Jim Beam’s new partnership with the Cadillac Formula 1 Team reflects a broader shift in sports marketing. The biggest sponsorships are no longer about visibility during race weekend—they’re about creating cultural moments that live far beyond the finish line.
Brands
Before co-founding California Pizza Kitchen, Rick Rosenfield built his career prosecuting organized crime. He says the habits that won cases in federal court became the same habits that helped build one of America’s most successful restaurant brands—and they’re lessons today’s entrepreneurs shouldn’t ignore.
New research suggests online reviews have become an unexpected form of public accountability—but they still can’t replace traditional restaurant inspections.
The biggest lesson from Wednesday is that Cannes 2026 feels markedly more mature than recent editions. At least the discussions are anyway.
Pop culture has become one of the last forms of mass attention in a fragmented media environment. Brands aren’t borrowing cultural moments because it’s fun or trendy. They’re doing it because shared cultural moments have become increasingly rare, and attention is increasingly difficult to earn.
For all the discussion surrounding algorithms, automation, and machine intelligence, Cannes Lions 2026 increasingly feels like a festival focused on humanity.
There are plenty of companies that talk about creativity. There are fewer that consistently invest in it. And then there is AB InBev, a company that has spent the better part of a decade proving that creativity is not a department, a campaign, or an annual awards strategy. It is an operating system.
The brands that thrive over the next decade will not necessarily be the cheapest or the most premium. They will be the ones that make their value impossible to misunderstand.
If you spent the past year reading LinkedIn, you might have expected Cannes Lions 2026 to feel like one giant AI conference with a few advertising awards squeezed in between.
As creator marketing continues to mature, the industry must develop measurement frameworks that reflect how creator partnerships actually generate value.