Cannes Lions 2025: What Marketers Need to Know

Generating Ideas for Your Cannes Activation

Cannes is the crème de la crème of creative and unique attendee experiences. It’s important that you explore all possibilities for your activation and determine the compelling story you want to tell your audience.

That’s why we recommend you start with a brainstorming session. Use these examples of past Cannes activations as inspiration to answer the questions below.

• Spotify has created installations focused on immersive storytelling around music culture. What's your story and how does it relate to bigger trends that are important to your audience?
• Adobe’s interactive art sessions offered a captivating and creative workshop for attendees. How can your brand turn participation into art or something else hands-on?
• TikTok’s viral video booths created memorable moments for participants. What are some ways you can blend engagement, shareability, and brand relevance?

A Cannes Planning Timeline for Marketers

Just like any other event you’d plan, you have to start planning early for your presence at Cannes Lions. We suggest planning at least 10 months in advance.

In this section, you’ll learn specific actions to take (and at specific times) to meet your planning milestones. And if you’re using Splash to market and manage your activation, you’ll also get some best practices from our support team.

Secure Your Budget: If your company previously participated in Cannes Lions, use your ROI report to back up your budget request. If you didn’t participate last year, you can quantify your expected ROI with examples from similar, successful activations.

Brainstorm Your Activation: What kind of activation can realistically fit into the budget you’ve secured and how will it add value to attendees?

‍Define Success Metrics: Using last year’s performance as a benchmark (if you attended), document how you’ll determine impact and how your activation will contribute to business goals.

Lock in Your Concept: From activation ideation to overall page design, it’s time to really get to work. Connect with your design team to make sure the creative concept is ready to be applied across all assets.

Develop Your Assets: One of the most important pieces you’ll need to create (aside from materials needed for the on-site activation itself!) is the landing page where people will register to attend. Where and how your guests register is the first impression they get for your event, so make sure it’s engaging, memorable, and friction-free.

Finalize Your Marketing Campaign: Generating excitement about your activation is key. In collaboration with your demand generation and marketing operations teams, finalize the plan to drive registrations to your event. You’ll probably include some email sequences and social content, but consider other promotional channels as well, like paid ads or sponsored LinkedIn messages.

Schedule Your Emails: Create a handful of email sequences that lead to the big reveal of your event’s landing page and share what your audience can expect during your activation. For an event as big as Cannes, we recommend sending a save the date email at least three months in advance, followed by an official invitation at two months out, and a handful of subsequent invitations up until event day. Involve your sales and customer success teams to send personalized invitations to their contacts.

Launch on Social Media: To generate even more buzz, create a teaser campaign for your social channels that’ll engage your audience early on. Showcase previews of what they can expect during your activation, whether that’s the experience itself, giveaways and offers, special appearances, or something else.

Finalize On-Site Logistics: Your landing page is live, and you’re watching the registrations flow in. Now it’s time to think about on-site logistics — things like what refreshments you’ll offer, what music you’ll play, and the swag you’ll give away. You’ll also want to think about things like what kind of VIP experience (if any) you’ll host and how you’ll control the line. One thing to consider is how you can use the line as an opportunity for connection. For example, can you use interactive technology (like AR or VR) to engage people?

Identify On-Site Crew: And of course, with everything you have planned for the on-site experience, you’ll need to have a supportive crew to help manage the daily activity. Brand ambassadors are a great way to engage the local community and expand your reach, but you’ll also want people there who can help troubleshoot any challenges that come your way.

Update Your Event Page: Take another look at your event page. Have any details changed since you launched it? Have you added any exciting experiences that you can highlight?

Check on Your On-Site Crew: Have a steady flow of communications going to those who will be supporting the event on-site. Make sure they are all set with their travel arrangements and that you’re answering all of their questions ahead of time.

Draft a Crisis Management Plan: No one knows a plan B better than an event professional. Have yours drafted just in case something unforeseen happens. Consider things like WiFi or A/V issues, illness or other challenges with your on-site team, travel hiccups, etc.

Confirm Registrations are Flowing: Proving ROI for your activations is key. It’s the easiest way to ensure you continue getting a budget for this event year after year. Take a moment to make sure the registrations that are coming in are making their way through to your CRM, so every registration (and their subsequent actions) are accounted for.

Schedule Reminder Emails: Since your event page was already launched, your confirmation emails should be set. But have you scheduled reminder emails to make sure those who register actually attend? Since this is a huge event, we recommend sending a reminder email one week out, the day before, and event day to make sure you reach expected attendance.

Do a Final Registration Push: Are registration numbers where you expected them to be? Even if they are, it’s not a bad idea to do one last promotion to boost those numbers.

Arrive On-Site: We highly recommend arriving at least on Sunday, if not earlier. That will give you time to adjust to the time zone (especially if you’re arriving from overseas), conduct an on-site huddle with your support crew, and make sure your space is set up properly.

Share Numbers with Catering: Once you have a good idea of final registration numbers, share them with your food and beverage vendor.

Digest Your Data: Review event data in either your event technology platform, your CRM system, or both. Pull any necessary reports to highlight how well your event performed, and keep an eye on that data at the 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day marks as well. In addition to the numbers, collect feedback through surveys and analyze social media engagement to get a comprehensive understanding of your event’s impact.

‍Continue the Conversation: Create and send follow-up emails to thank people for attending or share highlights with those who didn’t make it. If you took any photos or video at the event, share those to help attendees relive the experience.

‍Rest Up: You survived another (or your first) Cannes experience. That’s a big deal. Rest and relax, because planning for next year’s event is just around the corner!

A Cannes Survival Guide

Whether you’re traveling to Cannes for the first time or you’ve attended since the beginning, you want to make the most of your time there. We’ve got five important tips for you to plan your trip, plus a packing list.

The city of Cannes is a popular travel destination, even outside of the festival itself. First and foremost, secure your hotel room. There are a number of hotels located near the event, but they will fill up quickly. Once you have that secured, focus on finding your flight. You’ll fly into Nice (NCE), which is approximately a 30-minute drive from Cannes.

Cannes Lions is famous for its parties, but you’ll need to be on the guest list to attend most of them. A quick search for “Cannes Lions parties” will turn up a number of event pages. As we get closer to the 2024 event, you’ll see even more pages pop up with RSVP availability.

According to locals and Cannes Lions veterans, June is one of the best months for visiting. For an accurate forecast, start looking at the weather 10 days out. But plan on packing beachwear, as you’ll likely get a lot of sunshine to enjoy the beautiful coast.

Yes, Cannes is known for its incredible beaches, but there’s much more to the city. Stroll down La Croisette, an iconic street in France that’s full of shopping, hotels, and casinos. Take in the French architecture with the Admire La Mairie de Cannes, Musée de la Castre.

Cannes Lions is full of networking opportunities. Yes, there are the parties — but there’s also the time you’ll spend in lines for some of the popular sessions. Use that time as a chance to connect with others around you.

The Cannes Lions mobile app also lets attendees interact with each other. If you’re not comfortable just striking up a random in-person conversation, this is a good opportunity to build connections and meet up with them later.

A Cannes Packing List

Just like you want to plan in advance for your activation, you’ll also want to plan in advance for your packing. No one attending Cannes wants to be caught without comfortable shoes or a portable phone charger.

Comfortable shoes

Sunglasses

Sunscreen

Sun hat

Reusable water bottle

Snacks

Travel first aid kit

Hand Sanitizer

Breathable, lightweight clothing

Jacket for cooler evenings

Extra bag for swag (or a shopping trip)

Laptop & charger

Device for checking people in

Portable phone charger

Outlet adapters

Business cards

Any on-site materials you’re responsible for bringing

Conclusion

Your presence at Cannes Lions is not just about what happens at the festival. It’s about creating a journey that starts with the first email invitation and continues well beyond the event itself.

If you’re ready to make a mark at Cannes, these guidelines will help you build an experience that’s not just a moment — but a milestone — in your brand’s story.

Just like all of your other events, planning for Cannes is complex and takes time. It’s hard work before, during, and after the event, and it can be a game-changer for your organization. But don’t let the moments fly by. Take a step back, enjoy the event, appreciate the (inevitable) chaos, and be proud of your work.

Splash, a global event technology company, empowers everyone within an organization to host on-brand, measurable, repeatable, and compliant event programs and digital experiences at scale. Splash helps companies execute more impactful events through brand-compliant templates, real-time integrations, and deep insights into attendee engagement and event ROI. Using Splash, event professionals and teams can simplify their processes, amplify their brand, measure their results more effectively, and grow their event programs through a single, powerful platform. See why Fortune 500 companies choose Splash to power their events at www.splashthat.com.