Overheated iPads, Lifeguards, and Changing Tides: The Unexpected Challenges of a Cannes Beach Takeover

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has gone through many iterations in its more than 70-year history, transforming from a celebration of the slow, strange, creative advertising films that won in the early years, to an event that rewards not just creativity on the big screen but sales in the grocery aisle and drive-thru lane. The annual gathering has also become much more than an awards show, with major shifts in the last 20 years as tech platforms, adtech companies, and publishers elbowed their way onto the Croissette and docked yachts in the harbor. Bringing a brand to life in Cannes requires more than deep pockets. ADWEEK spoke to experiential marketers, brand managers, and Cannes veterans about permitting hurdles, regulatory restraints, and what it takes to make an activation stand out—especially when they’re built on sand. As the breadth of the festival has grown, so have the expectations of the international marketers attending Cannes Lions, one PR agency exec told ADWEEK. In response, agencies and brands work to build bigger, more ostentatious displays representing their ideas in an effort to show the strength of their agency, network, brand, or platform. “It’s an arms race,” the exec said. “The competition that was in the Palais for awards spilled out onto the Croissette.” Beach takeovers have become a staple of the Cannes experience, as publishers, platforms, and agency holding companies flaunt their wares (and profits) with installations that can cost up to an estimated $1.6 million. Sport Beach's seaside court gives Cannes Lions attendees an opportunity to compete in pickleball tournaments. Building to French standards Compared to the hotels or conference centers that serve as the canvas for other industry tentpole events like CES or Possible, beachside activations at Cannes have to consider the ocean’s movement and the reality of a sandy surface. At the same time, layers of permitting and approvals mean that venues are booked by September, nine months before the festival kicks off. The application process requires any company activating on the beach to submit designs for everything that’ll be visible from the Croissette months before the festival, explained George Morgan, event producer with Public School, the creative agency working with Canva on its beach takeover. “You’re building and designing this site backwards in a certain way,” he explained. “We’re designing everything that’s visible, which then kicks the can down the road for everything that’s interior.” For brands with smaller-scale restaurant takeovers or parties, there’s still the potential challenge of negotiating contracts in French. “Navigating the breadth of Cannes can be challenging for first timers,” acknowledged Michaela Washmon, director of festival partnerships for Cannes Lions. “As many venues are family owned and do business in French, we work closely to help navigate and bridge the gap between all parties.” When the time comes to install an activation, everything down to a parking spot along the Croissette requires a prior permit, something that the festival also tries to help facilitate. Canva, which is tripling the footprint of its beach activation this year, built a confetti shower and a 10-inch-deep wading pool into its design. Under French law, that pool, the organizers learned, requires a lifeguard to be present. Canva's 10-inch-deep pool will be installed in front of the stage—and a lifeguard will be present to keep festival-goers safe. The weather is yet another factor, noted Gideon Spitzer-Williams, Canva’s global experiential marketing lead for B2B. For this year’s activation, the graphic design platform is adding more shade to its structure and getting coolers for the iPads that employees use to check people into the space—two learnings gleaned from last year’s presence. “Our iPads overheated many times, and we had to find other iPads real quick,” Spitzer-Williams said. “We will have all the iPad coolers this year.” Shifting sands and turning tides But while the permitting and regulatory requirements might be more stringent in France than they are for Texas-based South By Southwest, for example, marketers agreed that the city of Cannes is eager to cooperate with the festival. And that’s not the case everywhere, noted Sport Beach CEO Beth Sidhu. “Each event has its own amazing opportunities and specific challenges,” Sidhu said. “The biggest difference is in how the conference organizers and the cities do or do not work well together.” What’s more logistically complex, from her perspective, is also the most magical part of Cannes: the beach. “You’re dealing with sand and wind and the occasional rain, and that is a very different situation than being indoors,” Sidhu said. “It’s part of what makes Cannes amazing and part of what makes Sport Beach special. But sometimes, do I wish there were just more plugs? Absolutely.” Setting your brand against the backdrop of the Mediterranean while giving festival-goers an opportunity to kick off their work shoes and walk through the sand has an undeniable appeal. But sand shifts and tides change. Building on the sand can be, as the parable goes, a foolish endeavor. “We’re dealing with tides,” said Sean Doyle, director of global brand experiences for Pinterest. “That can mean that you wake up and the sand is completely shifted, and you suddenly don’t have the same footprint anymore that you had planned for.” Pinterest's 'Manifestival' includes a pop-up tattoo shop. Canva’s experiential marketers echoed the challenges of predicting the ocean’s movement. “The tidal changes throughout the year buy us more space,” Morgan said. More space means a larger activation, which means more flooring and more structural costs. “You’re constantly having to move with the literal ebbs and flows of the ocean,” he explained. “Where else do you do that?”

Cannes Lions

Overheated iPads, Lifeguards, and Changing Tides: The Unexpected Challenges of a Cannes Beach Takeover

Experiential marketers reveal the unique challenges of the ad festival

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Kathryn Lundstrom

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