Invisible Cannes: The hidden workforce behind the Croisette

Ahead of Cannes Lions 2025, Dept spent a year planning its festival merchandise. But after a series of supplier delays, the shipment became stuck in customs — and the transport carrying materials to Cannes had already left for the festival. A logistical nightmare by anyone’s standards.

To resolve it, Dept sent three of their Cannes team members to three different customs depots who packed the apparel in their suitcases, and then boarded their planes to the French Riviera.

“There’s always a solution,” said Dept’s creative brand producer, Roanne Dekluizenaar.

Jason Greenman (founder) and Rich Plane (commercial director) of Akommo, have provided what they call “VIP concierge accommodation in logistics” for Cannes Lions since 2010. Back then, Greenman said, it was still primarily an awards show. Now it behaves more like a week-long migration problem.

And like all problems it comes with its gaggle of unexpected twists and turns. 

Like the 3 a.m. call one year from a guest who had locked himself out of his apartment — standing on a sixth-floor terrace in his boxer shorts, unable to get back inside. The team found a 24-hour locksmith who forced the door open, and the guest got to salvage a few hours of sleep before the Cannes Lions breakfast circuit began.

This wasn’t a standout incident for Greenman and Plane.

Nor was the time when a major talent — an American football player — wanted to go to the gym. But not just any gym — his hotel gym was considered inadequate. Only one local gym provided the standard he wanted, but it wasn’t one that could just be booked during Cannes Lions — the city’s biggest event of the year.

But Plane had a membership. “I ended up spotting him in the gym,” he said. “It’s just me, a massive American football player, and I’m literally there on the weights with him.”

If concierge is the system reacting in real time, it’s the apartment and villa brokers who determine who truly hold the keys to Cannes Lions.

Claus Fermann, CEO of Qautio, has spent the last 13 years providing what he described as a “white-glove service” that has become embedded in Cannes Lions. Brokering accommodation for platforms like Google, Meta and Snapchat, where entire apartment blocks and villas are pre-secured, tiered and delivered alongside logistics partners handling the security, transport and on-the-ground coordination.

Nothing about Cannes is ever straightforward until the last guest vacates the last property at the end of the week, Fermann explained, no matter how many quality checks are conducted.

“I had a client once — she’s just walking from the bathroom into the bedroom — and a wooden air conditioning panel in the ceiling just came loose and fell straight onto her head,” he said. “She wasn’t seriously injured, but she was badly shaken. And it just goes to show… you can never fully eliminate risk. It’s about how you respond to it and how fast.”

Sylvain Marcon, managing director of Cannes Seaside, has spent about eight years sourcing and allocating apartments near the Croisette. He starts contacting clients in November, to secure apartments for the year ahead. And that pricing matters: costs have skyrocketed in the last decade. Editor’s Note: Digiday uses Marcon as a third-party vendor.

“I try to be honest with my clients, and to be fair, so that’s why they also appreciate my price level,” he said. “Hotels like the Marriott, for example, charge €3,000 ($3,440) per night, so my prices are fair when compared to the service and location, but some locations are expensive.”

And even Macron has had his own fair share of mishaps happen.

“A couple years ago, rats ate through the internet cables during the Film Festival, right before Cannes Lions, so the entire street had no WiFi,” he said. So off he went to source routers and mobile hot spots from across the city, pulling together a temporary solution, before guests noticed anything had changed.

All this happens across the street from the beach — the location of all the major activations, sought after cabanas and A-list appearances. An area where Comcast Advertising’s director of international communications, Sophie Eeles, is familiar with.

Eeles has overseen event programming for FreeWheel beach for the past three years, building more green rooms for the high caliber of talent backstage — or upgrading to LED screens so as to not get a sun glare. She begins programming in January each year.

“We test theater style seating versus tables and chairs, because you want the experience to be great but also we need to ensure we can facilitate the crowds that come to the beach,” she said.

Unik Ernest, hospitality entrepreneur and founder of Culturin, known to most along the Croisette as the ultimate fixer, is now in his fourth year of hosting invite-only parties and events during the festival for a curated guest list of top execs, A-listers and industry talent that want a place to unwind away from the cameras and the crowds.

“People trust me to take them somewhere where they would have fun and they would be safe,” he said. “I realized Cannes was missing that.”

And to think it all started by chance. In 2022, Ernest was tasked with finding a late-night spot for rapper Nas and around 50 people after his Spotify performance. One last-minute call later and a closed venue opened its doors. What began as an impromptu gathering, quickly snowballed into a 200-person strong event — and subsequently revealed a gap in Cannes’ social scene that he continues to fill each year, starting his processes on January 1.

“People don’t know what it takes to put these things together — the logistics, the relationships and managing all the different personalities involved,” he added.

The network behind the network is one built not on fiber or frequency but on proximity, goodwill and the quiet understanding that at Cannes, someone will always need something — maybe at 3 a.m., and while in their boxer shorts. 

“I’ve already booked my week off for July, just to recoup. You’re so invested in work and delivering stuff, making sure you’re meeting deadlines, people are in the right place at the right time, and all the logistical side of stuff, we’re just all in it together,” said Eeles. “There’s no denying that it is socially draining.”