In the lead-up to Cannes Lions this year, I kept hearing the same thing on repeat. Everyone described it as the place to be if you work in this industry: a week defined by standout activations, inspiring speakers, and some of the world’s biggest brands converging in the South of France.
As a new joiner in the brand marketing industry, one event I kept hearing about was Cannes Lions. When SIGHTLINE became an accredited media partner, I was so proud, and suddenly everything I had been hearing about became a lot more real.
Getting to experience Cannes through our SIGHTLINE interviews, videos, and conversations completely changed the way I looked at experiential marketing. Hearing directly from the people behind activations from Canva, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn, PayPal Ads, and FQ gave me a behind-the-scenes look at something I had only seen from the outside before.
As we listened to each interview, it became clear these conversations went far beyond building standout activations. They centered on creating experiences that touch people on a deeper level, through their values, interests, or identity. Experiences people want to contribute to, where participation sparks a sense of belonging, belonging builds trust, trust deepens loyalty, and loyalty compounds into long term business impact.
It also made me realize how much strategy goes into every decision. From how brands measure success to how they design spaces that make people want to stay, there was so much more happening behind the scenes than I ever imagined.
Out of the lessons our team took home after Cannes Lions 2026, these are the five that stayed with me most.
Over the past few months, I've been learning a lot about ROI and how brands measure the success of experiential marketing. I knew there were more ways to measure an activation than just attendance or lead scans, but looking at these experiences up close, I realized just how much that thinking has evolved.
Yes, business outcomes still matter, but brands are now approaching measurement differently, paying attention to how long people stay in an activation, whether they return later in the week, and whether they share photos and videos from the experience. These signals show real engagement and connection with the brand and carry more meaning than a collection of lead scans.
Top takeaway: emotional connection and brand trust. If someone spends 30 minutes in your space, comes back the next day with a coworker, or shares your activation with their own audience, it signals that you’ve created something memorable.
It completely shifted the way I think about measuring success at events. It is not just about getting people through the door, but about creating experiences that keep people engaged, shifting them from attendees into contributors.
One quote that really stuck with me came from FQ.
"Lead scans are so done and in the past. This is about the experience. These are the relationships you're building. We want to see the content coming out of it."
After hearing about the conversation one thing became clear to me. Experiential marketing is expanding what ROI means.
One thing I wasn't expecting to notice at Cannes was how often people talked about belonging. The spaces people stayed in the longest were the ones that made them feel comfortable.
Canva was one of the best examples. Jimmy Knowles, probably one of the most respected experiential leaders in our industry, described the Canva Creative Cabana as an "open door" designed for everyone.
"We wanted to build a space that really felt like an open door... a gigantic, warm, sweaty hug... a space where you felt like you could be yourself and really felt at home."
That mindset carried into every detail, from a programming space, water aerobics, AI activations, and a confetti celebration.
PayPal Ads created a completely different atmosphere, but with the same intention.
Instead of trying to be the loudest activation at Cannes, the team intentionally created a calm space where guests could slow down over coffee, pastries, and meaningful conversations.
"Everybody wants to be loud and stand out. What we wanted to do was intentionally be quieter... a place where people could take a breath." And it worked! Our SIGTHLINE team ended up going there multiple times during the week to unwind, get a coffee, work, and chat with fellow marketers.
FQ shared a similar perspective, describing its activation as a home base where women across the industry could gather throughout the week.
Looking back, I realized the most memorable activations weren't necessarily asking people to stop by. They were primarily creating spaces people genuinely wanted to spend time in.
This ended up being one of my favorite takeaways from the week.
Some of the biggest brands at Cannes don't sell products you can hold in your hand. They sell advertising technology, Design software, Professional networking, Payment solutions, AI-powered tools, Those aren't always easy things to bring to life.
What impressed me most was how each brand found a way to turn something digital into something physical.
For instance, Amazon Ads created an entire village where visitors could explore a coffee shop, sports bar, speakeasy, and library. Each space represented a different stage of the advertising journey, bringing the brand's products to life through storytelling.
As Jennyfer Goune, Product Marketing Lead at Amazon Ads explained,
"It's really all about storytelling... bringing all of our innovative offerings together in one place."
PayPal Ads created a mini market in their French inspired patisserie to let visitors experience the buyer’s journey from a PayPal ad to final order delivery.
Canva invited attendees to design postcards, create AI powered travel itineraries, and literally step inside the brand through interactive experiences leveraging all the features available on their platform.
These brands really let people experience their product through different angles, almost using an IRL magnifier. That was the common idea we kept seeing.
As a new joiner in the industry, you think that Cannes Lions is the final chapter. But there is more to it. It's the after math is continued brand conversations, engagement on the brands content and long-lasting connections you can create at the festival
Amazon talked about producing content throughout the week that would continue creating value, extending impact across the next 365 days.
"We're doing a lot of content this week that we can then use on an ongoing basis."
LinkedIn emphasized the importance of thinking beyond the event itself.
"Pre, during, and post event."
FQ spoke about using Cannes as the starting point for digital conversations that continue after everyone goes home.
Even PayPal reflected on how quickly the week passes and how important it is to think about what lives beyond the event.
The activation itself is only one chapter in a much bigger story. The brands getting the most value out of Cannes are thinking about everything that comes after it. Extending the experience through content creation and the relationships built along the way has become a core part of the work, driving a meaningful share of business outcomes and brand engagement. And when you look at ROI against the real cost of activating at an event, brands that lean into content creation immediately increase their returns, effectively getting two wins from the same investment.
If there is one word everywhere this year, and Cannes was no exception, it was AI.
Every stage carried conversations about it, every brand had a new announcement, and every activation found a way to bring it in. But as our team spent time with the marketers behind these experiences, what stayed with us was not the technology itself.
What stood out was something much more grounded. This year marked a clear shift across the industry, where investment in person experiences reached new levels, even as AI continues to accelerate everything around us. Cannes this year was the most attended to date, and the activations were bigger, more ambitious, and more immersive than ever.
There is a growing recognition that human connection carries a different kind of value. It cannot be replicated, it cannot be faked, and it cannot be generated. It is created in real time, between people sharing the same space.
Events are becoming one of the most powerful ways for brands to build trust and emotional attachment. And that is what people remember most. The conversations between sessions, the moments shared with colleagues, industry peers, clients, and partners, all of it shaped by the spaces created by brands like Canva, Amazon Ads, PayPal Ads, LinkedIn, and FQ.
The real question for the brands is: what better way to build emotional connection than by being part of the real moments people experience together?