The advertising industry parties in Cannes, with ai as its new plus-one

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Katie Deighton, The Wall Street Journal 4 min Read 21 Jun 2025, 06:00 AM IST Technical companies such as Spotify annually host parties for clients and business partners at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, where participants are known to release after dark. (Getty Images) Summary After a few years of small experiments with AI and great anxiety about its impact, advertising managers received the program at this week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the annual five -day event on the French Riviera. Technical companies such as Spotify annually host parties for customers and business partners at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, where participants are known to release after dark. After a few years of small experiments with AI and great anxiety about its impact, managers with the program on this week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the advertising industry’s five -day annual event over the French Riviera. Almost every business that took over a swanky beach club, offered guests in a villa or bought the staff of $ 5,000, an enthusiastic story about artificial intelligence told. Furious against the machine was firmly out. The remaining rank-and-file concerns about job losses are mostly far from official opportunities. “We went beyond the promise and the fear of the practical application,” said Don McGuire, chief marketing officer at the Chip Maker Qualcomm, adding that the company saves 2400 hours a month using an AI agent building instrument called Writer. ‘People are talking about using it in different contexts. It’s no longer, ‘Well, it can do it or do it. ” Two years ago, at the first Cannes Lions since the debut of Chatgpt, the new potential of AI announced, the co-founder of advertising agencies, Wesley ter Her, erected in a small apartment. Cassandra-like, he told visitors that AI was about to increase advertising creation and employment. Managers at other businesses in Cannes described their trials with the technology that year, but emphasized that only people can develop the emotional insights that send advertising campaigns. This time, the idea of ​​AI-pushed industry-transformation mainstream, even though leaders still expressed confidence in the ongoing role of people. “It is clear that the operating world, and the world in general, are deeply disrupted as we speak, and the impact on posts is already felt,” says Marisa Thalberg, the main client and marketing officer at Catalyst Brands, the company formed by the merger of Brooks Brothers owner, Sparc Group and JCPenney. “My optimism comes from knowing how much creativity – and will remain – so fundamentally and uniquely human, even if the ways we utilize and express it are still changing.” Instagram and Facebook owner meta-platforms used the festival to reveal a lot of new AI-based products designed to help advertisers make advertising as quickly and simply as possible, feasible without the need for an agency. However, managers at the company have repeatedly said the tools are not designed to replace agencies – just to speed up their work and help smaller businesses that cannot afford agencies. Marketers in Cannes even put concerns such as President Trump’s trade war and consumer budgets on the rear burner tightened in favor of AI. “I didn’t have a single conversation about rates,” said Yannick Bolloré, the chairman and CEO of French advertising control company Havas. The guest list “Cafe” run by Havas on the grounds of the Mondrian Hotel used AI to turn guests into 3-D characters into a film with only a photo. The company said last year that it would invest 400 million euros, or more than $ 429 million, in the AI ​​development over the course of four years, a commitment similar to that made by competitive companies. Now Bolloré asks his staff to refer to AI agents as “teammates.” “Those agents will be fully part of the Havas family,” Bolloré said. “As far as employees are concerned, we will find a lot of efficiency, but our bet is that we will manage more income with the same amount of people.” But reality is not always close during Cannes, a conference of 13,000 people where Magnums of Dom Pérignon of $ 1.355 is regularly ordered to business tables during lunch, and the public public terms of AI have begun to wear thin. The lower rankings have dark joke at parties to the program they would be replaced by their artificial peers before the next festival. And research published on Monday lifted some red flags for agencies, most of which rushed to build their AI Arsenal. Agency Trade Association The 4As and consulting firm Forrester found that although 75% of agencies use the technology – of 61% last year – 75% of those using it also directly finance it without transferring costs to customers, of 41% in 2024. ” “The strongest setback to the AI ​​ear tax at Cannes comes from the familiarity and the creators of social media that are now flooding Cannes, along with traditional advertising players and technical enterprises. Actors Josh Duhamel, Reese Witherspoon, JB Smoowe and others have appointed their own creative businesses, but also made a case for the employment of Hollywood Advertising industry. Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live mint.