Bonjour. If you’re on the ground at Cannes Lions from 4–5pm Thursday (that’s tomorrow if anyone else is also losing track of time), we’d love to have you join Colin, Samir, and the Publish team for a happy hour at UTA Beach.

We’ll have good drinks, good convos, and, yes, AC. Sign up here.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

As we wade through the sweltering crowds of marketers, creators, and execs at Cannes Lions, there seems to be one thing on everyone’s minds: fans. But not the giant misting fans at every activation—the kind that fill a creator’s comment section with “I never skip your videos.” 

Fandom vs. audience: Audience members receive content, consume, and participate within the context of a creator’s page. Fandom, on the other hand, expands far past the creator—it’s fan accounts, community forums, IRL events. It’s a measure of the tangible impact that a creator has on their community.

Brands across Cannes are all saying the same thing: Fandom is the mark of a good creator partnership →

What this looks like in practice: This week, both brands and creators have told us that the days of one-off brand deals are over. Audience members may not care about sponsored content, but fans sure do. According to Broski, fans want their favorite creators to have deep, lasting relationships with a brand—as it speaks to the trust the creator has with the product. 

“If [brands] trust me, I’ll make it palatable for my audience and I’ll make it entertaining,” Broski said.

While we were at UTA beach this week, Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold shared that the company is developing an app for fans and creators. The app will let MrBeast fans (80% of whom are outside the US, Housenbold said) participate in challenges and competitions, apply to appear in MrBeast videos, and connect with local fan communities.

The why: "When you have 1.3 billion rabid fans [viewing MrBeast content per quarter], I want a platform for them to have daily participation," Housenbold said on a panel.

What's next: The app is one piece of a broader diversification push at Beast Industries—which already spans Feastables, Beast Mobile, a creator marketing marketplace, and 10–12 new content channels in development. Housenbold has previously hinted at an IPO, saying he wants to give the 1.3 billion “unique people around the world who have watched Jimmy's content a chance to be owners of the company."

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Record your podcast on campus at a special member rate and enjoy complimentary access to work from The Lighthouse for the day. Whether you're producing your next episode, developing a new idea, or looking for a creative environment to spend the day, this is an opportunity to experience The Campus for Creators firsthand.

Find your place at The Campus for Creators—connect with The Lighthouse membership team to learn more about availability, member rates, and booking.

Here are the most interesting creator headlines to break from across the Cannes Croisette:

Amazon plans to bring 500 creators to the Fire TV library by 2027. This could be a competitive run at FAST power player FOX, which now owns Tubi and Roku. 

Open AI announced that it’s expanding its global ad business, launching targeted ads on ChatGPT’s free tiers across seven markets, with plans to expand further. It’s a shift that could open new ad channels for creators, but also increase competition as AI-generated content continues to scale. 

TikTok is launching a custom creator network. Its new AI product, Symphony Agent, allows brands to generate project briefs, search for creators to partner with, and generate AI ads to be distributed across the platform.