Saatchi X at Cannes: Future of Creativity and Commerce

Excited to be at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, connecting with clients, partners, and industry leaders as our industry continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace. One thing that's becoming increasingly clear: brands need partners who can help them move faster, navigate complexity, and translate insight into action. That's exactly where /prompt thrives. As a 10x Agency of the Year winner, we sit at the intersection of marketing + communications, helping brands create cultural relevance and measurable business impact. Our approach is simple: Outsmart. Outpace. Outdo. Looking forward to the conversations ahead and helping shape what's next for our industry. If you're in Cannes this week, I'd love to connect.

Today's most underrated business asset? Originality. Not because it wins awards. Because it creates advantage. In a world where technology, products and access are increasingly democratized, originality may be the last true competitive advantage. At Interbrand we partnered with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and analyzed 50 of the world's most creatively awarded companies and found a clear link between originality and business performance. The result? 📊 Companies recognized for creative excellence saw, on average, a 2.7% increase in EBIT and a 4.7% increase in market capitalization in the year following their recognition. As #CannesLions week gets underway 🎬, it's a timely reminder that creativity isn't just a marketing discipline. It's a business strategy. And originality may be one of the few competitive advantages that becomes more valuable as everything else becomes easier to copy. 🔗 Read the report: https://lnkd.in/eKhH6M8z

What really happens behind the scenes to make the magic happen at Cannes Lions? 🏖️ We all get to see the incredible activations, experiences and moments that take over the Croisette each year. But we rarely get to hear from the fabulous folks who imagined them, crafted them and brought them to life. So this year, we’re shining the spotlight on these unsung heroes. What do Yahoo, Canva, Vayner, DoubleVerify, Later and Tubi all have in common? They’re all joining us for our exciting new video series: The People Behind the Moments: Cannes Lions 2026 We’re meeting the strategists, creatives, marketers and experience leaders behind some of this year’s most exciting activations and asking them about: ✨ The strategic thinking, creative design and incredible teams that brought their Cannes moment to life. 🔮 How they see brand experiences evolving in 2027 and beyond. 💡 A moment or event that had a transformative impact on their career. Cannes Lions celebrates the work that gets the world talking. This series celebrates the inspiring minds who make that work possible. We can’t wait to share the conversations with you. Who are the changemakers, rule breakers and innovators behind the best Cannes moments that we should speak to next? Shout them out below 👇 Catch you in Cannes! 🎬

CANNES CORRESPONDENTS | What are the best marketers doing differently? A recurring theme from the Palais this week isn't about the latest platform, technology or trend. It's about execution. Alex O'Rourke (nee Smith) spent Day 1 listening to sessions from WARC, CreativeX, Byron Sharp, Mark Ritson, AB InBev and Kimberly-Clark and noticed something interesting. Across very different speakers and organisations, many were championing the same principles: consistency, creativity, distinctive assets, emotional connection and long-term thinking. The question wasn't really what works. It was why so many organisations struggle to do it. One quote that stayed with Alex came from McDonald's CMO: "We created a boring strategy and executed it brilliantly." At a festival that celebrates innovation, it was a reminder that some of the world's most successful brands aren't constantly reinventing themselves. They're staying strategically consistent and finding fresh creative ways to bring that strategy to life. Adele Ghantous heard a similar theme in a Campaign UK session on the relationship between CMOs, CFOs and boards. The conversation focused on trust, accountability and speaking the language of business growth. Marketing leaders need to demonstrate how investment translates into commercial outcomes, while CFOs can often be marketing's strongest partners in helping tell that story. Ebru Tuygun took away something similar from a Cannes Lions panel exploring what it takes to be a CMO in 2026. Despite all the conversation around AI, automation and technology, the discussion kept coming back to people. The panel featured leaders from Snapchat for Business, Klarna and Airwallex, and while there was plenty of talk about systems, workflows and operating models, the biggest challenges they highlighted were proving marketing's value, leading through change and making decisions in an increasingly fast-moving world. What stood out to Ebru was how aligned they were when the conversation turned to leadership. The qualities they kept coming back to weren't technical at all: positivity, empathy, confidence-building and humanity. As one panellist noted, organisations are asking people to navigate huge amounts of change. Leadership today is as much about helping people move through uncertainty as it is about building new capabilities. It's another reminder that while the tools are evolving rapidly, some of the qualities that make great marketers and leaders haven't really changed. #CannesLions #TheMarketingSociety #MarketingLeadership #BrandBuilding #CannesCorrespondents #Cannes2026

I had the privilege of attending #CannesLions this week : an inspiring experience and a real boost of energy for brand building. There were so many outstanding presentations, panels, and debates that it’s hard to choose what to share. But one highlight stood out for me: seeing #RorySutherland speak. What a session! Easily one of the best moments of the week.   A few ideas I’m taking back with me for the #MarketingTransformation : 1- Creativity is becoming more important, not less, in an AI-shaped world 2- Brands now need to serve two audiences: the AI and tech systems that surface them, and the humans who ultimately choose them 3- Culture is not something to chase, but something to shape through consumer involvement, creator collaboration, and meaningful brand roles 4- Credibility and first-party relationships are becoming strategic assets as low-quality reach continues to decline 5- The real planning advantage now comes from sharper, more specific, behavior-rooted truths   Cannes was full of inspiration, but the real value is in what we bring back and how we turn it into better brand building. #CannesLions2026 #BrandBuilding #MarketingTransformation #FutureOfMarketing

Cannes Lions 2026 isn’t even halfway through, and the bar has already been raised.📝 If Cannes 2027 is anywhere on your radar activations, partnerships, getting plugged into the right network don’t wait until next June to start that conversation. Let’s talk now, while the ideas are still fresh. @canva Creative Cabana? Not your typical activation. It’s the kind of space people don’t want to leave. @pmgworldwide AI & Tech experience is turning “emerging technology” from a buzzword into something tangible something you can actually touch and play with. @sportbeachco keeps confirming what we already suspected: sports, culture, and brand experience aren’t converging anymore. They’ve converged. And @adobe is really flexing their full ecosystem across multiple touchpoints. Here’s what’s got me hooked: the brands winning this week aren’t just renting square footage. They’re building moments people want to be part of. And this is just some of the brands……👀 #CannesLions #ExperientialMarketing #canneslions2026

A few days into #CannesLions and the conversations are remarkably consistent across industries: the future belongs to brands that can adapt faster, learn faster, and create more relevant experiences without losing sight of the humans they're trying to reach. We pulled together a few themes that have shown up again and again this week. Which of these shifts feels most relevant to your business right now? And if you're in Cannes, what's one idea you've heard that you think marketers will still be talking about a year from now?

Day 2 at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity : 3 takeaways 1. The creative community in Cannes is full of warmth and positivity. I’ve not had one negative interaction here - what a testament to the industry that it’s welcoming and open. For anyone intimidated at the prospect of attending, rest assured that you’ll be welcomed with open arms. 2. The best tech is invisible - we saw brands whose reg broke down in the high temperatures, speakers missing their sessions, qr codes not scanning in the bright sunshine, and a lot of fragmentation of schedules across the city. It’s a big show to navigate - very much like SXSW, but without the centralised infrastructure. Tech in important in the space you’re running, but it shouldn’t be a silo. Connecting into the broader ecosystem will generate better outcomes for your activation. 3. The heat is real. I was talking to one event manager who said no less than 4 people had come down with heat stroke. We need to look after the brave folks in the queue on the croisette as well as those who make it to the beach! The themed attractions industry understands that the queue line can be as much an experience as the activation itself. Definitely lessons to take home to the world of events. Look forward to continuing the journey here, and my next iced coffee 🙌🏼

It seems the era of #trust has finally reached digital advertising. Conversations about data ownership are becoming more frequent, and concerns around international data flows are moving well beyond traditional legal hedging (SCCs, ITAs, etc.). What we’re seeing now is, in practice, digital balkanisation! Privacy engineering and meaningful transparency will become real differentiators for global agencies competing for advertisers’ budgets — especially when contracts are structured clearly and can be analysed with confidence. From my experience, product managers and engineering/R&D teams are more than willing to adopt risk‑mitigation measures. They’re actually eager to collaborate when requirements are clear, well‑framed, and optimised for delivery as well as actually prioritised. Who decides on priorities and how risk is perceived all the way to the top, balancing short term goals with long term compliance, is another matter. Looking forward to see what Publicis Groupe brings to the table, on top of CRS.

Love these Trust principles, clients must always have control & we work as if we are the client, always driving growth.