The clearest sign that advertising’s center of gravity has shifted may not be a new award category or a holding company keynote. It may be who everyone is trying to meet between panels, parties, and beach activations.
This year, Business Insider reports that more than 250 creators are expected at Cannes Lions, the advertising industry’s biggest annual gathering, which kicks off with an estimated 13,000-plus attendees. That creator list reportedly includes “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper, “Feed Me” founder Emily Sundberg, makeup artist Cindy Chen, TikTok names Josh Richards, Golloria, and Keith Lee, and YouTubers including Eleanor Neale, Colin & Samir, and David Dobrik.
They are not just there for selfies on the Croisette. They are there for brand deals, paid speaking gigs, VIP party access, and a week of content shot against one of the most polished backdrops in global marketing.
From agency celebrity to creator celebrity
One quote in the report captures the shift neatly. UTA’s Margot Hauer-King recalled that when she first went to Cannes, spotting Martin Sorrell walking down the street felt like the big celebrity moment. That was the old power map: agencies, networks, media owners, holding company chiefs, and brand leaders.
Creators entering that same space at scale changes the room. Cannes is still full of CMOs and agency executives, but the visible demand is moving toward people who arrive with audiences already attached. A creator can walk into a meeting carrying a media channel, a community, a production style, and proof that people choose to watch them without a paid media plan forcing the issue.
The dealmaking is becoming more direct
Cannes has long been a place where advertising relationships get built in private: over lunches, yacht meetings, beach concerts, and late-night introductions. The creator presence makes that dealmaking more visible and more immediate.
Business Insider’s framing is important here: creators are expected to be jostling for brand deals and paid speaking opportunities, while also producing content throughout the week. That means they are not simply being booked after the festival. They are turning the festival itself into a stage.
For marketers, that collapses several steps. A creator can be evaluated in person, pitched in person, filmed in the moment, and then turned into content before the week is over. The Cannes badge becomes part networking pass, part talent marketplace, part production credential.
What brands are really buying
What brands are buying from creators at Cannes is not just reach. They are buying context, recognition, and the ability to enter a feed through a trusted face.
Keith Lee does not represent the same kind of attention as a polished TV spot. Alex Cooper does not represent the same kind of media buy as a podcast sponsorship dropped into a spreadsheet. Colin & Samir bring a different value again: creator credibility with people who study the creator economy itself.
That makes selection harder, not easier. A creator’s audience size is only one part of the calculation. The fit between the creator’s voice, the audience’s expectations, and the brand’s reason for being in that conversation becomes the real work.
Cannes will likely make some of that work look glamorous. The beach parties and VIP lists are part of the theatre. But the strategic question for marketers is more practical: can this person make people care in a way our own channels cannot?
The new Cannes power test
The rise of creators at Cannes does not make agencies irrelevant. It does, however, pressure agencies to prove they can do more than broker access. If creators bring the audience, and platforms bring the distribution, agencies need to bring sharper ideas, better fit, stronger negotiation, measurement, and brand discipline.
The creator wave also puts pressure on platforms. TikTok stars, YouTubers, podcasters, newsletter founders, and independent personalities are not confined to one channel. Their presence at Cannes shows how marketing attention increasingly follows the person, not just the platform where that person happens to post today.
For years, Cannes Lions has been where advertising celebrates its best work. This year, it may also show who gets invited into the work earlier. If brands are now meeting creators at the same tables where they meet agencies and media partners, creator-led attention is no longer an add-on to the campaign plan. It becomes one of the places the plan starts.