The Drum at Cannes 2024: coverage plans, in-person events and streaming schedule
Whether you’re out in Cannes or following the big developments from home, here’s what you can expect from The Drum at Cannes Lions 2024.
The Drum team's bags are packed and we're heading to Cannes
The Drum’s editorial team is preparing to descend on Cannes to bring you exclusive coverage of this year’s event in person, on social media and on our dedicated hub on thedrum.com, launching Monday.
From streamed sessions to in-person gatherings, there are lots of ways to get involved in our packed program. This is what’s on the cards:
Monday, June 17
On the ground, our chief executive Diane Young will be kicking off her CMO SWOT video series, challenging some of the world’s top marketers to carry out the classic strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities analysis on their own profession in 2024.
At Freewheel Beach, key players from the TV business will join senior editor Jenni Baker to say #YOLO (You’re Only Live Once) to a big year for live television and explore what the shift from linear to streaming means for advertisers and programmers.
And, on the topic of broadcasting, from The Drum’s Cannes studio overlooking the Croisette, we’ll be bringing day one to a close with the first installment of our daily magazine show. Streamed across The Drum’s channels, The Drum Show will see our editors and special guests reflect on all the big storylines dominating the festival and include a special report on one of the week’s major editorial themes. We begin by shining the spotlight on digital media.
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Tuesday, June 18
One man likely to make headlines on day two at Cannes is X boss Elon Musk, who will be joining WPP chief exec Mark Read on stage at the Palais. After previously telling advertisers to go eff themselves, will the bombastic billionaire build bridges this time? Our reporting team will be in attendance and primed to bring you the snap analysis.
At the Mastercard Villa, The Drum will launch The Great Marketing Makeover, a global industry initiative that aims to address the narrative and perception of marketing as a function in crisis. It all gets underway in front of a live audience at 3pm when The Drum’s editor-in-chief, Gordon Young, will host a launch panel with leaders from the ANA, Qualcomm and more. Register your interest in attending.
Meanwhile, from 5pm at Le Monks Café, editor Cameron Clarke will be hosting ‘Beyond the Buzz: A Practical Roadmap for AI Implementation’ with Siemens’ Connie Hwong, Google’s Matthieu Lorrain, Salesforce’s Marc Mathieu, Autodesk’s Dara Treseder and MediaMonks’ Jordan Cuddy. We’ll also be catching up one-on-one with Sir Martin Sorrell to hear his views on whether marketing needs a makeover.
AI will also be on the agenda on The Drum Show today, once again providing your essential briefing of all the most important goings on.
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Wednesday, June 19
B2B will be firmly on the agenda on day three at Cannes as we host ‘Building the Board-Ready CMO’ with Transmission. A stellar panel will tell us what marketers must do to exert greater influence within their organizations. We’ll also be sticking with B2B on The Drum Show, exploring the changing nature of the CMO role.
Over at the VCCP Terrasse at midday, The Drum will join O2, Virgin Media, Kantar and Faith for what promises to be a spiky session entitled ‘How Not to Kill Your Brand with AI.’
Once again, our team will be out and about capturing all the big stories from Cannes. On film, we’ll be grilling some of the leading talent from the World Creative Rankings on the award-winning campaigns they’re most envious of this year.
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Thursday, June 20
Base camp for The Drum today is the Mastercard Villa, where, as partners of the WFA Global Marketer of the Year, we’ll be joined by 2023’s recipient of the accolade, Asmita Dubey of L’Oréal, for an exclusive interview. We’ll also be joined by WFA president and Mastercard chief marketing officer Raja Rajamannar as we launch the nominations for the 2024 title.
Our final installment of The Drum Show will spotlight CTV and our studio coverage concludes with The Winners’ Circle, presented in partnership with Toptal and delving into the minds and strategies of the creative geniuses behind the award-winning marketing campaigns from Cannes Lions.
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Friday June 21
It’s not over yet. As part of the official Lions programming, Cameron Clarke will take to the Rotonde Stage to host CMOs in the Spotlight at 10.30am with General Mills, Discover and Henkel.
Already landed back home? Then this is the perfect time to catch up on all The Drum’s big-name interviews and analysis from the festival. And stay tuned for a special documentary produced by Chris Lynch, the award-winning disabled filmmaker behind Diverse Made Media, who will be bringing a unique first-hand perspective of inclusivity to Cannes Lions.
Speaking of The Drum’s Cannes activity, Gordon Young said: “The week in Cannes will enable The Drum’s editorial team to create some incredible content and engage with many of the leading thinkers in global marketing, creativity and technology.
“We’ve been working feverishly behind the scenes on the Great Marketing Makeover for months and Cannes gives us the perfect environment to kick-off this project as it is already impacting everybody show works in marketing. Having access to such high-level thinking will certainly get the GMM off to a strong start and we look forward to sharing what comes from that with marketers around the world.”
To find out more about The Drum’s plan for Cannes and who from The Drum will be in town, check out our Cannes hub.