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Just a few years ago, no one outside of the worlds of advertising and marketing knew of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which took place this year from June 17-21.
Now, the advertising and marketing-focused event is the place to be for the top creators across beauty, fashion, lifestyle and beyond. An increasing number of brands have recognized the opportunity to make influencers’ networking dreams come true while also leveraging their platforms. As a result, they’re now flying out these digital natives and sponsoring the panels where they’re being invited to speak.
Take Eos, which flew six creators to the festival and hosted them in a villa tricked out in its body-care products. According to the brand, the influencers had no obligation to post about its shaving creams, lip balms or anything of the like.
Soyoung Kang, CMO at Eos, said she was surprised when UTA Marketing’s Next Gen Practice, an advisor to the brand, informed her that creators were interested in the festival. Together, the teams organized a dedicated influencer trip in a month. Eos took three creators it had worked with before (Serena Kerrigan, Stacy Thiru and Victoria Paris) and three that were new to the brand but not UTA (Avantika, Madeline Argy and Chelsea Miller).
Perhaps most notable is that this marked Eos’s first influencer trip. Kang said she started to notice a gradual uptick in the presence of influencers in 2023. “I was at a party and Tinx was there,” she said, giving an example.
This year, however, the presence of creators at the festival was on a different level. In fact, Cannes Lions created a pass specific to creators aimed at attracting more of them. For its part, UTA’s Next Gen Practice programmed an entire Gen-Z-focused day of events, dubbed ZCannes, where many of the big-name creators in attendance spoke. EOS was a sponsor.
“The Lions are, first and foremost, a festival of creativity. So creators being there does make sense,” Kang said. “We wanted to bring creators to the festival to be a part of the dialogue about creativity and then partner with them on an ongoing basis to drive more creativity for the brand. … It was an exciting opportunity.”
Nate Jones, an executive at UTA Next Gen, said, “An influencer is not just a promoter — they’re also a partner. … They’re business-savvy young people, entrepreneurs and real creatives who can help companies and their marketing and not just get paid to post a video that hopefully converts.”
Jones said that, in prior years, the conversation at Cannes was about influencers but it didn’t include them, which didn’t make sense.
Robyn DelMonte, known online as GirlBossTown, echoed the sentiment. “When I went to Cannes last year, every conversation was about the creator economy, but there were no creators on stage. I was glad the conversations were happening, but I was like, ‘Let’s tap the creator’s POV and make it a conversation.’ To see that happen this year makes me very happy — and I’m in a cool position because I get to document that change and be a part of that change.”
Other companies that brought creators to the festival included Popsockets, Amazon, TikTok and Snapchat.
“The Amazon Influencer Program [launched in 2017] provides tools, support, education and inspiration so creators can build successful and rewarding content creation businesses with us while promoting the Amazon products and services they love,” an Amazon representative told Glossy. “We look for opportunities to build community, educate and inspire our creators, and thank them for their partnership. Cannes Lions is a celebration of the creative marketing community and presents a unique chance for us to bring some of our creators to the forefront of the cultural conversation, which in turn helps inspire customers and bring them the content they love.”
Amazon brought big creators including Alix Earle, Monet McMichael and Lauren Wolfe.
For influencer Serena Kerrigan, who worked with Eos, attending the festival was a no-brainer, not to mention the realization of a vision-board goal. “I call myself Donna Draper,” she said, adding that branded content is her favorite type of content to create. “I love the challenge .… and, obviously, the money — it’s one of the ways I make a living.”
She added, “As a creator and a storyteller, [the question is always], ‘How do I weave a product into the universe of my world and SFK’s world?” Kerrigan said, referencing her personal brand, “Serena Fucking Kerrigan.” “Getting people to pay attention and also want to buy the product is a very difficult thing to do in an authentic way.”
Cannes’ networking opportunities — with fellow creators and also marketing executives — were valuable too, Kerrigan said. She typically works from home.
For her part, DelMonte first attended Cannes Lions last year. This year, she attended with phone accessories brand Popsockets. Like Kerrigan, she expressed appreciation for the fact that creators are being recognized as marketers in their own right. “I wanted to make it my mission to show brands that creators can be so much more than just ad space,” she said. “They can be creatives and marketers. And having open conversations between brands and creators about how to reach an audience, since that’s the end goal for both of us, is really important.” DelMonte spoke on several panels while at the festival.
As for her ultimate goal in attending the festival, DelMonte said it was “to continue to build relationships with brands and start new conversations.” Earlier this month, she was tapped by Beis to execute a Father’s Day campaign, originally pitched via her TikTok. She hopes to do more of this kind of project, she said. “It is so incredibly hard to get in these rooms. But when you’re in these rooms, if you can start the conversation and start building these relationships, it is so incredibly beneficial,” she said.
Kerrigan felt the transformation, too. “What was so great about this year was that, finally, [the festival] was recognizing creators as a real power player in this business,” she said. “We have the ability to move the economy, and, at the end of the day, we’re the ones who are gonna convince our audiences to buy their product. So why not cultivate that relationship?”
Collabs of the week:
Merit x Tove
Not many beauty brands have a signature bag shape, but Merit does. Anyone who has followed or shopped the brand knows its bag, which is rendered in brown corduroy and comes free with a customer’s first order. The smart marketing tactic could perhaps be read as a grown-up version of Glossier’s pink bubble pouch. In September 2023, Merit evolved the strategy, working with Proenza Schouler on an iteration of the bag, as reported by Glossy. Now, it’s added a new bag collaborator: U.K.-based fashion brand, Tove. As with the Proenza Schouler collab, the bag will be sold with a curated makeup set, including a blush, serum, highlighter and lipstick.
“Our collaborations with fashion partners have always been organic, … born from our love of the brands,” said Aila Morin, Merit’s CMO. “I met [Tove fonders] Holly Wright and Camille Perry when we launched into the U.K. in February 2023, and we went on to do the makeup for their first runway show [in date]. … For two brands focused on intentionality and versatility, the [bag’s] design and story came together in just a few rounds of creative revisions.”
She added, “Merit has always viewed beauty through a fashion lens — that makeup is simply an accessory you use to get ready. We view our collaborations as both a celebration of the brand we’re featuring and a way to add value and beauty to our consumer’s day.”
To celebrate the collab, the brand hosted its first IRL pop-up experience, in London, from June 21-22. Shop it here.
The Outnet x Wandler
The Outnet has teamed with Wandler on a 16-piece capsule collection of leather goods made from upcycled materials from the brand’s previous collections. “This collaboration allows us to reintroduce our classic designs … and reimagine our archived pieces in fresh colors while using stock leather,” said Elza Wandle, founder and creative director of Wandler. “It showcases how timeless our designs truly are.” Shop it here.
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