Cannes Lions’ Creator Boom Meets Expense Account Agony

Last year, you could barely walk down the Croisette in Cannes, France without running into someone with millions of social media followers. It was the year that creators stormed Cannes Lions’ International Festival of Creativity amid the marketing world’s warm embrace of online stars and the $185 billion in global advertising revenue they were expected to generate in 2025. Film and TV A-listers largely sat out the fest as new stars from Alix Earle to Amelia Dimoldenberg to Jake Shane took up residency at the du Cap and the Carlton.

Ankler Media joined the party — I moderated panels with Shane and Josh Richards, our CEO Janice Min sat down with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, and we hosted two creator-filled events, one at the du Cap in partnership with Meta and an evening gathering aboard Shad Khan’s massive yacht.

As of today, we’re less than six weeks away from Cannes Lions. And after last year’s creator takeover, the question this time isn’t whether digital talent matters to the advertising business. It’s who is still willing to pay for them to show up.

Have you booked your ticket?

The answer is more likely than not… maybe.

“Cannes Lions is now the most valuable place for a creator to be,” Kai Gayoso, co-head of digital at Range Media Partners, recently told me.

So why am I hearing about so many creators and companies still unsure about whether they’ll be heading to the French Riviera?

That’s the question at the center of today’s newsletter.

I’ll also tell you:

• The Hollywood agencies planning big footprints on the Riviera
• Why this year may be heavier on dealmaking than creator spectacle
• Why brands are pulling back on creator travel spend
• The workaround some marketers are using to book talent for less
• Why Cannes still matters so much for creators — and how they make the trip pay off
• The global unrest, economic pressure and competing events upending the Cannes calculus this year