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For agencies navigating economic turmoil, the Cannes Lions Festival has become more about catering to clients behind closed doors than making flashy public displays.
While WPP and Dentsu will return to the beach, Omnicom will have its cabana, and Havas will host its café on the Croisette, holding companies are focusing their Cannes strategies on clients this year, often taking things behind closed doors.
But not Stagwell. Led by CEO Mark Penn, the “challenger” holding company has made its mark on the Croisette with one of the buzziest events in Cannes.
Launched in 2022, Sport Beach attracted 7,400 attendees last year, who lined up to hear talks from famous athletes like the Kelce brothers and participate in fitness activities like rock climbing, pickleball, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts.
Now in its third year, Sport Beach returns to Cannes as the festival’s first official Sport partner, a designation that reflects sport’s rising prominence in marketing—and cements Stagwell’s association with it. Simon Cook, CEO of Cannes Lions, called Sport Beach “a hub for bringing together brands, platforms, creatives, and talent/athletes to explore the evolving trends shaping the business and culture of sports.”
But Sport Beach is a massive investment for Stagwell against a challenging economic backdrop for agencies and their clients. While declining to share how much it spends on the event, or divulge its ROI, Penn maintained that Sport Beach is more than just a spectacle–it’s a business case and driver.
“Sport Beach shows we’re a shoemaker with shoes,” he said. “It was a good demonstration of what people get when they hire Stagwell.”
Bringing sport to Cannes
When Stagwell launched Sport Beach four years ago, the timing was prescient—sport had become a cultural and commercial powerhouse, and amid media fragmentation, athletes offer brands direct, authentic channels to reach their audiences.
“The idea was that we would play sport, talk about sport, and celebrate sport’s impact on culture, creativity, business, and innovation,” said Beth Sidhu, Stagwell’s chief brand and communication officer. “It’s about bringing together individual athletes with individual brand marketers—in boardrooms, on the court—to help them do business together.”
Stagwell deliberately chose not to call Sport Beach ‘Stagwell Beach’ to build the experience around “what the audience cared about,” Sidhu said. Regardless, it serves as a unifying presence for the holding company and its agencies, which used to show up at Cannes individually, and can now choose to participate in Sport Beach.
This year, Sport Beach continues to elevate its star power. The 2025 lineup includes Noah Lyles, Candace Parker, Jordan Chiles, Oscar Piastri, Ilona Maher, Billie Jean King, and Alex Morgan.
In addition to five new programming tracks, the event will introduce a Swim Club, an invite-only speakeasy honoring Carmelo Anthony and Sue Bird, and European product launches from partners like PepsiCo.
Though attendance will be curbed at 5,000 people as Stagwell looks to be more “intentional about who’s there,” per a spokesperson, content will be available for free via live stream.
Less of a ‘party mentality’
While Sport Beach muscles up, Stagwell’s competitors are moving further behind the scenes as they focus on business and look to prove value to clients amid industry upheaval.
“You need to be aware—at a time when there’s a lot of budget tightening going on across the industry—you don’t want to look like you’re being too extravagant,” said an IPG spokesperson.
For its part, WPP, which saw a 2.7% dip in first-quarter revenue and recently laid off staff at its media division GroupM, is approaching Cannes this year with “much less of a ‘party’ mentality,” said CMO Laurent Ezekiel. He described WPP’s approach as “very scheduled” and “focused on our clients and partners.”
Chief creative officer Rob Reilly added that Cannes is about “the Palais and the work. “WPP’s focus is to show up in a big way creatively,” he said.
Last week, Publicis Groupe announced that it will host vertical-specific AI workshops for clients in Cannes this year. “Celebrating creativity for its own sake is not enough in a moment like this one,” CEO Arthur Sadoun told ADWEEK.
Meanwhile, IPG, which is preparing to be acquired by rival Omnicom, will host its Inclusion Breakfast for the 12th year as its main programming. “We’re focused on the competition happening in the Palais, not on Yacht Row or the beaches,” a spokesperson said.
And Omnicom will host thought leadership and “curated experiences” at its cabana, according to its website. Omnicom declined to comment for this story.
But as competitors scale back, Stagwell sees white space to break through. “A lot of companies are scaling down. We’re scaling up. That’s the advantage of being a challenger,” Penn said.
Worth the investment?
Sport Beach has grabbed attention, but has it moved the needle for Stagwell’s business?
Between five and ten new business deals originated or closed at last year’s event, including Super Bowl spots, league sponsorships, and national campaigns involving athletes, according to a spokesperson.
Declining to share specifics, they said Sport Beach is a “very successful activation in driving brand recognition for Stagwell and [its] agencies—and that includes financial opportunities.”
Clients have also given Stagwell positive feedback, describing Sport Beach as “the biggest, buzziest stage in Cannes—including the Palais,” and saying it has “empowered athletes to talk directly with brands.”
Stagwell is confident enough in Sport Beach’s impact that has expanded beyond Cannes, bringing the event to this year’s CES, Davos, and Super Bowl.
“We’ll be in more places after Cannes,” Sidhu said. “Anywhere athletes and brand marketers aren’t well-served in connecting with each other, we see opportunity.”
“I’m a very strong believer, when something’s successful, you’ve got to keep going with it,” Penn added. “Sport Beach is now becoming a brand in and of itself.”
While cautious not to confirm any formal spin-off plans, he added: “Let’s get through chapter three. Will it become a standalone brand? Maybe. But you don’t walk away from a successful platform.”
CORRECTION May 27 at 10:00am ET: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Kelce brothers will not be returning to Sport Beach this year.
