B-to-B Takes on Cannes
Cannes Lions claims to be the world’s largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry. Agencies, CPG brands, and related companies have long made the trip to France to connect, accept awards, party, and (of course) brag on social media that they attended.
This year, we saw many B-to-B companies cross the Atlantic to share how they have become more innovative and are using AI and other new technologies to build awareness and sell.
Criteo announced it is championing the next era of commerce with a renewed brand direction and tagline, “For the love of commerce.” For 20 years, Criteo has helped shape the commerce ecosystem by developing AI-driven advertising solutions that connect brands, agencies, retailers, and media owners with consumers.
To celebrate the launch, Criteo brought the brand to life through an activation featuring a large orange heart–shaped hot air balloon billboard, complete with a shopping cart and the line “Putting heart back in the cart,” along the Croisette. They partnered with local cafés, bakeries, and shops to share orange heart stickers that unlocked complimentary items for customers, supporting local commerce and spreading joy.
Says Lucy Markowitz, SVP, GM, U.S. Marketplace at Vistar Media:
“Cannes was an incredible moment for Vistar Media to help advance the conversation around out-of-home’s role at the center of the modern media mix. These panels and events weren’t about selling OOH or rehashing the way things have been done, but focused on finding new ways to apply larger marketing principles to out-of-home.”
Vistar collaborated with VaynerX for a private conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk, touched on the role of AI across industries, consumers’ craving for real-life experiences, and how the rapid digitization of OOH (especially DOOH or digital-out-of-home) is transforming the channel from a ‘set it and forget it’ tactic into an evolving canvas that meets the moment.
At The Connected Play in Cannes, LiveRamp teamed up with Sports Innovation Lab to explore how brands like Samsung Ads, Overtime, and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee are turning fandom into full-funnel performance. The session revealed the power of data-driven storytelling for the Olympics, as well as how flexible, clean-room-ready leagues are embracing technology to build modern fan experiences.
Drew Cashmore, Chief Strategy Officer of Vantage observed:
“At Cannes, we witnessed a fundamental shift as traditional digital media giants like Meta and Google began exploring deeper collaboration with retailers, signaling that the boundaries between commerce and media are dissolving. While there’s tremendous momentum in retail media, the ecosystem remains frustratingly fragmented with solutions being built in silos, creating inefficiencies that slow industry progress. The biggest opportunity lies in unifying this fragmented landscape through better technology integration and reducing friction for both advertisers and retailers, particularly in unlocking the sleeping giant of in-store media where most retail sales still occur.”
Cannes launched an awards category specifically for B-to-B companies and GoDaddy took the Gold this year.
Although Los Angeles is not France, you can still be inspired this year at Street Fight LIVE 2025!
