Atlantic New York Invites Brands to the First-Ever 'Losers’ Dinner' at Cannes

For brands headed to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with high hopes and a nasty case of sticker shock from the sky-high entry fees, Atlantic New York has a table waiting—just in case things don’t go as planned.

Because they probably won’t. And Atlantic New York wants to help.

The independent creative agency has introduced the Losers’ Dinner, a new-business initiative masquerading as a multi-course French meal for the inordinate number of brands that submit their work to Cannes only to walk away with nothing (only 3-4% of work submitted gets awarded, according to the Festival’s entry guide). Equal parts consolation prize, pity party, and strategy session, the dinner, to be held on 6/18, is Atlantic’s latest approach to forging relationships with clients who are hungry to attend the festival’s “unofficial” annual winners’ dinner (if you know, you know)—but might need a new agency to get there.

Here’s how it works: Brand-side marketers can email losers@atlantic-newyork.com or call +1 347-855-7860 like they just bombed the biggest festival in advertising history (because they did). If their sad story is approved, they’ll be treated with champagne, steak frites, and the finest consolation soufflé money can buy. During dinner, Atlantic New York’s team will be at their table, ready to sketch out a plan on how to get them to the stage in 2026.

The best part? Brands that book Atlantic for next year will receive a credit toward the agency’s fee equal to every penny they wasted on their failed 2025 submissions (capped at $50K—sorry, big losers, but they’re a small agency).

As for the dinner itself, the menu, which can be found at www.atlantic-losers-dinner.com includes Tartare du Boeuf (“You lost, but you’re not cooked”) and Île Flottante (“Float above your defeat”), each paired with a generous pour and a fresh glimmer of hope for 2026.

"You won’t see any Lions standing on the tables at our dinner. Which means more room for food and drinks," said João Coutinho, co-founder of Atlantic New York.

The Losers’ Dinner is the latest in a growing line of innovative efforts from Atlantic aimed at subverting the power dynamic in the industry’s broken new-business process. At Cannes 2023, the agency introduced the Atlantic Car Service, which offered free rides from the Nice airport to marketers willing to hear a pitch in transit. In 2024, it launched The Reverse Pitch, inviting brands to a seedy hotel room to compete for the chance to become the agency’s next “client of record.” Last year, at SXSW, Atlantic introduced Line Sitters, a service that let marketers skip the worst festival lines—if they agreed to a meeting with the agency equal in length to the time they saved.