Step aside, Mad Men. Cannes has become a creator haven for the upcoming week.

A wave of influencers will join the estimated 13,000-plus attendees at this year's Cannes Lions advertising festival, which begins in France on Monday. Creators are competing for brand partnerships, paid speaking opportunities, exclusive party access, and numerous chances to film content along the sparkling Cote d'Azur.

More than 250 creators are slated to attend, based on a roster assembled by a group of marketing agencies. Participants include Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper, Feed Me founder Emily Sundberg, makeup artist and creator Cindy Chen, TikTok personalities Josh Richards, Golloria, and Keith Lee, plus YouTubers Eleanor Neale, Colin and Samir, and David Dobrik, all set to connect with marketers over the week.

When I first attended Cannes, spotting Martin Sorrell on the street counted as the major celebrity sighting, said UTA's Margot Hauer-King, alluding to the ex-WPP CEO and current S4 Capital executive chairman.

These days? Alix Earle, Hauer-King noted, highlighting the buzz the get ready with me influencer generated during her 2025 Cannes visit.

This year, creators are shifting from the edges of Cannes to the main spotlight. The change mirrors an industry adaptation to major shifts in how audiences engage with media. With traditional broadcast ads losing reach amid splintered viewership, marketers now see creators as a vital route to attention and sway.

EMARKETER, a Business Insider sister company, projects that 88.7 percent of established US firms will allocate funds to influencer marketing this year, rising from under 40 percent ten years prior. Brand investment in influencer marketing is projected to hit 12.42 billion dollars.

SharkNinja chief brand and experience officer Michelle Crossan-Matos noted that influencer marketing as a phrase now seems outdated. She favors creator commerce to underscore how creators help shape both product development and marketing approaches.

Shweta Bhardwaj, a Bain and Company partner, observed that creator strategy has become central to marketing plans.

Many CMOs I speak with describe yesterday's marketing as brands discussing themselves, Bhardwaj said. Today's marketing involves consumers discussing brands, with CMOs tasked to foster those exchanges in the most genuine manner possible.

Creators' Cannes agenda

Leading YouTube creator Dhar Mann returns to Cannes Lions for his second visit this year, with a schedule packed with speaking engagements, including an interactive workshop at the Palais where marketing leaders will vie for a 200,000-dollar brand integration on his primary channel.

Mann detects a changing power balance between creators and brands this visit.

Creators are no longer just arriving to network and absorb insights from brands, as more brands now seek to understand creator operations, Mann said. Creators receive daily input from millions of viewers and grasp what drives care and sharing.

Some effort remains to ease process delays, Mann added.

The conventional approach with traditional advertisers spans months, involving endless presentations and back-and-forth meetings, Mann said. Brands are realizing that survival in this evolving environment requires matching the pace of culture, and creators excel at that.

Sundas Khalid, who shares AI and data science content with over one million followers, attends Cannes Lions for the first time this year. She plans to reconnect with prior partners such as OpenAI and Teachable, forge new marketer ties, and visit LinkedIn's area on the Hotel Carlton rooftop for content creation and creator meetups. LinkedIn specifies one guideline: no pool swimming.

If there is one aspect of content creation, it can feel isolating, as I record most videos in my basement, Khalid said. I make a point to spend time in spots where fellow creators gather.

The other hot topics: agentic AI, soccer, and M&A

Influencer marketing is not the only focus at this year's Cannes.

The ad sector is working to ease concerns over artificial intelligence and its capacity to eliminate roles while consolidating influence among tech leaders.

Agentic will top every Cannes buzzword list as firms promote AI agents capable of handling media purchases, research, and consumer shopping tasks.

Brian Kotlyar, CMO of marketing platform Hightouch, offers two suggestions for marketers facing such proposals. First, request a live demonstration in a real setting rather than a prepared one. Second, when an agent is mentioned, inquire what it can achieve beyond Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.

This festival coincides with the final World Cup group-stage games, so live sports, among the few remaining broad-reach media options, will feature prominently in Croisette discussions. The World Advertising Research Centre predicts the tournament will boost global ad spending by 10.5 billion dollars this year, as brands aim to leverage its positive vibe and wide generational draw. Numerous Cannes participants are organizing game watch parties, with the European schedule extending events late into the night.

Attendees should also anticipate ample M&A discussions alongside their rose glasses. Rumors abound on whether Publicis' LiveRamp purchase and Accenture Song's Whalar acquisition might trigger similar moves in data and creator sectors. Marketers will query Omnicom leaders on the effects of its nine-billion-dollar Interpublic Group integration on clients.

PepsiCo CMO Jane Wakely anticipates creative effectiveness, meaning campaigns that prove business results, will emerge as the standout theme by the event's end. Wakely serves on the jury for the Cannes Lions Creative Effectiveness Award.

Cannes Lions updated its awards criteria for 2026 following questions last year about verifying bold claims in case studies. Wakely supported the updates.

Two or three years ago, much of the celebrated work lacked effectiveness and amounted to stunts, Wakely said. I believe the industry was starting to stray from its path.