Drawn by promises of new AI tools, potential partnerships, and invaluable networking opportunities, numerous marketers are attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the first time this week.
While marketing superstars naturally attract the most attention, AdAge has also focused on newcomers – highlighting how they are making use of their first appearance at the festival.
For brands still in development, Cannes is a chance to showcase their work and more precisely position their identity against competitors. Beverage company Suja Life is attending the festival for the first time to present how it relaunched Slice, a retro soda brand it acquired last year – through a project that introduced a radio station powered by an “AI time machine.”
Suja Life presented the case study of the Slice relaunch together with its agency BarkleyOKRP at the Google Creative Lighthouse Luncheon held today – a valuable opportunity that should help the company raise its profile and demonstrate its creative ambitions, said Nicole Portwood, Chief Marketing Officer at Suja Life.
‘This is a huge step for a company of our size’, said Portwood, who previously attended Cannes once while working at PepsiCo.
For brands with ‘smaller budgets’, she added, the festival is a chance to ‘break through in a big way’.
According to AdAge, Suja Life is leveraging Cannes to boost brand visibility, develop strategic partnerships, and explore new tools. Other brands doing the same include Primo Brands, which is using the festival to introduce its new corporate structure and share its industry perspective, and The RealReal, which sees Cannes as a turning point in its brand evolution and a key source of insights into AI.
Additionally, Portwood used the opportunity to meet with publishers during her time in France, seeing Cannes as a space for building relationships that could lead to early access to emerging technologies and media opportunities.
All interviewees agreed it’s important to be there and to extend a hand in partnership—since part of the value of the festival lies in keeping up with the evolution of the media landscape.
Even though many of these brands did not arrive with the explicit goal of securing new partnerships, some expect them to arise naturally.
‘I believe that will be one of the outcomes of Cannes, even if it wasn’t our initial goal’, said Kheri Tillman, CMO at Primo Brands, owner of brands like Poland Spring, Mountain Valley, and Saratoga.
Earlier this year, Primo Brands signed a deal with Major League Baseball, becoming the league’s ‘official water’.
Tillman sees the festival as an opportunity to learn from peers and share her own insights, particularly around sustainability and agency relationships. Formed in November through the merger of Primo Water Corp. and BlueTriton Brands, Primo Brands is using Cannes as a global stage to introduce its new name and energy.
‘Any time you get the chance to speak to an audience about what your company is doing – it’s a great opportunity’, said Tillman.
The festival is taking place in a context of global economic uncertainty, which has impacted marketing budgets and prompted some brands and agencies to scale down their presence along the Croisette this year.
