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Innovation, Influence, and Impact: What's Next For the Future of Marketing

At Cannes Lions 2025, MediaLink, media and marketing's most trusted advisor, brought together more than 60 CMOs and brand leaders to break down how they're staying ahead of today's most complex marketing challenges — from product innovation to full-funnel brand engagement to measuring success at every stage.

Powered by the platform of UTA, MediaLink, and KLUTCH Sports Group, the week of curated programming included our thought leadership series MediaLink Live, featuring C-level brand leaders; Links by MediaLink, our closed-door roundtables; and more than 725 partner meetings.

We've rounded up the topics everyone was talking about, from pain points to solutions to the most exciting opportunities relevant to every industry.

TRANSFORMATION

Agility is the new operating system for marketers.

CMOs and marketing executives are no longer just brand stewards: They need to be transformation architects and change managers who aren't afraid to realign teams, workflows, and even business units to keep pace with cultural and technological shifts.

That means breaking down silos, creating more collaborative relationships with outside teams to prioritize the consumer experience (think finance, technology, and product design), and building operational models that flex in an age of ongoing disruption. The question isn't whether you should change existing models — it's how fast and how effectively you can manage change to meet the widest addressable market and ensure your brand is culturally relevant.

"Massive transformation is in operating models. It's in strategy. It's investment. It's our priorities. Helping people [internally] understand the big picture, pointing to the competition, looking at that total addressable market and communicating what we're after — it's an enterprise mindset. We're all one team. We're not competing with each other. We're fighting the competition."

Peggy Roe
Peggy Roe
EVP & Chief Customer Officer
Marriott International

"[Our] mindset has to not just look at the past and rewrite it with new tools, but how do we think about this as the canvas of the future? [We need to] right-size for the moment which is a balance of great human resources with great technology."

Beth Ann Kaminkow
Beth Ann Kaminkow
CEO
Dentsu North America

AI

The AI imperative is deeply human.

Across Cannes Lions and C-suite boardrooms, the buzz around AI has shifted from future-gazing to immediate applications. Scale, efficiency, and personalization are at the heart of these conversations, but the focus is no longer how to achieve enterprise adoption. It's about ensuring AI is created, deployed, and refined in ways that enhance human creativity.

Most CMOs at this year's Cannes Lions admitted to some level of uncertainty around AI's ability to meet near-term or urgent business goals. But many doubled down on the thesis that AI will succeed in marketing only when it's paired with human ingenuity, oversight, and emotional intelligence. The real promise of the technology isn't to replace creativity (a widespread fear just a year ago) but to supercharge it.

To fulfill that promise, marketing leaders need to invest in cultures of experimentation and education that don't just improve AI's performance, but elevate the creative power of people.

Alex Craddock
"AI and human creativity can and must coexist. The messy, imperfect nature of both is where magic happens. Brands that understand how to harness both will lead."
Alex Craddock
Chief Marketing & Content Officer
Citi
Maureen Little
"We want them to be iterative. We want them to fail fast. That is not the culture that [lines of business owners] have had for the majority of their careers. Let's accept that, own it, and create safe environments to test."
Maureen Little
SVP Partnerships & Ecosystem
Writer
Mark Wagman
"The topic of replacement versus acceleration is one I keep hammering home. This isn't about replacing people with a bot. It's about asking, 'What are the high-effort, low-value tasks for which we can introduce tools so people can focus on the more valuable things we all care about?'"
Mark Wagman
Managing Director & Partner
MediaLink

INNOVATION

Inclusive innovation can drive consumer growth, but it must be done with focus and fluency.

Powerful brand moments can emerge from investing in consumer cohorts that have been historically overlooked. When brands center underserved communities in their innovation process, they won't just superserve those audiences; they can unlock solutions with broader cultural and commercial impact that builds fan bases and drives consumer growth.

Inclusive innovation is more than surveys and performance dashboards. It demands a shift in where marketers gather insights, blending quantitative metrics with an understanding of the lived experiences of underserved groups. Become culturally fluent in their everyday challenges, needs, and desires. The result? Ideas, products, and campaigns that break through and resonate on a deeper level.

"Make room for cultural differences. Solve a real problem for one group, and it can unlock broader relevance. Your mainstream audience has shifted—it's multicultural now. If your brand isn't aligned with their goals, it'll be left behind."

Candace McCollum
Candace McCollum
Senior Marketing Manager,
Head of Multicultural Marketing
Amazon

"A common misconception is people think measurement is a scoreboard. I tend to think of it more as a feedback loop. The feedback should be used in context of everything you are doing. We always dig into what happened, but we should be digging into the why."

Brian Mandelbaum
Brian Mandelbaum
CEO
Attain

CREATORS

In the war for attention, creators are powerful partners in building trust, leveraging tech, and keeping pace with culture.

As algorithms evolve at breakneck speed and community behaviors shift in real time, creators have become essential conduits between brands and culture. But they shouldn't be brought in just to execute campaigns—they're strategic partners in shaping them. As performance metrics change and social media's role in driving brand love grows, the efficacy for digital content is being determined by those closest to the feed. From "culture pods" to creator tech platforms, forward-thinking companies are becoming experts in scaling these creator partnerships with intention and insights. Success in the creator economy isn't about chasing trends. It's about engaging in them the moment they form, in partnership with the people who'll reach the audience you want to reach.

Lori Macdonald
"Creator strategies are ever more important. Share the pen with them, include creators in the brief, give them your brand guidelines but give them the space to 'create.' If they are truly a fan of your product, the authenticity comes through."
Lori Macdonald
Director
MediaLink
Nya-Gabriella Parchment
"Young people are investing in this space and seriously considering it as a career option, which means the creator economy isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I predict that in one to three years, Cannes Lions will become the next major consumer event — dare I say, the next Coachella."
Nya-Gabriella Parchment
Co-Head Brand Partnerships
UTA Creators

SPORTS

Sports continue to grow as one of the biggest arenas for brand innovation.

Sports industries continue to grow at a rapid rate, building new fan bases and converging with every aspect of culture, from filmed entertainment to fashion to the creator economy. Brands that haven't previously leaned into sports have an opportunity to make big plays. The question is, how can they do it right, and can they stand out?

Star athletes, teams, and leagues are asking the same question about their opportunities to collaborate with brands. They want to build innovative partnerships that are disruptive and go the distance. The playbook, however, is relatively thin, and this is a good thing: Modern sports partnerships should have ambitions beyond logo placements or one-off sponsorships. They should be mutually beneficial, cross-platform, and built with open lanes of communication that enable both parties to learn and grow together.

"Women are not a CSR project; we are amazing athletes. We're looking for brands to get in at this level and be synonymous with supporting women in sports, be a part of that journey, and for them to be able to say, '[We] were there first.'"

Aki Mandhar
Aki Mandhar
CEO
Chelsea FC Women

"[I'm looking for] an open line of communication. Creative direction plays a significant role in [choosing brands to work with]. Hearing our opinion. Seeing our vision and taking that into account in helping us help you lead the brand."

Aaron Gordon
Aaron Gordon
Denver Nuggets

COMMERCE

Storytelling meets storefront: The new era of commerce puts entertainment and ease at the center.

As media channels multiply and retail experiences evolve, the most successful brand campaigns are no longer transactional. They're emotional, cultural, personalized, and data-informed.

Whether it's Visa treating creators like small businesses (including developing new products and services for them, thus growing brand love), Mattel developing special content for its most passionate fans, or NBCUniversal using AI to identify shoppable moments during live television, one thing is clear: Content that's designed to sell should lean into fandoms and remove friction in the shopping journey.

Jason Horowitz
“Premium content isn't just entertainment — it's a performance vehicle. If the storytelling is done right, it drives inspiration, discovery, and ultimately, transactions.”
Jason Horowitz
SVP US Marketing
Mattel
Damian D'Anna
“Premium content is a storefront for brands and products. The explosion of e-commerce and social commerce has led to consumers driving discovery through products they love and that they love to share. This has created new real estate in all media, but especially in premium content.”
Damian D'Anna
SVP, Client Partnerships
NBCUniversal

GEN Z

Gen Z is creating new rules for brand loyalty that are relevant to reaching all generations.

Gen Z is setting a new standard for how trust and loyalty are earned, and brands need to keep up — not only to win over the next generation of consumers, but to build deeper connections across all age groups.

It's undeniable that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are already shaping the future of consumer behavior. Their expectations are driven by both emotional and economic forces: Amid a growing "loneliness epidemic," Gen Z is turning to brands not just for products, but for belonging and communities built around shared values and passions.

At the same time, financial pressures have made them more discerning and risk-averse, but also more loyal to the few brands they truly trust. This is raising the bar for what brand loyalty looks like. Perks and programs can't just reward spending. They must support a broader ecosystem of engagement, which might include creator partnerships, branded entertainment, IRL experiences, personalized shopping journeys, and online communities. For Gen Z, loyalty is a two-way street. They expect brands to show up and communicate in ways that feel personal, unique, and culturally relevant. There’s no reason this approach to building brand loyalty can’t extend to consumers of all ages, too.

"[You can't underestimate] the importance of knowing your consumers, deeply and on a human level. This is more important than ever as Gen Z and Gen Alpha continue to redefine the relationship between brands and consumers by demanding agency and participation in the brands they love."

Joon Silverstein
Joon Silverstein
CMO
Coach

"In a session on Gen Z and AI at T-Mobile Ads, Zoe (Baris) Housman, VP of Marketing at Essie, shared how years of hyper-targeting Gen Z led to one-dimensional strategies that neglected older, high-value segments. A segmentation strategy should reflect all audiences, not just the trendiest."

Justine Karp
Justine Karp
Vice President
MediaLink