Up until a few weeks ago, the vast majority of the influencers who attended the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity had barely heard of the ad festival.
But after speaking alongside CMOs and agency execs on panels and beachfront activations, and participating in the inaugural “Lions Creators” programming track, nearly all of them are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to return to the South of France next June.
“I thought, when I heard Cannes Lions was a corporate event, that it was going to be really boring,” said Madeline Argy, a creator who accompanied eos to the festival as part of an influencer trip, in the latest episode of her podcast “Pretty Lonesome.” “Guys, I think this is potentially the best-kept secret of the industry.”
Several creators and influencer marketing executives who attended Cannes last week unanimously agreed this year’s festival offered creators a more comprehensive view of the ad industry, where creators largely still remain on the fringes despite their increasingly pivotal role in many brands’ marketing strategies. A number of influencers also leveraged their presence at Cannes to directly connect with the marketing teams of potential brand partners or capitalized on the rare opportunity to meet and seek out advice from fellow creators.
Creator Serena Kerrigan, one of the few influencers at Cannes who was familiar with the festival before a handful of weeks ago, prioritized networking with “the people behind the brands—the people that your agents are probably emailing with” during her first trip to Cannes, she told Ad Age.
“At the end of the day, we all have great engagement. We all have a lot of followers,” she said. “What’s really going to make [a brand] think of me versus someone else is probably going to be the personal relationships. So, it’s really advantageous for creators to get to the festival and get in front of these brands.”
Kerrigan rekindled a relationship with Amazon after running into a brand representative who had previously invited her to an Amazon holiday party, she said. She also connected with Spotify after attending some of the Spotify Beach programming and realizing she’d be interested in collaborating with the streaming platform, she said.
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