CANNES – The world’s largest advertising festival is getting even larger, with record attendance, partnerships, and award entries marking a significant evolution in how the event engages with the French Riviera city that hosts it.
No longer content to be confined within the walls of the Palais des Festivals, Cannes Lions has over time transformed into a citywide celebration of creativity that encompasses hotels, villas, restaurants, and beaches.
“We want the whole city to feel like it’s the festival,” said Phil Thomas, executive chairman, Informa Festivals, in this video interview with Beet.TV on the eve of the festival.
Breaking down the walls
Taking place from Monday, June 16, to Friday, June 20, Cannes Lions 2025 kicks off with some big numbers:
- 26,900 award submissions.
- Entries from independent agencies up by 18%.
- Entries from Latin America up by 16%.
Thomas said all three key metrics—delegate attendance, city activations, and award entries—have reached record levels for the 2025 event.
Beet.TV arrived on the Côte d’Azur for its biggest ever Cannes Lions, with four full days of leadership sessions and its now annual Beet Art exhibit along the Croisette, after jetting in with advertising executives and partner Kinective Media by United Airlines.
Elevating creativity to the C-suite
Beyond growing in scale, Cannes Lions is making a strategic push to elevate discussions about creativity to the highest levels of corporate leadership.
“What we’re doing this year is we want to take the conversation to the C-suite, to the CEOs,” Thomas explained. “We’re having an invitation-only forum on Monday. We’ve got about 60 global CEOs coming. They represent about $3 trillion worth of value.”
The initiative aims to build the case for creativity not just in marketing but in innovation more broadly. This evolution builds upon the festival’s previous transformation from a purely advertising-focused event to one that now attracts thousands of chief marketing officers.
Thriving amid global uncertainty
The festival’s continued growth comes despite significant global economic and geopolitical challenges.
However, Thomas also attributes the festival’s resilience to its must-attend status.
“It’s become the kind of event that people feel they need to attend. Without sounding arrogant, if they’re going to go to one thing, they are going to come to Cannes, because everybody is here,” he said.
The festival is now operating under new ownership following Informa PLC’s acquisition of Ascential’s events business, including Cannes Lions, for approximately £1.2 billion in a deal completed in October 2024.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage from Cannes Lion 2025. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
