Bonjour. If you (like us) have found yourself in the south of France for Cannes Lions, please join us for a special edition of Coffee Cocktails with Creators at the UTA Beach this Thursday at 4pm CEST.
To save your spot, hit reply to this newsletter with your name, email, company, and job title. We’ll take care of the rest.
Today’s lineup:
The history of Cannes Lions (and why we’re here now)
How creators are positioning themselves to brands at Cannes
Anthpo’s rules for marketing in 2026
On the Ground at Cannes Lions
This is our view from Cannes Lions—stay tuned for more coverage this week / Photography by Syd Cohen
Somewhere over the Atlantic on our flight to France this weekend, we overheard a marketer and a creator manager comparing their previous Cannes Lions experiences—each having attended 14 and seven times, respectively. The creator manager said, “People weren’t even talking about creators five years ago.” And that got us thinking: This whole creator industry is still pretty new…how did it end up taking over the biggest advertising event of the year in half a decade?
So here’s a quick look at how we got here →
A brief timeline:
1954: Inspired by the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Lions starts as a way to award advertisers for their creative work.
1990s: Cannes Lions expands beyond awards and adds workshops and courses to its programming. This gives more people a reason to join in on the festival and shifts Cannes Lions to look a lot more like it does today.
2024: The festival launches the LIONS Creator track, acknowledging the power creators have in the current advertising landscape.
And today: Of the 13K Cannes Lions attendees this year, a reported 300 creators are set to hit the Palais—but they’re also bringing managers, creator economy execs, and team members (ahem, ahem). We’ve chatted with creators who don’t even have passes to the LIONS Creators track, creators who are paid by top platforms to be here, and creators who paid their own way to attend (to the tune of $8K).
Why it’s worth the trek for creators:
One travel creator told us they’re using brand deal money to fund the trip, noting that making inroads with agencies for potential representation is the win they’re after.
An event commentary creator—back for the second time—said they’re skipping VidCon in favor of Cannes because they “already know every creator.” To them, the opportunity for long-term relationships with brands is more valuable.
We’ll be checking in with creators as the week plays out to see what comes of their Cannes experiences. Stay tuned.
Expert POV: Niche Is Out
Rachel Lowenstein weighs in on how creators should position themselves to be memorable to brands / Rachel Lowenstein
We’ve heard it across the industry—and certainly at this year’s Cannes, with more creators than ever attending: Niche down to stand out. Cultural strategist and creator Rachel Lowenstein disagrees.
Lowenstein, who’s gearing up for her fourth Cannes and has consulted for brands like Nike and Dove, has advice to creators at this year’s festival: Expertise matters—know the difference between niching down and going deep.
"Niching down puts you in a box," Lowenstein said. "Expertise lets you be expansive with a specialized level of knowledge."
Being known for something isn't enough anymore—brands want creators with a level of depth that's hard to replicate. For Lowenstein, that expertise is female fandom culture.
That depth applies to pitching brands as well. "Very few people actually get curious about what a brand's business problems are," Lowenstein said. She said that creators who lead with expertise can walk into those conversations as a thought partner, not a vendor.
For Lowenstein, it comes down to being "known and findable" for one thing. At a festival full of noise, that specificity is what gets you remembered.
Sponsored by Sounds Profitable
Nobody Had Mapped the Entire Podcast Ecosystem. Until Now.
Most measurement of podcast data is narrow. It often tracks just one platform, one behavior, or one format at a time.
But podcasting isn’t just audio on Spotify or long-form video on YouTube. It isn’t even that two-minute clip you scrolled to on Instagram.
Podcasting is all of the above (and then some). And for the first time, one study by Sounds Profitable has mapped the entire picture.
The Podcast Atlas measures how creators move their audiences across formats and platforms. It shows what actually drives trust and loyalty in the podcast ecosystem.
See The Podcast Atlas first at VidCon on June 26, where Sounds Profitable Partner Tom Webster will reveal the findings in a keynote presentation.
Anthpo’s Rules for Marketing in 2026
Colin and Samir (left) host a Cannes-based daily show, The Daily Brief, with LinkedIn and Anthony "Anthpo" Potero (right) joins as their first guest / Photography by The Publish Press and courtesy of Pufferfish
Today through Thursday, Colin and Samir are hosting The Daily Brief, a daily show in Cannes with LinkedIn airing at 9:30am PST—you can catch it here. They’re kicking off the series with Anthony “Anthpo” Potero as a guest to discuss the “abundance era” of content here at Cannes.
The idea: There’s more demand for content than ever, but supply has exploded even faster. When everything is possible, brands and audiences alike are asking the same questions → Who actually matters? Who stands out? Who’s worth investing in? Who’s driving results?
So they called up Anthpo, the brains behind stunts like the Timothée Chalamet Lookalike Contest and Kid With Crocs (each of which started a viral movement) to hear his rules for marketing in 2026.
Two that stood out:
Don’t be an outsider. “If you are [an outsider] find someone who isn’t one. Every touch point matters, from the font to the way it’s filmed,” Potero said. “How are you going to speak to a demographic that you don’t know anything about?"
Show up consistently. “Stunts are great—but if you’re always big and splashy, you may not be showing up consistently,” Potero said. “A brand [needs] consistent value over time.”
While we were there: We chatted with Anthpo, who told us he’s leaving Cannes early to head to VidCon later this week. Talia Schulhof, Anthpo’s business partner and the CEO of Pufferfish, told us each conference serves two very different purposes for them. Cannes means interfacing with studios and brands. VidCon means chatting with creators and fans. And both are requirements for strong brand work.
👀 Creator Jobs
HUGE* If True is hiring a production manager with five years of experience to support daily logistics and workflow.
Ramp is looking for a viral creative producer who has personally made content go viral—and providing a $5K bounty for referrals.
Beast Industries is hiring an executive assistant to provide admin support to its senior and C-suite executives.
🔥 Press Worthy
Fashion creator Ken Sakata partners with GQ on a documentary series for Paris Fashion Week.
Substack launches Creator Kits for creators to build their own media kits to attract brand partners.
Curry Barker gets an eight-figure deal for his next movie.
Hard Fork podcast creators Casey Newton and Kevin Roose leave the NYT to start their own media venture.
Instagram is now available across Samsung TV, where viewers can watch Stories and Channels.
