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The definitive Digiday guide to what’s in and out at Cannes 2026

Digiday covers the latest from marketing and media at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. More from the series →

Another year, another recording of the Croisette’s priorities. The money moved, the language shifted and a few things everyone assumed were permanent turned out not to be. Some of this was obvious. Some of it wasn’t. Here’s Digiday’s guide to what’s in and out at the Cannes Lions Festival 2026.

In
OpenAI courting advertisers
Out 
Perplexity courting advertisers

In 
PMG beach
Out
WPP beach

In 
Creators cutting deals with CMOs
Out 
CMOs cutting deals with creators 

In 
Creators on the main stage
Out
Creators on the sidelines

In 
Programming thinking 
Out 
Campaign thinking

In 
Snapchat at the Stagwell Sport Beach 
Out 
Snapchat at the Hôtel Martinez

In 
Tokenomics
Out 
Tokenmaxxing

In 
Cannes Lions integrity council 
Out 
Cannes Lions jury

In
Talking up AI for ideation
Out 
Talking up AI for production

In
“AI needs humans in the lead”
Out
“AI needs humans in the loop”

In
Talking about how screwed The Trade Desk is
Out
Talking about how screwed TikTok is

In 
The creator tech stack
Out
The ad tech stack

Think something’s missing from the list? Let us know at seb@digiday.com.

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