This is the second report from Cannes Lions. In the first, creators received their own programme, beach and a separate award category. On the third day the festival handed them the first medals, and around them began to grow the support infrastructure that agencies, platforms and publishers earn from.
Singapore takes the first gold in a new category
The jury announced the first winners of the Social & Creator Lions on Thursday, alongside the Media, Direct and PR Lions. In the Asian field, Singapore took both gold Lions, both for the brand Vaseline. Gold went to “Vaseline and the Real Nigerian Prince” by Leo Singapore and “Vaseline Originals” by Ogilvy Singapore. Bronze went to the Emirati “OM BDR” by TBWA\RAAD for KFC.
The category is judged globally, so European creator campaigns compete in the same field as Asian and American ones. The shortlist includes 159 entries, which share one idea: brands no longer build culture alone, but through creators and communities.
Google gives agencies data on creators
Beside the stages ran a quieter but more important layer of the festival. At Cannes Lions, Google introduced tools for creator marketing built on the Gemini model. The key one is the Content & Creator Insights API, which gives agencies deeper data on creators and their YouTube audiences for media planning.
Google also added more granular trend data to the Insights Finder tool, integrated Brand Pulse metrics on the paid and organic reach of a brand, and promised that Gemini will advise on visuals in Demand Gen campaigns. “As AI enables new kinds of creativity, these tools offer a better understanding of performance and trends, especially when it comes to the influence of YouTube creators,” the company says. The shift is clear. The creator is no longer just a creative partner but a data category that an agency buys as methodically as a television spot.
Forbes becomes a creator network
Forbes demonstrated the same logic from the other side. The publisher launched Forbes Creator at the festival, a network meant to pair brands with creators across social media, video, podcasts and live events. “Forbes Creator allows us to combine the authority and credibility that Forbes is known for with the authenticity, accessibility, and community that creators have built with their audiences,” said Chloe Moore, Vice President of Forbes Creator Network.
The opening line-up shows whom Forbes counts as creators. It includes Sho Dewan with roughly two million followers, Erin McGoff with seven million, the sports and lifestyle creator Griffin Johnson with fifteen million across platforms, comedian Joe Fenti, Shira Lazar and Jenny Stojkovic. By its own figures, the publisher reaches more than 140 million people a month, and it is now lending its editorial brand to individuals with their own audiences. “By bringing together trusted industry experts and influential creators, the Forbes Creator Network extends Forbes’ mission to inform and connect audiences wherever they discover ideas and shape conversations,” said Sherry Phillips, CEO of Forbes.
Brands learn to unlearn old reflexes
The third day also belonged to events outside the Palais. The agency Billion Dollar Boy and the FiveTwoNine community, together with Patreon and Cannes Lions, staged The Great Unlearn, an umbrella half-day programme on what marketers must stop doing in a world where creators set the agenda. The programme mixed feed-native creative, participatory formats including micro-dramas, and the question of how companies are restructuring teams and budgets around the speed of social content. It also included the presentation of twenty winners of the Billion Dollar Boy Creator Fund.
Taken together, the day’s developments add up to one point. This year Cannes is not celebrating creators as guests. It is building an operational layer around them, from a competition category through purchasing data to a publisher brand for hire. The creator is getting their own trophy and their own market.
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