Cannes 2026: It’s getting hot in here

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When they warn you that Cannes Lions is hot, they mean both the temperature and the conversation.

Jennimai Nguyen here, reporting from day two on the Croisette. My day kicked off with a TikTok press briefing, where I made a custom perfume based on the TikTok trends and aesthetics that resonated most with me (Cottagecore Fairy, in case you’re curious) before execs and creators took the stage to walk us through new AI solutions for advertisers and talked about what makes brand-creator partnerships work.

Creator Henry Smith, better known as @henryhenryhenryhenryhenr, highlighted his partnership with Sephora, which he said worked because the brand helped make a natural moment in his content—when he went shopping at Sephora and declared that “boys can go to Sephora too”—into a long-tail partnership. An inspiration to boys and brands everywhere!

Creators continue to be the theme of the day (and the festival), because I then trekked over to Tubi Cabana, where I chatted with Kudzi Chikumbu, VP of creator partnerships, about the current landscape for creators in entertainment. We talked about the appeal of full-stack creators coming onto streamers, and he’s particularly excited about what that means for storytelling.

“You can then start to bring a lot more of those untold stories to platform,” he said.

While creators are top of mind, I haven’t actually spotted too many of them out in the wild. They’re on panels and attending events, sure, but I’ve quickly realized that Cannes isn’t necessarily the place that creators—especially consumer-facing ones—are out making content, despite the idyllic beach backgrounds. B2B creators, though, seem to be walking and talking on the Croisette, at least based on my own feed. But if you were hoping to hear a firsthand account of how Brandon Edelman, aka @bran_flakezz (and whom I have walked past twice—hi, Brandon!) makes his videos, it’s hard to come by!

Next up, I’m heading back over to Creator Beach for a couple more meetings before a happy hour with the folks at NBCUniversal—and then later, I’ll be going to a concert at Spotify Beach, headlined tonight by RAYE. I’m already plotting out exactly which spots will have AC, and which ones require my mini fan to be running full-blast. If I’ve learned anything so far, it’s that mini-fans make Cannes go round.