In Cannes Lions, Advertising Is Still Figuring Out That Creator Takeover

CANNES, France — Morgan Jay, a TikTok creator with more than 10.6 million followers, came to the Cannes Lions advertising and creative festival in the south of France this week with a whole team.

In other words, he came prepared.

“It has been enlightening on many different levels,” said Jay, a 39-year-old standup comedian who makes most of his money from ticket sales and has a Netflix special and a show with A24 in the works. “On the first day, we had one of these closed door meetings with some brand agencies, and I learned a little bit … How to communicate with them and learning how people see me.”

Jay said he was told that his work was too edgy and his pricing too high for some brand agencies, which was hugely valuable. “Especially people in my field have no idea what’s going on and how to monetize,” he said.

For some high-profile creators like Jay, Cannes Lions was everything they hoped it would be. And then there’s everybody else.

“What do I do?” lamented another creator who has over 2 million followers (she asked not to be named). She blurted out the question as we crossed paths at Google Beach, as much an existential plea as a logistical one. She wasn’t sure which panels to attend or people to meet, and wondered if she was missing something.

Heading into the Cannes Lions 2026, everyone expected it to be a creator haven. After a week spent sipping rose and sweating through linen, that’s not exactly true. Creators were everywhere you turned and they showed up on most panels. But in practice, they were treated more like an afterthought or prop, especially those who arrived at the festival without support teams.

“Because it was our first time, we didn’t really know what to expect. We knew there was a big focus on creators this year, but not what that actually looked like once we were here,” Charlie Hobbis, the founder of the female-owned personal brand and influencer agency OAC The Agency, told TheWrap. “We found the schedule a little bit overwhelming, mainly because there are so many amazing things we’d love to be part of, but you can’t get to everything.”

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Now that Hobbis has a better idea of what to expect from the event, she’s looking forward to bringing her talent out here next year. However, she recommended that anyone who attends do their research.

A TV executive I spoke to also wondered about the influx of creative talent in the south of France. Though creators were around nearly every corner, she noted that she rarely makes deals with or works directly with that talent.

You could see the influx at the Croisette. More than 500 creators hit Cannes Lions, according to YouTube, an increase over the roughly 400 that came a year ago.

“When I was here for the first time, I would say there was no more than 20 to 40 creators,” Brandon B, a creator with 16.2 million YouTube subscribers, told me.
“As the four years have evolved, it almost feels like Cannes is the epicenter of creators. I feel like I’m seeing more creator friends, bumping around the Croisette, than any other creator event I attend year round.”

Yet several creators — many of whom arrived in France alone after hearing that this was the place to be all year — told me that they don’t really know why they were there, though none agreed to say so on record. They’d been told by agencies and the industry at large that they should attend Cannes, but there wasn’t much guidance for how creators are supposed to make deals happen or even where they were supposed to be.

In the rare instance that programming did focus on topics creators cared about, it was met with overwhelming praise.

Adobe’s Group Chat — a roundtable session between emerging and established creators about scaling content and reaching new audiences — was mentioned several times, as was YouTube’s brand deal breakdown with the Sidemen. Also, Colin and Samir — creators who have built a following by giving practical advice to other creators — got a lot of love for their daily sessions at the LinkedIn Lounge. But many panels were clearly designed to appeal primarily to marketers, with a token creator added at the end.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. That’s the role celebrities have occupied in advertising and at Cannes Lions for years. (Seth Meyers and Colin Jost also participated in several events this week.) But it was a bit jarring for those who expected this Cannes to devote time and sessions to educating creators.

How Cannes Lions works

One creator who specializes in longform content told me she learned a lot from her time in Cannes Lions, particularly around making shortform content. When I noted that it was cool she was finding the panels useful, she corrected me: Those insights came from other creators.

That disconnect can be especially panic-inducing considering how Cannes actually operates. Cannes Lions sells badges of various levels to people across the worlds of marketing and advertising. There are also several special badges, like press, student and creator badges, the latter of which costs more than $1,400. There’s a contingent of creators who came to Cannes Lions and likely expected to rub elbows with representatives from some of the biggest brands, but that’s not really how Cannes Lions works.

Another creator with nearly 1 million followers expressed frustration over the gathering, particularly because the biggest events seemed to take place at invite-only beaches. If he returns, he’s unsure if he’ll buy the festival’s creator pass.

While the Cannes Lions pass (a classic one costs $5,000) does provide access to several major company installations like Adobe and Reddit, the bulk of the dealmaking happens on the beaches of Cannes at invite-only locations and events. Those beaches — places like Spotify Beach, Google Beach, Sports Beach and the Canva Creative Cabana — are where the big dogs hang out.

It’s a confusing system, and it’s one that’s only made worse by the heat. It’s always hot in June, but this event has been unfolding in the middle of a severe heat wave. I timed it, and walking the main Cannes Lions strip from end to end took about 30 minutes in 90-degree heat. It all adds up to a bunch of creators who were promised they’d level up their careers by going to this event roaming around the south of France, sweat pouring and half-delirious from the sun.

Wheeling and dealing

Creators who arrived with teams did get more out of Cannes Lions.

“I’m realizing that maybe brands don’t see me as a safe creator because I do comedy and there’s swearing and I talk about sexual things — stuff like that,” Jay told me.

@morganjay

For real yall are asking me for so many photos I have to make your work for it. Shout out to this queen who chased me in Minnesota. If you wanna photo this is what it takes. You better start doing your cardio. One more tour date before break. All the tour dates below. 7/2 – Ledyard, CT 9/12 – Los Angeles 9/17 – Los Angeles 9/25 – Maui 9/26 – Oahu October 3 – Tokyo October 5 – Taipei October 8 – Hong Kong October 11 – Abu Dhabi October 13 – Manila, PH October 14 – Manila, PH October 17 – Sydney October 21- Auckland, NZ October 25 – Melbourne, AU October 29 – Brisbane, AU November 1- Adelaide, AU November 6 – Perth, AU November 11 – Jakarta, ID November 13 – Singapore, SG November 18 – Kuala Lumpur, MY November 21- Bangkok, TH November 27 – Mumbai, IN November 29 – Bengaluru, IN January 15 – Calgary January 16 – Edmonton January 17 – Calgary 2027 February 25 – Manchester February 27 – London March 2 – Helsinki March 8 – Reykjavik March 12 – Stockholm March 13 – Gothenburg March 17 – Estonia March 25 – Graz, Austria March 27 – Glasgow March 30 – Belfast April 1 – Birmingham April 3 – Cardiff April 7 – Frankfurt April 10 – Luxembourg April 13 – Munich April 16 – Berlin April 25 – Cologne April 29 – Antwerp May 1 – Amsterdam May 4 – Zurich May 7 – Bucharest May 11 – Vienna May 15 – Porto May 17 – Madrid May 22 – Paris May 26 – Rome May 30 – Milan June 2 – Zagreb June 7 – Nicosia

♬ original sound – Morgan Jay

He added his meetings have made him reconsider his approach to brands.

“Either my price is too high and I have to talk to my team about that, or they just don’t see me as the kind of creator they want to work with,” he added.

There have been some bright points for creators who paid for a Cannes Lions badge. UTA’s beach became an air conditioned hub for creators. That was in sharp contrast to Cannes Lions’ official creator beach, an open-air location with few meeting rooms that’s baking in the sun. Both UTA and Tubi have also done an excellent job curating panel content for creators.

But the companies that went above and beyond for creators were largely outside of the official Cannes Lions creator track. YouTube was particularly excellent at making the event worthwhile, helping to educate and prepare creators for brand meetings and working to orchestrate conversations with advertisers. It remains the gold standard in my book.

TikTok, Spotify and Patreon were also impressive from what I saw. Patreon partnered with Billion Dollar Boy and FiveTwoNine to bring 20 creators to the festival and provided them support and resources.

Step by step

Despite the challenges some creators faced, this is still progress.

“When I first came, there weren’t many creators here. It was very entertainment, Hollywood, music,” Jay Shetty, host of the mental health podcast “On Purpose,” told me.

Shetty first attended the festival around four years ago. In the coming weeks, video episodes of his podcast will be premiering on both Spotify and Netflix. “Now you’re seeing it become fully creator-centric — creators on every panel, creators networking. It’s incredible to see how much creators have taken over Cannes and become such a mainstay presence. I think that’s incredible for the industry and incredible for creators. That’s only going to grow more and more and more.”

Mike Polner, Adobe’s VP of product marketing and general manager of next gen creators, echoed Shetty. “I wonder how long it is until a creator has their own spot,” Polner told TheWrap. “I could see that in the next couple years. They are brands. They are media companies.”

The creator economy is relatively young, and brands are learning how to work with its specific demands just as creators themselves are learning to talk to advertisers. More in-person gatherings between these two groups is a step in the right direction. And Cannes Lions’ own history is proof that the these two industries at large are moving in the right direction when it comes to better collaboration.

The last time Meg Donovan, the enterprise account director at Adobe, attended Cannes Lions was seven years ago. Back then, the festival was far more of an agency event.

“Brands were a little bit on the fringe when the festival was trying to figure out how to bring them in, and now they’re on the beaches,” Donovan told TheWrap. “I think we’ll start to see more of that [for creators].”