Publicis Closed Door Sessions Return to Cannes Lions

​Publicis Groupe has announced its Cannes Closed Door Sessions are back, with a new mission: unlocking real – and immediate - AI upside for clients, in an economic downturn.

This year’s festival will take place in the most challenging environment for our industry since Covid. Its leading players have registered average negative growth in Q1, while brands are navigating unprecedented uncertainty. Unlike during the pandemic, everyone will still gather on the Croisette. But this year, simply celebrating creativity for its own sake won’t be enough.

Leveraging the Cannes Lions as a platform for progress, Publicis will put creativity at the heart of innovative, ready-to-use AI solutions capable of increasing market share and reducing costs immediately.

In a shrinking economy, more than ever clients need to target new prospects, optimise their content, make intelligent commerce gains, maximise their portfolios and better measure the most valuable channels for audiences like gen z.

These are just some of the solutions at the heart of the closed door sessions, where the Groupe’s leaders will share with every marketer, partner and investor how to deliver growth thanks to data and technology, powered by CoreAI and grounded in connected identity. They will deliver actionable initiatives tailored to the business imperatives of industries from CPG, to Health, Automotive, QSR, Finance, Retail and TMT.

The sessions are accessible to every client and partner wanting to take part. Sign up here to reserve your spot.

After taking the BS out of AI last year, Publicis is harnessing the real power of artificial intelligence in a downturn to drive concrete upside for every client, with ideas they can implement as soon as they return from Cannes.

Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe commented, ‘With clients being challenged and our industry facing an unrelenting newsflow of restructurings and layoffs, this year’s Cannes will have a different tone. And that calls for a different approach.

Once again, artificial intelligence will be the star of the festival. But now more than ever, we can’t afford to be distracted by AI theory, AI long term possible play or AI potential federations. If AI is going to truly build a better tomorrow for businesses and brands, we have to put it to work on real solutions, here and now.

That is exactly what our closed doors sessions will do: show clients how to create AI upside to fight the downturn, and the gloomy forecasts of economists, analysts and the press.

There won’t be much sand and sun in those sessions, but there will be actionable ideas, clients can immediately implement to drive tangible business results, and offset any potential slowdown as early as next quarter.

The old joke was “what happens in Cannes, stays in Cannes”. This year, what happens in Cannes should drive instant positive business impact, beyond Cannes.’

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