6 learnings I'm taking home from Cannes Lions 2026

There's something energizing about spending a week at Cannes Lions.

You arrive expecting to hear about the year's biggest campaigns, the latest AI breakthroughs and predictions for the future of marketing. And while all of those conversations happened, I left with something a little different.

As I moved between sessions, one theme kept surfacing in different ways: The brands that will succeed over the next few years are the ones that know how to understand people, make smarter decisions and create experiences that genuinely resonate.

Here are the six takeaways that will stay with me long after this year’s festival has ended.

One of the conversations I found myself returning to throughout the week was around measurement.

For years, we've leaned heavily on metrics like reach and frequency. They're useful, but speaker after speaker challenged us to remember that they measure opportunity, not impact.

Attention came up in countless sessions, but not as another metric to obsess over. Instead, the discussion focused on whether attention actually helps us understand what matters: 

• Did people remember the ad? 

• Did it strengthen the brand? 

• Did it change behavior?

That shift in thinking really resonated with me. Collecting more data isn't the goal anymore. The opportunity is figuring out how to use that data to make better creative decisions.

It probably won't surprise anyone that AI was everywhere at Cannes this year.

What did surprise me was how nuanced the conversations were.

The most inspiring speakers weren't talking about replacing marketers or automating creativity. They were talking about removing friction, simplifying complexity and giving people more time to focus on the work that only humans can do.

At the same time, there was a healthy dose of realism.

Several speakers pointed out that AI can just as easily amplify flawed assumptions as good ones. That idea stuck with me because it reinforces something that's always been true: better technology doesn't automatically lead to better decisions.

If anything, it makes critical thinking, curiosity and evidence even more valuable.

Some of my favorite sessions came from brands like LEGO and EA.

What connected them wasn't their industry or their marketing strategy. It was the way they talked about building communities around shared passions instead of simply promoting products.

Rather than asking consumers to pay attention, they're creating experiences people actively want to participate in.

It also made me think differently about audience building. Sometimes the biggest growth opportunities aren't found by asking who your customers are today, but by understanding what they genuinely care about.

And that feels like a much richer place for brands to start.

This was probably the biggest mindset shift I experienced all week.

There's been so much conversation about AI creating content faster and cheaper that it's easy to wonder what happens to creativity.

After Cannes, I actually feel the opposite.

When everyone has access to the same tools, creating more content isn't a competitive advantage anymore. Creating something memorable is.

One speaker described today's challenge as moving from information scarcity to meaning scarcity, and I haven't stopped thinking about that since.

The brands people remember aren't necessarily the loudest or the most different. They're the ones that know exactly who they are and express that consistently over time.

One topic I hadn't expected to hear so much about was AI agents.

As these systems become a bigger part of how people discover products and make decisions, brands will increasingly need to communicate with both people and machines.

That sounds futuristic, but the implications are surprisingly familiar.

Clear positioning. Consistent messaging. Distinctive brand assets. Those fundamentals matter just as much in an AI-driven world as they always have.

I also loved hearing conversations about packaging being reframed as a growth opportunity rather than simply a branding exercise. Combined with consumer insight and AI-powered exploration, it's becoming one of the most powerful ways to influence decisions in the moments that matter most.

And GALLO's work around Mental Availability reinforced another timeless reminder: growth comes from being the brand people think of when they're ready to buy—not simply the one they recognize in a survey.

If there was one idea that tied almost every session together for me, it was this:

We're no longer limited by access to data. We're limited by our ability to make sense of it.

Whether speakers were talking about cultural intelligence, consumer insights, semiotics or AI, the conversation kept coming back to interpretation.

Hellmann's case study was a great example. Instead of looking only at how people use the product, the team explored the cultural meaning surrounding food, uncovering opportunities that traditional research alone might have missed.

That felt like a powerful reminder that the best insights don't just explain what's happening. They help us see what everyone else is overlooking.

Leaving Cannes, I came home with pages of notes, countless ideas and far too many tabs open on my laptop.

But one thought keeps coming back to me: The future of marketing isn't about choosing between AI and human creativity. It's about knowing how to combine them.

AI will continue to make marketers smarter and more efficient. But the qualities that make great marketing great —empathy, curiosity, creativity and sound judgment — still belong to people.

And if this year's Cannes Lions was any indication, those human qualities are becoming more valuable than ever.