[Marketing Week] Bob Koigi: LIONS looks beyond Cannes

The organization behind Cannes Lions, Effie, WARC and Contagious plans regional platforms across North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa.

LIONS is reshaping its global strategy by taking its creative intelligence, industry benchmarks and professional networks closer to the markets where marketers and creatives operate.

The organization behind Cannes Lions, Effie, WARC and Contagious plans regional platforms across North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa. Rather than replicating Cannes Lions, the strategy is designed to extend LIONS' influence beyond its flagship annual festival and create year-round engagement with local communities.

The approach reflects a broader shift in the creative industry: global standards increasingly need to be combined with local market knowledge. LIONS says regional platforms will be developed with local partners, allowing regional talent and perspectives to influence the wider global conversation.

The North American launch is particularly significant, bringing together consumer insight, content, effectiveness and creativity through Insight to Impact.

The integration of VidCon also expands LIONS' reach into the rapidly evolving creator economy, linking creators more directly with brands and the broader marketing ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the evolution of Spikes Asia into LIONS Asia and the planned LIONS Riyadh platform signal a push to strengthen regional creative communities while maintaining Cannes Lions as the industry's global meeting point.

The strategy ultimately positions LIONS less as a destination centered on one festival and more as a year-round global network connecting creativity, effectiveness, intelligence and culture.

Campaigns of the week

Crisis, the UK charity focused on ending homelessness, has relaunched its Create for Crisis fashion upcycling initiative with a retail identity and campaign created by strategy and design studio Dalziel & Pow.

Prosper Global, the organization formerly known as Mercy Corps, has launched a new brand identity and awareness campaign developed by M+C Saatchi North America as international aid funding faces increasing pressure.

McVitie's has launched a multi-million-pound campaign positioning its biscuits as a catalyst for everyday moments of connection across Britain.

Agencies and accounts

AD/PD has appointed FINN Partners as its global public relations agency of record, tasking the agency with raising the conference’s international profile and supporting participation across its scientific and clinical communities.

Emmi Desserts UK has appointed independent creative agency Defiant following a competitive pitch involving three other agencies.

Accredited Debt Relief has appointed TCA, Omnicom Media’s national full-service performance media agency, as its media agency of record in the U.S.

Marketing Report at Dreamforce

Marketing Report has been in San Francisco for Dreamforce 2026, where Salesforce used its annual event to outline a major shift in how businesses interact with its CRM. The company announced AIforce, which brings Salesforce data, workflows and business logic into platforms including Claude, Slack and other AI environments, signalling a move beyond the traditional CRM interface.

Marketing Report got a chance to interview Eric Zenz, Salesforce’s Senior Vice President of Product Management for Marketing Cloud, who said marketers increasingly want personalized communications but often lack unified customer data.

In his Dreamforce keynote, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff described AIforce as an “interface revolution”, arguing that AI models need reliable business data and rules to operate effectively. Salesforce is positioning its CRM as that underlying source of truth while allowing users to access it through different AI interfaces.

The event also featured will.i.am, who focused on personal AI agents and data ownership. He argued that individuals should have greater control over their data and the AI agents built around it, while urging creators to use AI to develop new products rather than simply reproduce existing work.

One thing has stood out from the event. AI is changing not only what software can do, but where and how people interact with it. For marketers, that could mean less time navigating platforms and more focus on data, content, creativity and the value those activities deliver.

Other major news of the week

Havas Play has partnered with gaming advertising platform iion to offer interactive, playable advertising across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

Nielsen has expanded its Ad Intel advertising intelligence service in France to include connected TV (CTV), giving marketers and advertisers visibility into spending across major streaming platforms.

Bob Koigi is the editor-in-chief of Marketing Report.One

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