Just a week or so ago the Cannes International Festival of Creativity was held in Cannes, France. Below is a write-up from AdAge’s Editor-in Chief on her impressions. Interesting reading!

ByJeanine Poggi, Ad Age editor-in-chief

June 27, 2026 07:00 AM EDT

On my way to Cannes, Delta offered a $7,000 voucher to switch to a later flight because my red-eye was overbooked. I almost abandoned the festival altogether. In truth, I was already exhausted by the idea of yet another conversation about AI anxiety and another debate about how the heart of the festival—the creative—has been replaced by data and technology. 

I begrudgingly got on the plane (at least I had the rosé to look forward to). 

And yes, there was plenty of hand-wringing over AI, plenty of debate about how exclusive and closed off the festival has become and, of course, plenty of complaints about the unbearable heat. 

This year, though, Ad Age took a bit of a different approach to the festival. Instead of filling the week with back-to-back panels, we convened chief marketing officers, creators, agency executives and marketing leaders for smaller roundtable discussions. We gave them the space to talk more freely, and they went deep on the challenges they are facing (it wasn’t just AI):

• In our CMO roundtable, marketers spent a meaningful amount of time talking about convincing CFOs that creativity matters. 
• During our creator-brand discussion, creators challenged brands to stop treating them like media buys and start treating them like strategic partners. 
• At our Leading Women Network roundtable, a conversation about career visibility quickly became one about the invisible work required simply to be in the room.

Each of those conversations, without fail, ended with talking about trust, community and what it means to build genuine connection. It was these conversations that made dealing with what the French consider air conditioning worth the trip.

Here’s what else I’m taking home from the conversations at this year’s festival:

Marketing is becoming more human, not less.

One of my favorite moments from the week came during a CMO Spotlight panel I moderated at the Palais. I asked each of them the same question:

In one word, what’s the future of marketing?

Zena Srivatsa Arnold, CMO of Sephora, answered: community.

Tamika Young, CMO of Hinge, said: heart.

Marta Moreno Gómez, senior marketing manager, Heineken and international premium brands, Heineken Company, chose: human.

Three different answers, but the sentiment was the same: the future of marketing is built on stronger human connections.

Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, described a world that’s becoming more insular, where consumers increasingly rely on smaller networks and trusted voices. His advice to marketers: shift messaging from “we” to “me.” Build trust by making people feel seen, understood and represented.

That same thinking surfaced elsewhere throughout the week:

Pinterest’s “Less URL. More IRL.” activation reflected a desire for deeper, real-world connections. Netflix centered its Cannes presence around fandom. Even conversations about creators weren’t really about creators—they were about the communities they’ve built and the trust they’ve earned.

Again and again, technology was discussed as an enabler, not the strategy itself.

The creativity conversation has changed

For years, one of the recurring debates at Cannes has been whether creativity—the very thing the festival was built to celebrate—has taken a back seat to performance marketing.

That conversation is still happening.

But this year, it felt secondary to a different one: how marketers can convince the rest of the organization that creativity is a business driver, not just a marketing function.

It showed up in different ways throughout the week. The new Creative Brand Lionsrecognized companies that have built creativity into the way they operate, not just those that produced a standout campaign. Procter & Gamble’s Marc Pritchard spoke about using AI to accelerate creativity, not replace it. And across conversations with marketing leaders, the focus was less on choosing between brand and performance and more on building organizations where creativity can consistently drive business results.

The question is no longer whether creativity matters. It’s how organizations create the conditions for it to thrive and how marketing leaders make the case for it across the business. Creativity is increasingly being viewed not as a campaign outcome, but as an organizational capability.

Creator marketing has grown up

Five years ago, most creator conversations revolved around reach, engagement and follower counts. That isn’t what I heard this week. 

Brands talked about bringing creators into annual planning before a brief exists. Creators described themselves as consultants, product advisors and entrepreneurs. Compensation discussions extended beyond sponsorships to licensing, equity and long-term partnerships.

Edelman argued that brands should be investing less in celebrity and more in trusted creators with deep credibility inside smaller communities. The common thread was trust. 

AI is moving from novelty to infrastructure.

Last year, many of the conversations around AI centered on disruption.

This year, marketers were asking much more practical questions: How should teams be organized? What work belongs in-house? Which workflows should AI handle? Where does human judgment still matter most?

Pritchard described AI as a way to uncover insights faster and accelerate creative development, not replace it. One participant in our roundtable captured the sentiment in a single sentence: “You still need people with excellent taste.”

That may have been my favorite quote of the week because it recognizes what technology still can’t replace.

Leadership isn’t just built at work

But the conversation that personally had the biggest impact on me came during our Leading Women Network roundtable. 

We started by talking about networking, personal brands and career visibility. We ended up talking about everything it takes just to be in the room.

Women shared stories about partners rearranging schedules, grandparents flying in to help with childcare and the weeks of planning required simply to spend a few days in Cannes. One participant admitted she rarely talks publicly about those realities because she worries they’ll be interpreted as a lack of commitment. I suspect that’s true of many women leaders in this industry. 

We spend a lot of time talking about how people become leaders. We spend far less time talking about what it takes to make leadership possible in the first place.

That conversation was a reminder that visibility isn’t just about raising your hand or building your network. For many leaders, it’s supported by an invisible layer of planning, tradeoffs and care work that rarely gets acknowledged but makes showing up possible.

The conversation that matters: Trust

If there was one thread running through nearly every conversation I heard, it was trust.

Edelman talked about consumers relying on smaller circles and trusted voices. CMOs talked about community, heart and being more human. Brand leaders talked aboutgiving creators more ownership. Marketers also talked about earning buy-in from their own organizations.

As the industry becomes more complex, technology alone isn’t going to solve the hardest problems. Those solutions come from people sharing ideas, challenging one another and learning together.

That’s why Ad Age keeps bringing this community together—not just to report on what’s changing, but to create space for people in the industry to make sense of it with one another. 

I’m glad I didn’t take that $7,000 voucher. 

Hopefully making a ruckus, one blog post at a time!

Be sure to check out my other blog,Joe’s Journey, for selected short stories and personal insights on life and its detours.