Highlights and insights from Cannes Lions Wrapped Up with Paul Kemp-Robertson, David Tiltman and Chloe Markowicz of LIONS. The discussions centred on the pulling apart of what is uniquely human and what is uniquely machine, creators as long-term brand builders, and the growing consumer appetite for friction.

Marketing has a habit of looking backwards. Ask most marketers when the industry was at its best and they’ll point

The final days of Cannes Lions 2026 brought the week's biggest ideas together: AI as infrastructure, people as the point, and conviction as the quality that separates those who follow change from those who lead it. Our Cannes Correspondents report from the Croisette one last time.

In My Humble Opinion is our podcast series with our friends at Publicis Groupe UK, giving marketing leaders a safe

Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2026 opened with a question that refused to go away all week: as AI becomes more capable, what becomes more valuable about being human? Our Cannes Correspondents report on different sessions, stages and conversations and bringing the best of it back to our Members.

Some people will tell you Cannes Lions hasn’t moved fast enough. That may still be true on parts of the Croisette, or in the bar at the Carlton, but it wasn’t true in my classroom. Lex Bradshaw-Zanger shares his insight from Brand Marketer Academy.

Burnout, economic pressure and digital fatigue are reshaping daily life for Chinese youth. Today, cosy, low-pressure spaces such as craft circles and dazi buddying are making connection more modular, interest-led and easy to step into – less about commitment, more about emotional regulation.

The idea that TV advertising is a dead medium remains popular simply because digital platforms make it incredibly easy for cautious marketers to track immediate actions. In a challenging economic climate, the temptation to rely on instant metrics is understandable. However, real-world data from Uni-China Group shows that relying entirely on easily trackable digital data damages long-term business growth. Shifting budgets exclusively to low-attention digital formats costs companies billions in lost revenue compared to high-attention environments like TV.

For more than a decade, marketers have debated whether television is dying. After moderating The Marketing Society Hong Kong's Uncomfortable Conversations: Is TV Dead? panel, I came away convinced we have been asking the wrong question. Television isn't dead. Consumers have simply changed how they consume video, moving seamlessly between broadcast television, streaming platforms and digital video.

The Marketing Society session I participated in asked a familiar question: Is TV dead? I don’t think that is the

For a recent Changemakers Club, Prophet partnered with The Marketing Society to host a group of marketing leaders for a

The second in our series explores emotion, perhaps the most fundamental human advantage of all. AI can read emotion, detect sentiment and measure reactions, but it cannot create feeling. Drawing on behavioural science, this piece argues that emotional significance may become one of the scarcest and most valuable assets in an AI driven world, and asks leaders whether their organisations are designing memorable emotional moments or merely efficient journeys.

Highlights and insights from Navigate: Now and Next 2026 Dubai. Building AI capability, not renting it. The discussions centred on listening before creating, with social intelligence, agentic operating systems and brand memory identified as the foundation no tool alone can replace. The emphasis was on personalisation over averaging, premium environments outperforming generic reach, and the traditional funnel giving way to single-moment, creator-led journeys, with marketing success increasingly dependent on judgement and structure rather than the technology itself.

Reflecting on Navigate Now and Next Dubai, Noura Haggag argues AI makes execution easy but scales whatever you give it, including poor positioning. As building gets simpler, judgement and market context matter most.

Reflecting on Navigate Now and Next in Dubai, Neda Lazic argues AI makes access easy but not excellence: trust, judgement and storytelling remain the real differentiators, and marketing has always just been matchmaking.

AI adoption is no longer in question. Anismita Ghosh writes how Navigate Now and Next Dubai showed having tools is not enough: structure, not technology, decides who turns signals into fast action and who stays stuck theorising.

The pace of digital and technological change has never been greater, bringing with it extraordinary opportunities to drive growth, build brands and deliver exceptional customer experiences. A summary of our global Navigate Now and Next series from five of our hubs.

Highlights and insights from Navigate: Now and Next 2026 Singapore. Fixing the organisation before chasing innovation. The discussions centred on organisational complexity as the real barrier to progress, with siloed teams, fragmented KPIs and disconnected systems consistently identified as the issue no amount of AI investment can fix on its own. The emphasis was on brand being built through experience rather than communication, discovery shifting decisively to social and creator platforms, and connected systems beating collections of disparate tools, with marketing success increasingly dependent on organisational clarity and integration rather than the technology itself.

Highlights and insights from Navigate: Now and Next 2026 Scotland. The human edge in an AI world. The discussions centred on what remains uniquely human as AI capabilities grow, from creativity and cultural intuition to the neurobiology of purpose and the commercial power of genuine community. The emphasis was on AI adoption as a leadership decision rather than a technology one, with a consistent reminder that opinion, authenticity and the courage to invest in what AI cannot manufacture are what will set brands and leaders apart.

Highlights and insights from Navigate: Now and Next 2026 England. Marketing for an AI mediated future. The discussions centred on how AI is changing the customer journey itself, from AI discoverability and the rise of the B2A era to the commercial cost of overlooking multicultural audiences and the breakdown of the brand versus performance divide.

Highlights and insights from Navigate: Now and Next 2026 Hong Kong. Leading through complexity and fragmentation. Hong Kong's discussions centred on leadership in an increasingly fragmented environment. The emphasis was on navigating short-term commercial pressures while maintaining long-term thinking, managing increasingly complex customer journeys and recognising that strong leadership and human judgement are essential in a world of accelerating automation.