Cannes Lions Launches With Focus on Sports, Streaming, AI

Buzz this year includes ‘Lions King’ Michael Kassan upending the ad business with new company to challenge MediaLink

A purple neon-lit party aboard a yacht with a number of people mingling on its deck.
A fashion fundraiser and disco on the VX Yacht at the 2023 Cannes Lions. (Photo by Richard Bord/Getty Images for Vayner)

CANNES – Launching on Monday, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will be an advertising mecca drawing everyone from Elon Musk to Queen Latifah and John Legend, redirecting the focal point of the creative economy from legacy properties to streaming platforms powered by AI.

At a press conference Sunday, Lions organizers said 12,000 delegates from 90 countries were registered for the event. The creative economy is worth $250 billion currently, they stated, expected to rise to $480 billion by 2027. 

All that commerce may be well and good, but the drama will be among the power players stalking the Croisette.

Comments