I go to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, I go to watch the trends in action. There are generally one or two themes that dominate, ones we can take back to our teams and our clients for continual learning. But Cannes Lions 2026 was different. The energy shifted. Not the glittery awards show energy because that’s always there in full force. But the thinking shifted. I was at the edge of my theater seat.
After spending a week going from panel to keynote to networking event to insights presentation, it’s clear the industry is waking up to what we need to do in the current marketplace. It’s a tough one to navigate, and it’s decidedly different than what we’ve been chasing the last few years.
AI is finally getting relegated to the side.
For the past three years, every conversation started with AI. AI this, AI that, AI will replace us all. Run for the hills! At Cannes Lions this year, the AI conversation took a different shape. AI showed up as a tool, not the strategy. Humans stayed at the center.
Just take a look at the award-winning work that actually cut through. It wasn’t built by AI. It was built with the help of AI. That distinction is game-changing for how we move forward.
Engagement became participation.
The old model: brands create, audiences consume. Brands engage, audiences respond. Well, that’s over.
The campaigns winning now are moving beyond engagement and asking people to participate and to be a part of the work. To co-create. The audience isn’t a target anymore. They’re collaborators.
Participation breaks into culture in a way engagement never could.
Consumers stopped being transactions.
Here’s what felt most important: brands are finally seeing people again. People. Not demographics, not segments and not customer lifetime value or conversion rates. People.
Real people with real lives, real contradictions, and real humanity. Your work changes when you view your people through that lens. The empathy is different and the insight lands more effectively.
Sports and its adjacencies are the driver of culture.
Sports marketing dominated the conversations at Cannes. Sports (the culture, the tribalism, the meaning around it) is where brands are finding relevance.
Sports has become the heartbeat of culture. And if you’re not thinking about sports, you’re thinking small.
Creators replaced advertising.
Co-creation on creator channels has become the new, pragmatic media with brands showing up in creator spaces, collaborating and building content together instead of buying space for ads. This is a partnership now, far beyond what we used to do with “influencers.”
The divide between brand and creator is collapsing. And that’s the point.
B2B is still sleeping.
I was a little shocked to see that B2B creativity hasn’t caught up yet. I, for one, predicted 2026 would be the year B2B breaks into culture. It hasn’t. The opportunity is there but the creative thinking hasn’t arrived yet.
B2B is still operating in the old playbook. That’s an opportunity for anyone brave enough to actually think differently about it.
So what does this all mean?
We introduced research at Cannes Lions 2026 called “The Chaos Advantage.” The insight underneath it all is that the brands winning right now are the ones comfortable navigating through the chaos, polarization and uncertainty we are facing. They break through it and grow while their competitors sit back and play it safe.
These brands are embracing the unpredictability that comes with real participation, with tools that help them to navigate the risk that is inherently in the system. They work the risk to their advantage.
That’s the shift, and that’s what Cannes Lions was telling us.
Marketing is a spectator sport, so let’s all learn from this amazing Festival and elevate our work as a result.
I want to see you on the awards stage next year!
Jim Joseph is FleishmanHillard’s global head of brand impact, responsible for leading global brand business across B2B, B2C and B2G audiences, leveraging communications to enable commerce and business outcomes for the agency’s clients. He is a member of FleishmanHIllard’s Global Executive Advisory.
