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.”
