Weekly: Cannes Lions showed that brands want fans - and TV can deliver

This year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, one message rang out from the Palais to the keynote stages to the beachside meetings: fans are more than a media buy.

Cannes is built to celebrate the creative output of advertising agencies and their partners. As the industry has reshaped itself around the media habits and divided attention of the people it courts, the Festival has ballooned and there are hundreds of award categories, drawing delegates and thought leaders from around the world, each hunting for the next competitive edge.

Large studio businesses have traditionally kept a low profile here. But this year, among the beach installations of programmatic tech, AI start-ups and agencies toasting their Lions, a recurring conversation took hold: one centred on something our side of the industry has understood for years.

It is no longer enough to buy your way into people’s attention. Brands want to be where there is genuine intent, purpose, passion and participation. They want communities, not audiences.

In short, they need fans. Coach’s marketing chief captured it neatly on Spotify Beach: we have moved from the attention economy to the connection economy, and the brands that win won’t just reach people, they’ll bring people together.

The Festival’s own juries agreed. The Entertainment Lions Grand Prix went to Adidas’ Original Forever, which partnered with Oasis on official tour merch to turn a cultural moment into fandom.

Announcing the winners, Lions chief executive Simon Cook said the work showed how the power of fandom is building brand relevance and driving business growth - that is about as clear a signal as you could want of where the industry’s reward system is heading.

The advertising world is moving quickly beyond reach and frequency, and towards cultural relevance, participation and advocacy

For those of us in the studio business, this is as welcome as it is familiar.

The IP we create has never been measured by ratings alone, but increasingly the real value lies in the communities it builds, the conversations it sparks and the loyalty it earns over time. Fans don’t just consume content - they champion it, share it and become part of its story.

That distinction matters, because attention is abundant while genuine engagement is hard won. Audiences today participate as they are entertained. Episode theories fill group chats before the credits roll; memes and fan edits on TikTok and Instagram extend a show’s life far beyond transmission. For a brand, that kind of participation is worth more than any fleeting impression.

It is also why creators were so central to the Cannes conversation this year. They were treated not as a media line item but as strategic partners shaping formats, building audiences and carrying brands into communities that agencies cannot reach alone.

At Studio 55, we work to a simple mantra: fans are as valuable as the shows themselves. The best partnerships don’t interrupt audiences, they build cultural equity among them. When a brand becomes part of a community people already care about, it earns attention rather than just buying it.

That thinking shaped Double Date Island (our TikTok-first dating show created with Tinder), as well as our global Love Island partnerships with brands including Poppi and M&M’s. And it sits at the heart of our digital primetime proposition. These partnerships work because they are built to meet the behaviour and passions of real fan communities.

What struck me most in Cannes was how fast the advertising world is moving towards this view - beyond reach and frequency, and towards cultural relevance, participation and advocacy. The metrics still matter, but the conversation has shifted to how brands join moments people genuinely care about.

Metrics still matter but the conversation has shifted to how brands join moments people genuinely care about - for broadcasters, producers and studios, that is a significant opportunity

For broadcasters, producers and studios, that is a significant opportunity. Platforms and algorithms keep changing, but our core strength does not. We make stories, characters and formats that people fall in love with and the strongest of them don’t just attract viewers, they build fandoms that last for years and travel across platforms.

If Cannes is a barometer for where marketing is heading, we are proudly reminding advertisers that we have always been in the business of creating fandoms. At Cannes this year, fans weren’t a side conversation. They were the main event.

Will Scougal is exec vice president of brand and commercial partnerships at ITV Studios, heading up its global brand partnership entity Studio 55