From flights in, to rides along the Croisette, to chats over cocktails, for one week Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026 becomes a live map of how people move, gather, discover, and make decisions.

The festival brings together the community shaping the future of marketing, technology, and media. It’s a global stage where the industry debates what’s changing, where investment is heading, and which partners are best placed to help brands grow. For Uber Advertising, Cannes is a strategic platform to put forward our perspective, take part in the industry’s most important conversations, and show how brands can connect with consumers throughout real-world journeys.

Here are three themes we noticed driving the conversation this year, and how Uber Advertising moved each one forward throughout Cannes.

1. Commerce media is shifting from the digital shelf to everyday life

It’s no surprise that commerce media is becoming one of the most important ways brands connect with consumers, and the conversation at Cannes reflected a category moving into its next phase. As investment grows beyond traditional retail media environments, commerce media represents everyday moments that shape what people buy, where they go, what they order, and how they get around.

That idea was the foundation of our EMARKETER session, From Digital Shelf to Daily Life: The Future of Commerce Media, where Sarah Marzano, VP & Principal Analyst, Commerce Media at EMARKETER, joined Kristi Argyilan, Global Head of Uber Advertising, to chat about what the next stage of commerce media means for marketers today.

Sarah Marzano of EMARKETER joins Kristi Argyilan of Uber Advertising at Cannes

"What I see in Uber is a broader definition of commerce media: the richness of people around the world going places and getting things, hour by hour, and the opportunity for brands to appear in those moments in ways that feel truly relevant."

— Kristi Argyilan, Global Head of Uber Advertising, in conversation with Beet.TV

This change was the foundation for the announcements we made at Cannes, focused on two parts of the Uber Advertising platform: what brands can activate and how they can do it.

The opportunities for brands to activate are growing across the moments when intent is being shaped. New announcements like Offsite Ads, Mobility Offers, Deal Drops, and Reorder Rewards give advertisers more ways to connect with customers as they discover, ride, order, redeem, reorder, and decide what’s next.

How brands can activate is becoming easier to access and scale. Uber Marketing Manager and APIs are helping advertisers and partners activate, manage, and measure Uber Advertising through more connected workflows.

Mobility Offers turn attention into action through value

2. AI is changing how people make decisions and how marketers present themselves

AI was the standout topic at Cannes, and the conversation is quickly moving from what AI can create to how it’s changing the way people search, shop, plan, compare, and make decisions. For marketers, that means looking beyond the technology itself and understanding how AI is reshaping consumer behaviour, marketing workflows, and the way leaders turn experimentation into business results.

At Shelly Palmer’s breakfast, From Proxy to Truth, Kristi Argyilan joined Dane Mathews, Global Chief Digital & Technology Officer at Taco Bell, to discuss how leaders can turn AI from an abstract technology discussion into a practical growth agenda. The session focused on a clear idea: AI is a leadership challenge as much as a technology challenge. The opportunity isn’t about AI for the sake of it, but about achieving better business outcomes, improving customer experiences, driving faster innovation, and finding more useful ways to connect with customers.

Dane Mathews from Taco Bell joins Kristi Argyilan from Uber Advertising at Shelly Palmer's breakfast

A human-centred view of AI also came into focus at The Female Quotient’s FQ Beach, where Jess Shuraleff, Head of US&C Advertising Sales, joined Danielle Betras of NYT Wirecutter, Anja Spielmann of Royal Canin, Nyma Quidwai of VIZIO, and Elizabeth Preis of Victoria’s Secret & Co. for a conversation called Connected Commerce: Buy the Feeling, where they discussed experiences that feel less like transactions and more like discovery, community, or culture. The panel explored how AI and connected technology are reshaping the way brands appear in people’s lives — making commerce feel more intuitive, personal, human, and seamlessly woven into everyday experiences.

Nate Elliott from EMARKETER discusses the AI adoption curve with Edwin Wong from Uber Advertising

At the Uber Villa, we recorded a live episode of Decoder Podcast Live from Cannes: Advertising in the Agentic AI Era, followed by an audience Q&A with The Verge’s Nilay Patel and Digitas North America CEO Amy Lanzi. The discussion explored how agentic AI and search are reshaping advertising — and why brands will need brand identity, data infrastructure, media networks, and commerce platforms to work together as AI changes how people find information and make decisions.

Nilay Patel from The Verge and Amy Lanzi, CEO of Digitas North America, record a live podcast at the Uber Villa

3. The fan journey is bigger than the game

Football made the Cannes conversation feel especially real because match day already spans so many moments: where fans watch, how they get there, who they catch up with, what they order, how they celebrate, and how they get home. The opportunity for brands is shifting beyond standard match-time exposure towards deeper fan engagement, where they can help shape the fan experience in real time.

At Decoding the Signal of Sports Fans at Stagwell SPORT BEACH, Edwin Wong joined Katherine Shappley from LinkedIn, Damar Hamlin from the Buffalo Bills, Dan Gardner from Code and Theory, and Matt Spiegel from TransUnion to chat about how understanding fan behaviour can help brands move from the sidelines to the centre of the game-time experience.

Edwin Wong, Head of Global Measurement Science at Stagwell SPORT BEACH

Back at the Uber Villa and across the Stagwell SPORT BEACH stages, our World Cup data visualisation experience extended that conversation by showing how fan behaviour comes to life in the real world: where people go, what they order, when demand peaks, and how patterns shift across cities and markets.

“What we see from our own agency partners when we collaborate from the same starting point are more relevant campaigns that enhance the consumers’ in-the-moment experience — faster iteration, sharper formats, and work that adapts as audiences do"

- Corey Rados, Global Head of Creative Strategy, in conversation with Digiday

As Creative Studio expands into more markets, the opportunity is to connect media with the real-world experiences that surround everyday and cultural moments. By being present in the moments before and after events, brands move from visibility to participation.

How Uber Advertising appeared throughout the Cannes consumer journey

For one week, the festival became a microcosm of the Uber customer journey: people arriving, moving, discovering, dining, connecting, celebrating, and deciding what came next. For Uber Advertising, it was the perfect chance to turn the platform story into a real-world journey.

Throughout that journey, Uber Advertising and our partners demonstrated how brands can become part of the moments that matter most to them: decision-making moments around key points in commerce media.

The media journey covered moments before, during, and after Cannes 

Delta in-flight ads, welcome digital screens at NCE airport, and Journey Ads welcomed attendees as they made their way into Cannes.

The Uber Villa became a hub for client connection and chats

Over three days of sessions and client meetings, the Uber Villa provided a space for conversation, discovery, and engagement — bringing together partners, clients, and industry leaders throughout the week.

Beyond the Villa, the Uber experience travelled with attendees

All along the Croisette, where getting from one meeting to the next can be a bit of a mission, Uber-branded mokes made getting around Cannes a timely and practical brand experience.

As day turned to night, the Vesuvio pizza window takeover caught people at a moment that was both memorable and unmistakably Cannes: a late-night slice as the perfect way to end the evening.

From shore to sea, the Uber Boat activation extended the journey beyond the Croisette, serving ice cream cones as the perfect way to cool down after the festival

And as attendees headed home, The Female Quotient co-branded shuttle to NCE helped send attendees off on a warm note.

From attention to action

All over Cannes, movement was the common thread running through culture, business, and technology—a constant force in the moments that shape what people do, where they go, and what they choose next.

That’s the opportunity ahead: helping brands move with people through the real-world journeys that shape everyday life. From digital touchpoints to real-life experiences, across moments big and small, Uber Advertising is where life’s movement becomes your brand’s momentum.

To find out more about how Uber Advertising helps brands connect with consumers at key moments, visit Uber Advertising or get in touch with your Uber Advertising representative.