At Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2026, AI and the creator economy drew most of the heat. Given the week’s record temperatures, that was saying something. From Creator Beach to the Carlton, every conversation seemed to land on the same questions: which AI tools are changing production, who is financing the next creator media company, how much content can be made, and how fast. Streamers were talking formats, platforms, pitching originals, production companies packaging creators, talent agents walking brands through their clients’ next content slate.
The deals all point to the same outcome. More content is coming — long form, short form, live stream, vertical dramas, episodic series. Which means audiences have never had more to choose from. Pair that with real economic uncertainty, and people become more selective about where they spend their time and money. Every choice carries more weight.
A few blocks away at the Palais, a different conversation was happening. The Cannes Lions awards have always been a celebration of craft and creativity — and a signal of what is breaking through with audiences. This year, that signal was clear: the campaigns that cut through gave audiences a genuine stake in the outcome.
The clearest example started with a disappearance.
Opening The Plot: The KitKat Heist Wins Gold
When 12 tons of KitKat bars disappeared before Easter, VML London and Burson turned a supply chain crisis into a collective true crime mystery to find the missing chocolate. KitKat went directly to its fans and asked for help. VML built a digital tracker that let people enter batch codes from their own bars to see if they held part of the missing haul. In a crowded media environment, KitKat opened its story and invited people into the plot.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
The campaign generated a 31% share of voice across 93 markets and $224 million in earned media in ten days. As the caper went viral, over 115 brands jumped in to create their own riffs on the story. Thanks to the fan base, a verified lead surfaced for the real police investigation. The campaign swept Cannes Lions, winning the PR Grand Prix plus Gold Lions across Media, Social, and Creator.
People weren’t just following the mystery. They were helping solve it. Their time, curiosity, and data became the engine of the story.
Twitch: Participation As A Core Gaming Infrastructure
Participation as a business principle has been proven longest in gaming, long before social platforms optimized for engagement; games built systems in which players expected their actions to matter.
Twitch has built its business around turning watching into doing. Real-time chat, subscriptions, and emotes all exist to make fan contributions visible. Some of its most watched streamers, including Kai Cenat and IShowSpeed, regularly draw audiences in the hundreds of thousands by building shows that respond to viewers in real time.
As Chief Product Officer at Twitch, Mike Minton examines how those behaviors translate into product decisions and economic outcomes. His read on what Twitch built applies well beyond gaming.
For Twitch, that shift shows up directly in how features are prioritized and measured. “Gaming has always been participatory. People don’t just watch. They play, they chat, they influence what happens.”
Minton describes a simple design principle running through the platform: every tool should give people a way to contribute and have their contributions recognized. “The difference between an audience and a community is participation. When people participate, they stay longer, spend more, and bring friends.” People come for the content, but they stay because they feel like they’re part of something.”
Turning Contribution Into Partnership : Vaseline Originals Wins At Cannes Lions
All those content deals at Cannes Lions share the same goal: partner with creators, produce content. Vaseline took a different approach. For years, the brand had been shaped by community hacks — millions of posts showing how people used Vaseline in ways the company never briefed on. In a crowded market, the most powerful ideas were coming from the audience — people who loved the product enough to reinvent it.
With Vaseline Originals, the brand treated those contributions as the foundation for new products. Ogilvy Singapore led the campaign, going back through years of organic content to identify the women who had originated the most influential hacks. Jen Chae and Lauren Luke were among the first. Vaseline created new products based on their hacks, gave them credit and royalties on every unit sold.
The results were decisive. Vaseline Originals outsold Vaseline Jelly by 466%, and at the peak, one product sold every two seconds. After launch, new hacks posted about Vaseline increased by 24%. At Cannes Lions 2026, Vaseline Originals won a Gold Lion and multiple Silvers across PR, Social, Creator, and Creative B2B.
The Vaseline story is simple: find the people whose ideas already drive demand, then make them partners in the value that follows.
MTV For Basketball: NBA + Take-Two Media Share More Than The Game
That two-step — find the contribution, make it worth something — scales further than a single campaign. NBA Take-Two Media is building an institution around it. As CEO, Andrew Perlmutter describes the company as MTV for basketball. Co-founded by the NBA and Take-Two Interactive, it combines the league’s IP and the reach of the NBA 2K franchise to create an entertainment-first media business — formats, franchises. It shows that life goes beyond the game and the highlight reel.
More than 110,000 NBA 2K players have signed up to represent their favorite team, compete in tournaments, and appear alongside NBA players and creators.
The innovation sits in the programming. Karl-Anthony Towns gives dating advice to regular people. A travel series explores Serbian culture through Nikola Jokic. In another format, players watch their own highlights from high school through their NBA careers alongside fans. These are entertainment formats built around personality, and the game unlocks them.
“The video game is a level playing field for regular users, regular fans, NBA players, and celebrities.” That level playing field changes what is possible. When everyone is in the same game, status dissolves and personality takes over. “The game tricks NBA players into being themselves.”
The format removes the distance between athlete and fan. The audience stops watching and starts belonging. The goal is to build personalities — entertainers who bring their own audiences into the ecosystem. Fans, creators, and NBA players share the same space.
“The only way these things work sustainably is if they’re built organically.” Organic participation compounds because the people involved feel a real stake in what happens next. In a world of accelerating uncertainty, that stake is what makes the relationship durable. They belong to something. “We’re trying to operate as a media institution that looks and feels and smells like a creator.”
Cannes Lions 2026: The Successful Business Models That Emerged And Won Gold
From solving KitKat’s chocolate heist to building MTV for basketball, the lesson is straightforward. Content gets the audience in the door. Participation is the multiplier. When people contribute, they have a stake in what happens. That stake makes the relationship harder to shake.
In a market where content keeps multiplying and uncertainty keeps rising, that may be the only kind of relationship that lasts.
