Day 1: Bonsoir, Shared Taxis and the first late night
Landed in Nice extremely late on Sunday PM after a 3-hour delay at Gatwick. We were told on the flight that this was due to a UN Summit that had been called in Cannes a few days prior, but I actually heard delays happen every year? Who knows. Anyway, after landing at 1AM, my hopes of gliding out of the airport and into a lovely, welcoming taxi were immediately dashed by the longest queue and the humidity of stepping into a warm bath.
However, every cloud has a silver lining as I was able to get my first taste of ‘networking’ - sharing a taxi with someone who was also heading to the festival. After finally making it to my hotel in Antibes, I hit the sack.
Day 2: Arrival in Cannes and People-Watching 
After a short 4.5 hours of sleep, I dialled into a meeting on my way into central Cannes and headed to The Avenue (VIOOH’s activation with JCDecaux and Displayce this year). The venue was stunning, right in the centre of town and would be our home base for the next few days. I also checked into our apartment for the week and stocked up on some essentials at Monoprix. Does anyone else LOVE shopping in foreign supermarkets?
The rest of the day was spent having my first wander down the infamous Croisette and soaking it all in, mainly just being absolutely blown away by the sheer size and scale of some of the brand activations - LinkedIn Studio, Yahoo Motel, FreeWheel Beach… the list goes on. Being a sometimes-organiser of events, I know the amount of time and effort these would have taken to pull off and it was truly incredible to see. I had the pleasure of attending the LBB & Friends Beach and met some partners for my first rosé in the sun. With the VIOOH contingent arriving throughout the day, it was then time for a team dinner and to hit the sack early(ish… just past midnight) with reassurances of ‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint’.
Day 3: Here we go
Tuesday: one of the main days of Cannes. I started early by waking up at 6.30AM to walk down to Stagwell Beach (the Sports sponsor for the festival) for a 5k run with Sir Mo Farah, which I’d been told about by my taxi-sharer on Sunday night. The run was actually at 7.30AM but anxiety from my alarm clock not going off a few days prior gave me trust issues. It was so much fun and I even managed to get a selfie with Sir Mo himself!
The day then passed by in a flash: I headed to Canva Beach Cabana where it was clear that AI was absolutely dominating the conversation at Cannes this year - there were several sessions, back-to-back, all about AI and Creativity and AI and the Marketing Leader. The recurring theme was that AI does not replace the human creative spark but it is inevitable that it will be replacing some jobs. It is a tool that we need to harness and can bring a lot to the industry - we work in an industry founded on right time, right place, but also right moment - those moments where you are in the mindset to receive a message and for it to resonate with you and impact your actions. AI can be used to identify those moments and do so with better and smarter accuracy - or it can be used generatively (the most common use I’m seeing) but it is just that - a tool. Separately, I did feel that Canva missed a trick by not calling their activation Can(nes)va…
I then went to the Female Quotient Lounge for a session called ‘Lift as We Climb’ - a quote I loved was ‘The tongue is the most powerful thing in the world - you have to use it to advocate for yourself or prepare for your voice to get lost.’ (Rajoielle Register, SVP Regional Marketing Performance North America, Stellantis).
A final meeting of the day, then it was dinner, drinks and bed.
Day 4: Tiredness but suddenly… second wind
Woke up feeling a little tired - but it was a busy day, so time to get up and at ‘em.
Headed over to The Avenue for a 9.30 meeting and had the best croissant I have ever eaten (the French sure know how to pastry). The morning flew by in a flurry of sessions and then it was time for a client lunch. It’s been great to spend time with clients while being out here and getting to know them better - sometimes that change of scenery is all it takes.
The evening then descended and we were lucky enough to be invited onto yacht drinks through one of our industry partners, the DPAA. A lovely dinner followed before the evening activity of seeing where was popping on the Croisette: I’d invariably heard about Diplo, Cardi B, Mark Ronson, and a plethora of other special guests.
Day 5: VIOOH Takes to the Stage and Farewell
Another early start and a big day of partner interview filming at The Avenue (keep your eyes peeled for content coming soon!) This
was also the day of our on-stage session, where VIOOH CMO, Helen Miall, was joined by Martin Ditlev Nielsen, Global Head of Media Strategy & Planning at Arla Foods to discuss Arla’s programmatic strategy across channels including DOOH.
Arla Foods is one of the biggest dairy brands in the world and have recently been running campaigns with VIOOH to measure campaigns across their portfolio of brands, focusing on performance metrics. I always love hearing from brands directly around their media strategies, because with so many players in the planning process and being mainly involved from an SSP perspective, it’s great to get the bigger picture. It was amazing to hear from Arla Foods about their advocacy for programmatic DOOH, and it was a great session.
It seems that most attendees start leaving from the early afternoon onwards, so it was time for my final wander down the Croisette (averaging around 20k steps a day) and I popped into Microsoft Beach House, where they were celebrating Juneteenth. It was a humble reminder of our diverse industry, and it was a nice moment for me to reflect on all of the creativity, expertise and voices I’d heard over the past few days.
Am I exhausted? Yes.
Would I do it all over again? “Cannes” I get a “hell yes”!
Diu Hoang is Global Field Marketing Director at VIOOH. For more information visit: viooh.com