What 1,356 Cannes Lions event listings reveal about adland in 2026

Opinion – Cannes Lions preview

Propeller’s comprehensive list of parties and events at Cannes Lions is both a must-have social tool and an historical barometer of trends and shifting sands, writes its creator, Ben Titchmarsh.

When I started a list of Cannes Lions parties and events more than a decade ago, I wasn’t trying to document glacial macroeconomic trends in the marketing industry. I was trying to plan cool events and parties to go to.

At the time, I didn’t know many people at Cannes, so I threw myself into planning for the festival and did my homework. Like many first-time attendees, I quickly clocked that while plenty was happening inside the Palais and its incredible official programming, an equally exciting festival existed outside it: a cornucopia of imaginatively titled talks, meet-ups, panels and parties unfolding across hotels, bars, restaurants, cafés and beach cabanas scattered along the Croisette.

Event themes from those early years asked questions that now feel quaint, such as: “Is it the year of mobile?” and “Can creatives and technologists collaborate on the Croisette?” Even then, there were devils in the details and angels in the data for those with an analytical eye. But I was simply too inexperienced to see it in those days.

‘Ben’s Cannes List’ started as something for myself and a few friends, but quickly tapped into something bigger. They forwarded the list to other people without asking. Those people forwarded it again. Before long, complete strangers were asking for it – and you’ve got to give the people what they want, right?

The people’s list

Fourteen years on, the parties spreadsheet has evolved into the Propeller Cannes Lions Events & Parties List, which this year contains 1,356 events and counting.

It now spans fringe programming across hundreds of venues, official Cannes Lions sessions, awards shows, partner activations, and even FIFA World Cup match screenings, all clearly marked for attendees.

Thousands of people use the Propeller list to navigate the festival each year, and it has become one hell of a calling card for the Propeller PR team in London and New York. But the really crazy thing is that, without realising it, we were also inadvertently creating a strange historical record of how the marketing industry has evolved all along.

Cannes Lions is a barometer and weather vane

Every June, the major players of the global marketing, media and technology industries gather in one place. What they choose to talk about offers a snapshot of where each industry believes it is heading.

Looking back through old editions of the list, you can almost watch the baton being passed. And, in the words of Bob Dylan: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Industry veterans often describe an earlier Cannes dominated by creative agencies and production companies. By the time I arrived, ad tech was already on the rise. Conversations increasingly revolved around programmatic advertising, targeting and data. People excitedly discussed how they could reach the right person, with the right message, at the right time.

The unstoppable ascent of the platforms is also writ large in the data. Google, YouTube, Meta, Amazon, LinkedIn, Snapchat and TikTok all expanded their presence year after year as advertising budgets followed audience attention.

Looking back through historic Cannes Lions Lists can feel a little like watching the opening credits of Game of Thrones or the end-of-season montages in The Wire and The Sopranos. New powers emerge. Others fade. Not everyone gets their predictions right, and many tie their fortunes to the wrong families or trends. Metaverse sessions, for example, are notable by their absence at Cannes Lions 2026.

What you see resembles the Gartner Hype Cycle playing out in real time. Trends move from ‘Innovation Trigger’ to ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’, through the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’ and onwards towards the ‘Plateau of Productivity’, albeit often disguised as snazzy beach activation titles and cocktail party themes.

Viewed through this lens, the world of 2026 becomes a little clearer. I would never make light of the impact the vast changes in our industry are having on people, but the direction of travel and the waves to ride are obvious – if you are prepared to take a step back.

Creators, sports marketing and AI

The creator economy has become a defining feature of the festival. Influencers, creators and personality-led media businesses have moved from the margins to the mainstream, as brands seek new ways to reach increasingly fragmented audiences.

Sports marketing has followed a similar trajectory. At a time when mass audiences are becoming harder to reach, live sport remains one of the few cultural experiences capable of bringing millions of people together simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, sports marketing and sponsorship have become increasingly prominent parts of the Cannes conversation.

And now, of course, we have AI. A force so fundamentally reshaping our lives that calling this “the age of AI” may ultimately prove as limiting as describing the Industrial Revolution as the “age of steam”.

Viewed through a slightly Marxist lens, worthy of my Leftie parents, Cannes is ultimately a week-long study of attention, influence, money, and power, wrapped in sunshine and French seaside chic.

The technologies change. The buzzwords change. The companies change. Yet the underlying dynamic remains remarkably consistent. Money follows attention, and there is a constant battle over the means of production and distribution.

The ‘have yachts’ and the ‘have-nots’

Living through industry change can feel chaotic. But looking back, the patterns often seem obvious. Cannes provides a rare opportunity once every 12 months to observe those shifts in real time. The list also reveals something Darwinian. Not every trend, and certainly not every company, survives.

One of my favourite exercises is looking back through historical editions to see which companies hosted yachts. At the time, a yacht often felt like a statement of arrival for a certain type of adtech company. Yet some of those businesses have since been acquired, absorbed into larger organisations or disappeared altogether – the “have yachts” sometimes became the “have-nots”.

In that sense, old editions of the list resemble a corporate archaeological dig. Yesterday’s disruptors often become today’s infrastructure. Others vanish entirely.

The list increasingly reflects cultural shifts too. This year we introduced a dedicated ‘Mind, Body and Soul’ category to the list covering everything from yoga and Pilates to meditation sessions and running clubs. The growth of wellness programming says something about how the industry itself is evolving, and is something I have tried to champion and embrace.

I always say that Cannes Lions is like Glastonbury. You can rave until the small hours, or you can have an early night, rise early, meditate and do yoga. People in agencies have ‘agency’ over their actions – the clue is in the word.

I’m proud to have helped people navigate a festival that has been a big part of my life, and I’m always heartened when I get messages from people I’ve never met saying a serendipitous meeting led to a new client, a new role or an industry friendship.

Personally, I’ve always believed that information can be a form of inclusion and that knowledge is power. People can only walk through doors they know exist in the first place, and the list lets people shoot their shot in the game we all play, on a meritocratic basis.

Fourteen years and thousands of event listings later, I remain fascinated by how a global industry evolves.

If you look closely enough through rosé-tinted sunglasses in Cannes this year, you might just spot a pattern that helps you guess what happens next, as I have always tried to. Bon chance!

Ben Titchmarsh is associate director at Propeller Group. Access the 2026 Propeller Cannes Lions Events & Parties List.