From flights arriving, to rides along the Croisette, to conversations 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 is a global stage where the industry debates what is changing, where investment is moving, and which partners are best placed to help brands grow. For Uber Advertising, Cannes is a strategic platform to advance our point of view, take part in the industry’s most important conversations, and demonstrate how brands can connect with consumers throughout real-world journeys.

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

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

It is 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 entering its next phase. As investment expands beyond traditional retail media environments, commerce media represents everyday moments that shape what people buy, where they go, what they order, and how they move through the world.

That idea anchored 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 discuss what the next phase of commerce media means for marketers now.

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 shift formed the basis of the announcements we made at Cannes, focusing on two aspects of the Uber Advertising platform: what brands can activate and how they can activate it.

The opportunities for brands to activate are expanding across the moments when intent is being formed. New announcements such as Offsite Ads, Mobility Offers, Deal Drops, and Reorder Rewards give advertisers more ways to reach consumers as they discover, travel, order, redeem, reorder, and decide what comes 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 defining topic at Cannes, and the conversation is quickly expanding 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 outcomes.

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 as much a leadership challenge as it is a technology challenge. The opportunity is not AI for AI’s sake, but better business outcomes, improved customer experiences, faster innovation, and more effective ways to connect with consumers.

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 match

Football made the Cannes conversation feel especially tangible because match day already spans many moments: where fans watch, how they get there, who they meet, what they order, how they celebrate, and how they get home. The opportunity for brands is moving 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 of LinkedIn, Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, Dan Gardner of Code and Theory, and Matt Spiegel of TransUnion to discuss how understanding fan behaviour can help brands move from the sidelines to the centre of the match-day 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 consumer journey: people arriving, moving, discovering, dining, connecting, celebrating, and deciding what came next. For Uber Advertising, it was the perfect opportunity 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: moments of decision around key points in commerce media.

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

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

The Uber Villa became a hub for client connection and conversations

Over three days of programming 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

Across the Croisette, where getting from one meeting to the next can be a challenge in itself, Uber-branded mokes transformed getting around Cannes into a punctual 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

Across Cannes, movement was the connecting thread throughout culture, commerce, and technology, a constant force in the moments that shape what people do, where they go, and what they choose next.

That is the opportunity ahead: helping brands move with people through the real-world journeys that define daily 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 learn more about how Uber Advertising helps brands connect with consumers at the moments that matter, visit Uber Advertising or get in touch with your Uber Advertising representative.