Cannes learns context 🦁
As someone who has chronicled the PR sector's uneven emergence at Cannes since 2009, there are good reasons for optimism.
Cannes
All of Earned First's coverage and events from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
From creativity to the C-suite: comms themes that emerged from Cannes
AI found rare optimism at Cannes, the CCO continued its evolution to enterprise strategist, Chinese brands are exporting culture, and earned trust is the only currency that survives an age of insularity.
Cannes: Relationships over algorithms
Insights from an Earned First/Zeno dinner that brought together marketing and communications leaders as Cannes 2026 drew to a close.
Cannes Podcast: Chris Foster on creative shifts, earned momentum and acquisition lessons
The Omnicom PR CEO on why creativity is shifting toward influence, what AI means for earned media, and what seven months of building the industry's largest PR network has taught him.
Cannes Podcast: Craig Buchholz on the PR Grand Prix, the CCO's rise and more
The Burson US CEO speaks to Earned First at Cannes Lions 2026, the morning after the agency's PR Grand Prix win.
Cannes Podcast: We's Nitin Mantri on community, crisis and counsel
The We. Communications Asia-Pacific president discusses brand communities, crisis-prone startups, and the region's growth outlook.
Cannes Podcast: Jim O'Leary on agency upheaval, AI myths & Cannes' transformation
Penta's global CEO on why he sees more change ahead in the next five years than the previous five decades, the gap between agencies' AI claims and substance, and how Cannes itself is being remade by technology.